Bradley Cooper‘s “Maestro” publicity tour landed him on “The Howard Stern Show,” where the eponymous radio show host asked him a nail-biting question: “Sophie’s choice for 2024: You win the Oscar, not only for best director but also best actor, and Carey Mulligan wins best actress, or the Eagles have a Super Bowl victory?”
“Eagles Super Bowl victory,” Cooper answered without hesitation as Stern appeared shocked and called him out for lying. “Eagles! Eagles! I’m sick. I’m not lying.”
Cooper is obviously a diehard fan of the Philadelphia Eagles, a team that played a prominent role in his 2012 comedy-drama “Silver Linings Playbook.” The Eagles lost the 2023 Super Bowl to the Kansas City Chiefs, no doubt a heartbreaker for Cooper.
Cooper is widely predicted to earn nominations for the Leonard Bernstein biopic in which he serves as director, actor and co-writer. He’s being viewed as a frontrunner for the best actor Oscar by some and could also pick up screenwriting, directing and picture nominations. His last directorial effort, 2018’s “A Star Is Born,” earned him acting, writing and picture noms, but he was infamously shut out of the best director race. He later told Oprah that he was initially embarrassed by not making it into the best director field.
“The first thing I felt was embarrassment, actually. Think about it. I felt embarrassed that I didn’t do my part,” he said. “Even if I got the nomination, it should not give me any sense of whether I did my job or not. That’s the trick, to make something that you believe in.”
Speaking of “A Star Is Born,” Cooper and Stern revealed for the first time during their discussion that it was Stern who was first offered the role in the movie that eventually was played by Sam Elliot in an Oscar-nominated performance. Elliot played the older brother and manager to Cooper’s rock star Jackson Maine.
“I’ve told two or three people in my life that you offered me that role in ‘A Star Is Born,’ and they look at me like, ‘What the fuck? You didn’t do it?’” Stern said. “You came to me and said I’m going to play your older brother and be your manager type thing. I went, ‘No shit. That’s kind of intriguing.’ I was really toying with the idea.”
Cooper stressed that the character he envisioned Stern to play is not the character Sam Elliott ended up playing in the film, even though it was the same brother role.
“The first time I saw you in person i couldn’t believe how gentle your eyes are,” Cooper told Stern about the reason he wanted to cast him. “And you can’t even hide them. As much of an asshole as you try to be, to me it’s like look how kind his eyes are. It’s impossible to hate the guy.”
Cooper said offering Stern the role in “A Star Is Born” came “early” during the film’s development as “things were swimming in my head.” He added, “It was a totally different role … there were three weeks of me standing by. You really contemplated this.”
Watch clips of Cooper’s appearance on “The Howard Stern Show” in the video below
