Bradley Cooper Once Explained How His Performance on ‘Alias’ Cost him Several Movie Roles
Before Bradley Cooper was one of Hollywood’s biggest stars, he had a short run on the television series Alias. But his work on the TV show once made it difficult for the actor to expand his career into films.
Bradley Cooper begged J.J. Abrams to fire him from ‘Alias’
Alias was a hit television series that aired on ABC and was created by J.J. Abrams. It debuted in 2001 and starred Jennifer Garner as an undercover agent working for a secret branch of the government. The series lasted for five seasons until it reached its conclusion in 2006.
In the earlier stages of his career, Cooper was brought on to the show to play journalist Will Tippin. But as the series progressed, Cooper saw his role in the series reduced. This eventually frustrated the actor.
“I would only work three days a week. And then for the second season, I got even more sidelined. I was like, ‘Ugh.’ And then next thing you know, I was like, ‘I want to f****** kill myself,'” he confided to GQ in 2013.
His frustrations grew to the point where Cooper wanted to leave the show entirely. He eventually brought his grievances to Abrams.
“J.J. was like, ‘Okay.’ He probably would’ve fired me, anyway,” he said.
How Bradley Cooper’s performance in ‘Alias’ cost him several movie roles
Cooper has become a diverse actor in his own right, starring in a variety of different movies and genres. After solidifying his career as a movie star, Cooper’s main objective was to work with great talent and constantly improve his acting.
“And what that usually means is it’s not going to be the same kind of movie or the same genre or the same role,” Cooper once said in an interview with Black Film. “So by hook or by crook I’m going to try to get different roles just because I’m operating under that premise.”
The Hangover star learned from Alias how sticking with one role could potentially sabotage his chances at others. Especially since, partially thanks to the television show, many perceived Cooper a certain way.
“Doing a TV show, like Alias, for example, I played probably the nicest guy in the world, this guy Will Tippin, who was a journalist, and I would audition for movies during that time and afterwards and normally the feedback would be, ‘He’s such a nice guy, Bradley. I don’t really see an edge, but such a sweet guy,'” Cooper recalled. “Please tell him we loved meeting him.”
Bradley Cooper was seen as an ‘asshole’ in the industry after ‘Wedding Crashers’
It was the David Dobkin film Wedding Crashers that eventually gave Cooper a chance to show his range. But he did the role so well that this later presented a different problem.
“And then David Dobkin took a real chance and hired me as the heavy in The Wedding Crashes to play a sociopathic bad guy. And then it became, ‘Bradley; he’s an asshole, right?’ I mean really. ‘Because it seems like he’s really an asshole. He wasn’t acting, I could tell. There’s something really deep going on,'” he said.
Cooper later conceded that he has little influence on how others might perceive him because of a film role. The actor simply chose to focus on expanding his filmography as an actor, which was something he did have control over.
“So for me it’s just basic. I want to keep doing different things because I want to get better. So hopefully I’ll be hired to do them,” he said.
Hangover saw him playing another character who had a little mean streak, although not as severe as his Wedding Crashers role. At the time, he felt that doing different films would prevent him from being typecast in his Hangover role. But he also acknowledged that this strategy might work against his favor as well.
“So Hangover was a huge success; will it mean that I’ll be cast in movies like that? No, because I won’t do movies like that. But then it also might mean I’ll never work, so we’ll see,” he said.
