I am in a daze around Robert De Niro, says Bradley Cooper

He is easily one of the best looking men that Hollywood has offered to the world, yet superstar Bradley Cooper chooses to remain his humble self. “It’s a responsibility that I will gladly carry to my grave!” says the actor on being touted a hunk.
With his film Limitless hitting the screens in India this Friday, Bradley seems to be eager to tell us all about his work in it.

“The beauty and the challenge of playing Edward Morra, was the fact that he himself did not know his goals and what he wanted to achieve. Neil Burger, the director, was clear from the beginning that he wanted the viewers to go on a ride with Eddie. When he shared his ideas with me, I was very excited. The challenge wasn’t in portraying Eddie — the challenge was Eddie himself. To see a guy who goes from this complacency to having power, what he does with that power, and what his plan is — that’s what fascinated me about Eddie,” he reveals.

In the film, Cooper had his favourite actor Robert De Niro for company. Talking about his association with De Niro, Cooper says, “It was actually Robert De Niro who inspired me to be an actor. Raging Bull was the first film I saw him in and couldn’t get enough of his performance whether it was The Mission, Awakenings, Deer Hunter, Jacknife, Falling In Love or the Untouchables. I have seen everything with De Niro in it.” The actor also reveals that he met his idol for the first time while he was still in school. “De Niro had visited my school when I was at the Actors Studio in New York. I think I have been in a state of daze around him ever since then,” he says.

“One thing I learned about him is he does not like small talk, which is great. I made my pitch to De Niro for this role in Limitless and I had to tell him why I thought he belonged in the film. Before I knew it, we were texting ideas and then two days later, he said that he’d do it!” 

For Cooper, the medium doesn’t matter, “Acting is acting — whether it is television or cinema. And that’s all that matters to me — how convincingly I put myself into the skin of the character,” offers the actor who started his career in television. While at it, we wanted to know if Bradley has watched any Bollywood film, to which he says, “I haven’t had an opportunity to watch one as yet, but I’m definitely not shying away from the idea. Might get down to doing that soon.”