Bradley Cooper

And he would always smoke cigarettes on the athletic field and stand on the bench.

And so he'd always be perched there.

And like my dad, he would never put out his butts.

He would always save them.

So he always smelled like tobacco, his hands.

And then this other guy, his father came and talked about this book, Guns Up, which is an incredible book about machine gunner in Vietnam.

And then I asked my dad if I could go to the military academy.

I would do something, and then Thin Red Line destroyed me, the Terrence Malick movie, and the apocalypse now I was obsessed with, and all these films.

And so I always wanted to do something about playing.

I always felt like I had a love enough and an interest enough that playing a soldier would be something that I felt like I had a reservoir.

So that led me to Chris.

That was that.

It's all specific things.

It was just Joseph Merrick, you know, the Elephant Man.

Like when I was, I had no money and I took it, I got a one, Tower Air went to London and like tracked his steps at Hospital Road and where he went out just because I was obsessed with this guy, Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man.

Mm-hmm.

And then it wound up, you know, then making it, you know, doing the play at Broadway where they originated, you know.

And then Stars Born was really about I just love I always wanted to direct.

I don't think I dreamt that big, but I really realized what I loved about the process of the industry is the making of it.

I never felt like I fit in just acting.