Academy Award-winner Bradley Cooper wasn't always calm, cool, and collected prior to filming... especially at the start of his career.
While speaking at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Thursday, Feb. 8, Cooper reminisced about his brief appearance on the hit HBO show Sex and the City in 1999, in which he played one of Carrie Bradshaw's (Sarah Jessica Parker) momentary flings.
In the episode, Cooper's character drives a sports car. Apparently, in order to land the role, Cooper lied about being able to drive the manual vehicle, Deadline reports.
“I remember when I got the call to do it I was terrified. ‘What do you mean I’m actually going to have to do it?’" he said. "I couldn’t drive a stick shift, so they sent me to Models Driving School and I was just terrified."
Bradley Cooper speaks onstage at the Outstanding Performer of the Year Award ceremony during the 39th Annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
Cooper went on to say that he "still messed it up, so they had somebody else drive the car."
"I just had to… pretend that we stopped," he added.
During this year's Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Cooper was presented with the Outstanding Performer of the Year Award for his work on Maestro.
In addition to the award, his role as American composer Leonard Bernstein has landed Cooper three 2024 Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay.
Bradley Cooper and his daughter Lea De Seine Shayk Cooper attend Netflix's "Maestro" Los Angeles Photo Call at Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on December 12, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.
His on-stage comments were not the first time that Cooper discussed his anxiety-ridden time on the set of Sex and the City. In a 2012 interview with Backstage, the Hangover actor said his time alongside the HBO star Sarah Jessica Parker was a logistical "nightmare."
“I thought it went well when I learned on a Volkswagen, but then I was driving a 1962 Porsche convertible where the clutch was as if I was driving a bus,” Cooper told the publication at the time. “And I had Sarah Jessica Parker in the passenger seat. They very quickly took me out and put in a stand-in until we arrived.”
In another interview with Metro via Irish Central, Cooper said he was afraid he was going to "bang Sarah Jessica Parker’s head against the dashboard."
"That was all I was thinking about," he said at the time.
In the end, his many Oscar wins and nominations prove it all worked out for the best.
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