By all accounts, Bradley Cooper is talented. He can sing, he can act, he’s damn good-looking, and, thanks to A Star Is Born, we know he can direct, too. But his Best Director Oscar snub left the IRL Jackson Maine, feeling a little insecure.
Cooper opened up about not being nominated for his directorial debut during a live taping of Super Soul Sunday with Oprah Winfrey earlier this week. And, like anyone chatting with Oprah, Cooper got really candid about the personal effect it had on him.
“I was not surprised. I’m never surprised about not getting anything,” he began.
The actor-turned-director went on to recount how he processed his feelings about the Oscars, saying, “But I did feel—you know, it’s funny you ask that, because I have thought about this—because I was with my friend. I was in New York City at a coffee shop, and I looked down at my phone, and Nicole [Cooper’s publicist] had texted me, and they said congratulations on these other things, but they didn’t tell me the bad news.”
The good news his publicity team had to share was that A Star Is Born and Cooper were nominated for Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture. Still, not being recognized for his directorial effort elicited a surprising feeling.
“I went, ‘Oh, wow,’ and the first thing I felt was embarrassment,” he shared. “I felt embarrassed that I didn’t do my part…I went, ‘Oh, gosh. I didn’t do my job.'”
As we all know, Lady Gaga (and her 100 people in a room analogy) and the rest of the cast definitely didn’t share the opinion that he’d let them down. As Gaga told the Los Angeles Times, “At the end of the day, he knows that he’s the best director in my eyes, and in all of our eyes as his cast.”
Now, Cooper is ready to move past his perceived failure and focus on the positive by performing a live rendition of “Shallow” with Gaga at the upcoming 91st annual Oscars on Sunday, February 24, 5 p.m.PT / 8 p.m. ET. Now that’s something good.
