No one has worked harder – or reached greater depths of personal revelation – than the likeable actor, director and producer Bradley Cooper, who is doggedly seeking the Best Actor Oscar this year, for the fifth time he has applied for it.
His film Maestro, about the life of composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, is nominated in seven categories and Cooper, 49, has campaigned so hard for it that he ended up talking about naked showers with his father, his six-year-old daughter years talking to him when he is in the bathroom and posed for the cover of a magazine in a frozen river only in his underwear.
She even cried on camera when talking about how much she “missed” Bernstein, whom she never actually met. As Bernstein’s adult children looked on.
Netflix has been equally busy, or is it desperate? – spending a figure estimated by sources to be “at least” $20 million to try to propel Cooper into the winner’s circle, in a year in which the Oppenheimer atomic epic has unstoppable momentum.
No one has worked harder – or reached greater depths of personal revelation – than Bradley Cooper, who is doggedly seeking the Best Actor Oscar this year, for the fifth time he has applied for it. In the photo: he lost the Oscar in 2014 for Best Supporting Actor.
His film Maestro (pictured), about the life of composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein, is nominated in seven categories and Cooper, 49, has campaigned hard to get it.
The streamer is just as hungry for Oscars, having never won best picture, although there is talk that he had accepted a certain level of promotion for Maestro to land the prestigious project in the first place.
In one week earlier this year, Netflix sent gifts of Maestro chocolates, coffee table books, and vinyl records to the media.
Meanwhile, he’s been spending big on billboards all over Hollywood for months, not to mention $90,000 “For Your Consideration” ads in trade magazines for months, too.
There was also a Bernstein concert at New York’s Lincoln Center in February, at the height of awards voting season.
That’s when Cooper did his stripping-to-his-pants stunt that landed him on the cover of the New York Times Magazine.
The movie, which featured other Oscar nominees, was ostensibly about what actors do in their free time, but obviously all everyone wanted to talk about was Bradley Cooper and his Oscar hunger.
Days later, he appeared on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast, during which he literally laid bare his love for being naked in his own home, revealing that he used to shower naked with his father.
In an equally surprising revelation, he went on to reveal that he and his daughter Lea, whom he shares with his former supermodel Irina Shayk, regularly chat while he is in the bathroom.
‘We talk where I am in the bathroom, she is in the bathtub; That’s kind of an option,” she confessed.
Unfortunately for him, it appears all the activity has resulted in a freeze, with bookmakers estimating he has around a one per cent chance of winning.
That’s despite having spoken since the actors’ strike ended in November about how dedicated he was to the project, spending six years learning how to direct it, how he wrote, produced and directed it, the lengths it took to achieve the physical and vocal resemblance , etc. forward.
In February, Cooper did his stripping-to-his-pants stunt that landed him on the cover of the New York Times Magazine.
She even cried on camera when she talked about how much she “missed” Bernstein, whom she never actually met.
He was so eager to promote the film that he even attended the film’s screening at the New York Film Festival “as a guest” during the strike period, even though he was not allowed to walk the red carpet, nor speak. , nor be photographed.
Cooper had already been nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor for Silver Linings Playbook (2012), American Sniper (2014) and A Star Is Born (2018).
He was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor in American Hustle (2013), but lost once again.
The star on screen He previously made his feelings very clear when he didn’t receive any Oscars for his directorial debut in 2018’s A Star Is Born.
The film was a critical success and was nominated for eight Academy Awards, but Bradley said he was “embarrassed” that he was not nominated for Best Director.
The actor and filmmaker spoke during Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations from Times Square and confessed: “I felt embarrassed.
“I was in a coffee shop in New York City and I looked at my phone and Nicole (Caruso, his publicist) congratulated me and said why we were nominated.
‘They didn’t even give me the bad news. I felt embarrassed because I felt like I hadn’t done my job.’
Cillian Murphy, who participated in a quick shoot to play J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, is a complete contrast.
He hates campaigning (there are dozens of TikToks of his bored face in interviews) and has said of the press tour system: “I think it’s a broken model.” The pattern is that everyone is very bored.
Cooper had previously been nominated for, but missed out on, Best Actor at the Oscars for Silver Linings Playbook in 2013 (left) and American Sniper in 2015 (right).
The screen star previously made his feelings clear when he didn’t receive an Oscar for his directorial debut in 2018’s A Star Is Born (pictured at the awards ceremony).
A Star Is Born was a critical success and was nominated for eight Academy Awards, but Bradley said he was “embarrassed” it wasn’t nominated for Best Director (pictured with Lady Gaga in the film).
In fact, he was glad when the blow came just as Oppenheimer opened. Oh, and he’s a shoo-in to win.
A Netflix spokesperson says they “never” talk about budgets.
An insider says: ‘A figure of $20 million is entirely possible for marketing this year’s key title. Their total marketing budget is in the 10 figures.’
Michael Niederman, a film professor at Columbia College in Chicago, said: “I understand how extraordinarily proud you are of the work you did on Maestro.
‘I get it: it’s a personal, well-crafted piece that means a lot to him. But if I don’t see a picture of Bradley Cooper for six months, it’ll be fine.”
Michael Shulman, who wrote Oscar Wars, said: “I feel like Bradley Cooper’s media machine backfired on him.
‘Some of his quotes are hilarious: he gives interviews about walking around his house naked. He has made several missteps. Netflix invested a lot of money but it didn’t work. There is a perception that he tries hard.”
Netflix reportedly spent $40 million trying to win the best picture Oscar for Rome in 2019, double the film’s budget, but failed.
This year, film director Scott Stuber has just left and incoming director Dan Lin is expected to make far fewer original films: 30 instead of 80.
There is also talk of the possibility of Netflix creating a prestigious awards division, as Fox did with Searchlight Pictures, now part of Disney.