Bradley Cooper Opens Up About Drugs, Alcohol And His Career

by uInterviewDecember 18, 2013, 12:00 amNews >

Bradley Cooper opens up about his past drug addictions and low points in a candid interview with GQ.

Cooper, who was just nominated for a Golden Globe for his role in American Hustle, gave the intimate interview while on location in Hawaii shooting an untitled Cameron Crowe film. He recounts his career, from a one-episode stint in Sex and the City to his first regular television job playing Will Tippin in Alias, which he held from 2001 to 2002.

Cooper on 'Alias': "I Was Like, 'I Want To Kill Myself'"

Cooper hit a rough patch early in his career when his role in Alias became smaller and smaller, leaving him feeling bored and depressed.

“I would only work three days a week. And then for the second season, I got even more sidelined. I was like, ‘Ugh.’ And then next thing you know, I was like, ‘I want to kill myself,’” Cooper says.

He asked showrunner J.J. Abrams to be written off the show, though he had no other job lined up at the time. A string of television roles followed.

Drugs, Alcohol, Sobriety

Before he hit it big with his star-making roles in Wedding Crashers and The Hangover, he reveals he reached a low point with alcohol and drugs and decided to get sober in 2004 after realizing, “if I continued it, I was really going to sabotage my whole life."

Cooper describes his career after getting sober, which included a staring role in the 2009 flop All About Steve and The Wedding Crashers, as a time where he was able to find a place acting full time while sober:

“I was doing these movies, and I got to meet Sandra Bullock and meet these people and work with them. And I’m sober, and I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m actually myself. And I don’t have to put on this air to be somebody else, and this person still wants to work with me? Oh, what the f—k is that about?’ I was rediscovering myself in the workplace, and it was wonderful.”

However, Cooper adds that he didn’t feel creatively fulfilled during this time in his career, saying, “Now, in the back of my head, or in a place of my heart of, like, creativity, did I feel utterly fulfilled? Absolutely not. But I was grateful and happy to be working, and filling that void in smaller moments.”

One can assume that now, as an Oscar nominee (for his role in Silver Linings Playbook), Cooper feels more artistically fulfilled than ever.