Bradley Cooper: Alcohol, Drug Addiction Could Have 'Sabotaged My Life'
Bradley Cooper shed an unflattering light on his early days in Hollywood including a past with drug and alcohol addiction in a new interview this week.
The Oscar Award-nominee candidly recounted his early acting experience on the set of "Alias" alongside Jennifer Garner, his drinking problem, and his journey to self-acceptance while speaking to GQ.
"I would only work three days a week," Cooper explained of his role as Will Tippin on "Alias" in 2001. "And then for the second season, I got even more sidelined. I was like, 'Ugh.'"
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Struggling to make ends meet, the "American Hustle" star explained he was battling depression.
"Then the next thing you know, I was like, 'I want to f------ kill myself,'" said Cooper.
Taking matters into his own hands, Cooper asked the creator of "Alias," J. J. Abrams, to just go ahead and write off his character entirely.
"J. J. was like, 'Okay.' He probably would've fired me, anyway," the 38-year-old actor conceded.
Furthermore, Cooper was grappling with a dependence on alcohol and drugs. While the actor did not go into much detail about the specific addictions, he noted that his behavior could have led to a much less fortunate ending.
"If I continued it, I was really going to sabotage my whole life," he told GQ.
Fortunately, Cooper's career picked up with movies such as "Wedding Crashers," "The Hangover" and more recently, his Oscar-nominated role in "Silver Linings Playbook."
"I was doing these movies, and I got to meet Sandra Bullock and these people and work with them," Cooper recalled. "And I'm sober, and I'm like, 'Oh, I'm actually myself. And I don't have to put on this air to be somebody else, and this person still wants to work with me?'"
"I was rediscovering myself in this workplace, and it was wonderful," the actor added.
Moreover, his experience with drugs and alcohol has caused Cooper to become more present, grateful and accepting of himself.
"The one thing that I've learned in life is the best thing I can do is embrace who I am and then do that to the fullest extent, and then whatever happens, happens," said the star. "The more steps I do to not do that, the farther I am away from fulfilling any potential I would have."
Meanwhile, Cooper remains tight-lipped about much of his personal life, and the actor has not publicly addressed his relationship with British model Suki Waterhouse.
Nevertheless, the actor's upcoming projects include "Serena," "Guardians of the Galaxy" and an untitled Cameron Crowe film.
