Bradley Cooper Nearly Quit Acting Before Licorice Pizza
Bradley Cooper says he nearly quit acting before being offered a role in filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza. Despite a career filled with acclaim and multiple Oscar nominations, Cooper had never worked with Anderson before, and with a film resume that includes hits such as Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and There Will Be Blood, it’s easy to understand why he’d jump at the chance to work with the 51-year-old auteur.
After arriving on the scene in 1996 with the Gwyneth Paltrow, John C. Reilly, and Phillip Baker Hall-led Hard Eight, Anderson managed to gain significant attention, but not much mainstream recognition. It wasn’t until his second film Boogie Nights was released the following year that the name Paul Thomas Anderson became a true source of discussion. The ambitious star-studded feature about the early days of the pornographic film industry in Los Angeles and the unexpected familial connections it built earned rave reviews and helped provide Mark Wahlberg with a considerable boost to his still rather nascent acting career. From that point onward, it seemed that Anderson had a keen knack for attracting some of the biggest names in acting to his films, despite still never having won an Oscar.
Related: Licorce Pizza True Story: Every Character Based On A Real Person
While the list of actors who have worked with Anderson over the years is indeed a lengthy one, there are still plenty of stars who haven’t worked with the respected filmmaker. Until recently, Cooper was one of those people. While speaking with Mahershala Ali during Variety’s Actors on Actors series, however, Cooper made it clear that he basically jumped at the chance to play Jon Peters in Anderson’s Licorice Pizza. The experience sounds like it was
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