Bradley Cooper talks about father's death, struggles with addiction
Clint Eastwood is hit-or-miss these days but this film, starring Bradley Cooper as Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle, promises some serious drama. Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures / Keith Bernstein
Two-time Academy Award nominee Bradley Cooper says that personal struggles, including the death of his father, informed his portrayal of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle in the upcoming biographical war drama "American Sniper."
"Losing someone close to me. Going through love and loss . . . knowing what's important," Cooper, 39, muses in online excerpts from the new issue of Vanity Fair, being published Tuesday. "Realizing that the bottom line is that all I got is me, so it's about time to stop trying to be something that I think you would want me to be. Or that would give me what I think I need. As you get older, thank God, your body deteriorates, but your soul sort of flourishes."
His father, Charles Cooper, a cinemaphile who supported his son's acting ambitions, died in January 2011 after a long battle with lung cancer.
Because of the substance addiction from which he says he has been sober since August 2004, Cooper says he avoided chemical enhancements in order to bulk up for the role.
"I did it naturally because I've been sober for 10 years and didn't want to do anything. I had a realistic conversation. Can I do this in three months naturally? . . . I didn't know if I would be able to do it or not."
"American Sniper," directed by Clint Eastwood, opens on Dec. 25.
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