 Hey Mr. Penn, my name is Bradley Cooper. I'm a second year actor. My question is regarding Hurley Burley. What was it like to revisit a character, Eddie, after a 10-year hiatus? Before Bradley Cooper starred in Wet Hot American Summer, Wedding Crashers, Limitless, and The Hangover series. The only important thing now is that we find Doug. Before Bradley Cooper received Academy Award nominations for Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle, and American Stiper. I'm stateside. You're home? Before Bradley Cooper was directing Lady Gaga, Andrew Dice Clay, and Dave Chappelle, as well as himself in the 2018 Oscar Darling, A Star Is Born. Before Bradley got to stretch his singing muscles with Lady Gaga for the Star Is Born soundtrack, with the song Shallow receiving some well-deserved Grammy attention, Bradley Cooper didn't look much like an actor, a male actor that is, when he was a child. He states his mom, she kept his hair so long that people thought he was a girl. He was just a young kid when he watched the 1980 David Lynch classic The Elephant Man with His Dad that he had an epiphany. He wanted to be on the big screen. The journey to become a successful actor in Hollywood will it can be a long and treacherous one. It means spending tireless days and nights working to hone your craft as a performer, and often for little or no pay. And that's just to become successful. Being famous is a different kind of animal. Bradley Cooper is someone who accomplished both. Fresh out of New York's world famous The Actor Studio in 2000, he became known throughout various audition rooms as The Nice Guy. It wasn't until he landed the role of Sack in the 2005 Summer Smash Wedding Crashers that he instantly became known as The Asshole. Playing supportive roles in several more comedies including 2006's Failure to Launch and 2009's Yes Man, his role as Phil in The Hangover will it change his life forever. Earning $467 million worldwide, the comedy was a phenomenon that catapulted Bradley into international superstardom. Taking more dramatic turn with 2012's Silver Lightning's playbook, he has been known in more recent years as someone who sinks themselves into his roles. To play Navy Seal, Chris Kyle and Clint Eastwood's American Sniper, the actor trained twice a day and ate 6,000 calories a day. This resulted in 37 pounds of pure muscle as well as his third Oscar nod. What's going on guys? It's your boy Michael McCrudden documenting the life and career of Bradley Cooper prior to fame, here are a few of course on Before They Were Famous. The Oscars gave everyone talking and we thought what better way to talk about this acting titan than to take a look back at where it came from. As always you guys requested this video and we've done other videos on big name actors including Samuel L. Jackson, Jack Black and Jason Momoa. You can check those out and let us know who's next in the comments down below. We have a playlist dedicated to actors and comedians so if you like this one there's more there. Alright, let's get into Bradley Cooper. Bradley Charles Cooper was born on January 5th, 1975 in Abington, Pennsylvania, a town of about 50,000 people located just outside of Philadelphia. Bradley currently resides in the Big Apple and you can tell his heart still lies in the city of brotherly love. In a hometown talk show appearance from 2011, Bradley did a perfect Philly accent while recalling a hoagie commercial from his youth. Outsiders might associate Philly with Cheese Steak, Rocky Balboa and drunken eagle fans punching horses. Bradley sees it for so much more. As it turns out his family has historic roots in America's 6th largest city. During an interview he stated, Philly is a very idiosyncratic city. I have a tremendous amount of pride because my family's roots are embedded in Philly. The actor stays close to his roots by visiting the city anytime he can. In an interview from a few years back he showed a journalist around his old neighborhood in the suburb of Jenkins town. He even took her to his favorite hoagie spot when he was a teenager and he couldn't go a second without being accosted by a fan. Bradley's mother Gloria is of Italian descent while his dad Charles is of Irish ancestry. He also has an older sister named Holly who has gone with him to several Hollywood events. She also works at a mortgage company. Gloria worked for NBC while Charles was a stockbroker with Merrill Lynch. This was a huge turnaround in Charles's family tree as his father was a fireman and according to sources he was the first person in his family to go to college. Bradley has stated, He had to carry a knife to school so he just wanted to get the fuck out of there and make money. In another world my father would be doing the same thing I'm doing. As a kid Bradley had different careers in mind. Believe it or not it had nothing to do with acting. As it turns out the young Philly boy will he plan on getting into the culinary arts. His Italian grandmother with whom he was extremely close was apparently an incredible cook. The topic of food was a common one in the Cooper household and Bradley thought he'd cook for a living. Reflecting on this period he stated, I just sort of thought it was cool and that chefs were cool when I was a kid and I just thought that chefs were rock stars. So I thought maybe I'd be a chef and then I realized really early it's too hard. The pressure is too insane. I always thought I wanted to be a ninja. You know what I mean but I realized that I only wanted to play them in movies. You heard that correctly. There was a time when Bradley Cooper wanted a career as a ninja. Looking up the number to Valley Forge Military Academy he begged his father to enroll him there. When he said no he asked Charlie to send him to Japan where he could train until he was 21. But sadly that would be really epic if the story went there it didn't happen. Why not? Bradley's father would introduce him to the beauty of cinema. The 1970's being a game changer for film there was plenty to watch. Hanging out at the highway theater in Jenkins Town he would take in dozens of flicks including Stand by Me which he and his friends would emulate by walking around nearby train tracks. He treated the theater like it was his second home. Well that actually pretty much was. In this place it was located just behind his house. How convenient. I watched The Elephant Man like ten times when I was 12 years old. The highway was not his only source for movies he would also catch classics on TV at home. It wasn't until he saw the legendary John Hurt in The Elephant Man when he realized that acting was for him. He would also be introduced to one of his heroes Robert De Niro watching The Deer Hunter, Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. Attending Germantown Academy well Bradley he studied both Spanish and French. During Bradley's senior year he briefly worked as an intern for the Philadelphia Daily News. Now during this time he and a female friend named Deb wrote an article called When Best Friends Cross the Line. The topic of the piece Friends with Benefits. Now we tried our best to dig up this article but as it turns out an employee of the Philadelphia Enquirer they beat us to it and he shared it via Twitter post. Bradley says the day the article came out he attended a lacrosse game where students and players began booing him. When he arrived back at work the next day well his boss suggested that writing about the topic for his first article a pretty epic mistake. Now after graduating from Germantown in 1993 he moved on to Villanova University. He spent a year there before transferring over to Georgetown University in Washington DC. He graduated in 1997 with a bachelor in English. By the sounds of it well Bradley was your regular party hooligan. He states that he always took college seriously because he felt lucky to be there. He was even a rower on the school's rowing team. Bradley's dedication would soon be put to the test. This is the part of the story where we discuss his tenure as a student at the actor's studio something that is well known to the public because of this. Bradley decided he would go for it and head to New York City to try his hand at acting. Auditioning in front of James Lipton himself well he got in. To support himself he took up work as a doorman at the Old Morgans Hotel on Madison Avenue and even as a funny antidote from that gig he stated. I remember taking Leonardo Cabrio up to his room when I was in the elevator with him and like seven of his friends it was around the time of Titanic. I remember this guy who looked like a kid even though we were about the same age. He looked like a little boy. I remember thinking how I was three feet away from this guy and we were worlds apart. It was experiences such as this that drove Bradley at school. It was either go hard or go home. His mom would often make the two hour drive up from Philly to visit him in New York City. At one point James Lipton well he pulled her aside and told her that her son was going to go all the way. In 1999 he made his TV debut in an episode of Sex in the City. Bradley would return to his old stomping grounds for his very own episode of Inside the Actor Studio. Accompanied by his parents, old instructor and even a few classmates it was an emotional state of affairs for everyone in attendance. James Lipton has gone on to state that his appearance on the show may be his all-time favorite. Graduating in the year 2000 with a master of fine arts degree one of his next roles was on the show Globe Trekker. Appearing in nine episodes he got to travel the world and experience nature. In 2001 Bradley landed his first ever film role as Ben in the cult classic Wet Hot American Summer. This video here is where we're going to wrap things up because I guess it would be an after or an epic or an update if we continue telling this story. So that's just a teaser for you guys now but let us know if you want us to do more here on this channel because that's what we do on Before They Were Famous. My name is Michael McCrudden I'm not sure if you're watching this on the main channel or our second channel. Wherever you are be sure to subscribe. Thanks for tuning in. Bradley Cooper if you're watching this how'd I do? Maybe you can give me a little review. Be my James Lipton. I don't know. See you guys in another video.