Bradley Cooper revealed he once felt his struggle with drug and alcohol use would cost him his life.
“The Hangover” star, 48, had an open and honest conversation concerning the lowest points in his life in a recent episode of the hit National Geographic series “Running Wild With Bear Grylls: The Challenge.”
“You actually had some wild years?” famed survivalist Grylls, 49, asked the actor within the rugged canyons of the Wyoming Basin.
“When it comes to alcohol and medicines, yeah, but nothing to do with fame,” Cooper said. “But I used to be lucky. I got sober at 29 years old, and I’ve been sober for 19 years. Very lucky.”
Cooper has spoken about his alcohol and cocaine addiction up to now, explaining that he sought comfort in substances after he severed his Achilles tendon and “got fired/quit” the action-thriller series “Alias” in 2003.
The troubled star credits his then-roommate and fellow actor Will Arnett for sitting him down in 2004 and having a stern talk with him that began Cooper down on a path to recovery.
Yet Cooper admitted to Grylls that he almost fell off the wagon again in January 2011 after his father died in his arms of lung cancer.
“I definitely had a nihilistic attitude towards life after, similar to I believed ‘I’m going to die,’” Cooper recalled.
“I don’t know, it wasn’t great for slightly bit until I believed I actually have to embrace who I actually am and check out to seek out a peace with that, after which it type of evened out.”
Thankfully, the actor weathered the storm and went on to channel his experiences into directing and appearing opposite Lady Gaga in “A Star Is Born,” wherein he played addict Jackson Maine.
“It made it easier to have the ability to actually enter in there,” Cooper told Grylls about his Oscar-nominated performance within the 2018 film. “And thank goodness I used to be at a spot in my life where I used to be comfy with all of that so I could really let myself go.
“I’ve been very lucky with the roles I’ve needed to play. It’s been an actual blessing. I hope I get to maintain doing it,” he added.
Next up for Cooper is the already controversial Netflix film “Maestro” — a Leonard Bernstein biopic that features Cooper wearing a big prosthetic nose.
Social media users made the actor the middle of a “Jewface” debate, while Bernstein’s three kids defended him, adding that their composer/conductor father, who died in 1990, “would have been nice with it as well.”
