Bradley Cooper Reveals Why There's "No Chairs" on Set When He's Directing
Bradley Cooper might be a director, but you won't see that printed on a chair.
The Hangover actor recently gave insight into his filmmaking process on set, sharing how it shifts when he's taking on both acting and directing duties.
"When I direct, I don't watch playback," Bradley told Spike Lee on Variety's Dec. 14 episode of its Directors on Directors. "There's no chairs. I've always hated chairs on sets, your energy dips the minute you sit down in a chair."
But he stressed that while it's his preference, when he's on other directors' sets, he always follows their lead. "I'll do whatever you say," Bradley explained to the BlacKkKlansman filmmaker. "I'm your actor."
In fact, it was his decades as an actor that Bradley, who starred in and directed Netflix's Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro, credits with shaping his creative process.
"I was a filmmaker, but I was in the position of an actor," he noted. "I learned how to help the director by being on the field. For me, it was such a natural transition, once I had the courage to write and direct a movie. Being on the field is where I feel most comfortable to direct."
And it's that experience that the Silver Linings Playbook star draws upon when creating a comfortable environment for his actors—including rewatching scenes without sound while filming.
"No one likes the sound of their voice," Bradley shared. "I want to make actors feel safe to be fearless and for me, I don't need to hear it. It's all about making sure the camera move was exactly what we had set up."
In making his transition to directing, the Oscar nominee emphasized how grateful he is for the directors who took him under their wing.
"I spent 20 years acting in movies," he reflected. "I was lucky enough that I had filmmakers who recognized that I don't think like an actor—that I actually think in terms of the whole story."
Ultimately, that passion for storytelling led him to his directorial debut with A Star is Born.
"There were things I wanted to talk about in a movie," he told E! News in 2018. "And I wanted to have a point of view about trauma as a child, family, what it means to find your voice in this world and a place to say it. And also at the end of the day, what I hope the major message, if there is one, is that we all need each other."
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