Bradley Cooper transformed by "The Elephant Man"
His movies have made more than $2 billion worldwide and earned him two Oscar nominations, but for Bradley Cooper, this may be the most personal role yet ... and, as he explains to Serena Altschul, the realization of a long-standing dream:
When Bradley Cooper was a kid in the Philadelphia suburbs, he'd sit for hours in his local theater watching movies with his dad: "Oh yeah, and there used to be an organ down there on the bottom right that they would play when you were coming in-between shows."
Altschul asked, "So when you sat here in this theater as a kid, did you think at all, 'I'd love to be an actor'?"
"Oh, 100 percent, yeah. It was a joke for people around me that this little kid was saying he's going to be an actor."
His father, Charles, who passed away three years ago, would show him classic films like "Apocalypse Now, " "The Deer Hunter," "Taxi Driver" and "Raging Bull." "I was young, like, 11 or 12. I was mainly excited, because I saw how much he was excited, and I idolized him."
Nearly 30 years later, roles in films like "American Hustle," "Silver Linings Playbook" and "The Hangover" have made Cooper one of the biggest movie stars in the world -- and, don't forget, People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive in 2011.
How did his mom react? "She was excited. That was interesting!" Cooper laughed. "That was . . . geez. Wow, I'm glad that's over."
But it was his father's insistence on watching one particular movie that changed everything.
"When I saw 'The Elephant Man,' I knew it. It crystallized, and I said, 'This is what I want to do with my life.'"
The 1980 film stars John Hurt, Anthony Hopkins and Anne Bancroft. American writer Bernard Pomerance told his version in a 1977 play. Both tell the true story of a severely-deformed London man named Joseph Merrick (John in the film and play) who's put on display as an attraction at a freak show -- known as the Elephant Man.
"There's something about this guy's spirit that connected with people, and it connected with me in a pretty fundamentally profound way," Cooper said.
The story left such an impression on Cooper that he performed the role of Merrick for his master's thesis in drama school in New York.
His research led him to England. "Honestly, it was something that sort of overtook me," he said. "It wasn't a big planned thing. I thought I was going to do the thesis, I was doing research. And then I just thought, 'Wait a second. I have money saved. Why don't I get a round-trip ticket?'"
He made his way to the hospital where Merrick lived and was studied until he died in 1890 at the age of 27.
"And all of a sudden I'm at the London Hospital crossing Whitechapel Road to where he was, and walked in the gardens that he walked at midnight. I mean, it was incredible."
Cooper's interest in "The Elephant Man" continued to grow. In 2012 he brought his interpretation to the highly-regarded Williamstown Theatre Festival in Massachusetts.
And now he's on Broadway.
"Was this dream [to do the show on Broadway] born in Williamstown, or was this a dream that was hatched a long time ago?" asked Altschul.
"I'm someone who thinks big -- I NEVER thought that I'd be able to do 'The Elephant Man' on Broadway," he replied.
"So this is kind of a dream come true for you?"
"Yeah, it's true. It's absolutely surreal."
It's been a surreal two years since we last caught up with the 39-year-old native of Jenkintown, Pa., just before he was nominated for an Oscar for "Silver Linings Playbook."
He earned a second nomination earlier this year for "American Hustle. He took his mom to both ceremonies. "She's in seventh heaven, she's loving it," Cooper said on Oscar Night.
The Oscars are a long way from reenacting movies as a kid in his backyard: "I would just come out of my house and just walk, which my mother hated, 'cause she thought it was so dangerous."
"'Get off the tracks!'?"
"Yup! And movies like 'Platoon' or especially 'Stand By Me,' cause 'Stand By Me' was all about train tracks with these kids. And so me and my friends would pretend we were in 'Stand By Me.'"
And his strong Philly roots always draw him back to family and friends.
"The older you get, you start to appreciate where you came from," he said. "When I was living here, I didn't feel the way I do now. Now I just love it. I kind of don't want to let it go."
Now, the kid from the small-town suburbs of Philly has taken the role that changed his life to the biggest stage in the world.
"We get to do it the way we really want to do it, which is stripped down, lean," he said. "The stage is just basically a raked wooden stage, and it's just about the relationships between the characters."
Cooper twists and contorts his body to become Merrick, alongside costar Patricia Clarkson.
Altschul said, "I noticed your fingers are tied up, you've got a shoulder that's going down, and your whole body changes. Is that exhausting at the end of a show or rehearsal?"
"Exhausting, it's exhausting, but I have to say -- well, talk to me after 110 performances!" he laughed. "It's exhausting, but I love him so much. I have to say that it feels like such an honor. I know that sounds cheesy, but every time I do it, I feel lighter afterwards."
"What does it take to do a role like this versus Phil [from 'the Hangover']?"
"It's easier in some ways and exponentially more difficult in others," he said. "It's easier just because he was actually a person. So whenever you're playing a real person -- I just got finished playing another person, Chris Kyle, in 'American Sniper' -- there's something about when you do that, it's not about you anymore, and there's a whole reservoir of energy I didn't even know that I had that I could dedicate to it. And you're constantly giving over to him.
"Every night before the play, I really do have a moment with Merrick, and thank him, and hope I do right by him. And that's a much different feeling than playing a character that's just been created out of someone's imagination."
"You feel a sense of responsibility?" Altschul asked.
"Yeah. Very much so."
So when the curtain goes up at the Booth Theatre this Friday, Bradley Cooper's fascination "The Elephant Man" just might come to a close.
"Will you need to tell this story again someday?" asked Altschul.
"Are you telling me to let it go?" he laughed. "' 'Cause Bradley, you really need to stop telling this story! Everybody know this story!'"
"But maybe," said Altschul, "you're finding something new in it all the time."
"I'm going to be 40 in January, he died when he was 27, almost 28, so I think this is probably the swan song of Merrick for me."
One thing's for certain: His father's presence will be with him, just as it was all of those years ago.
"I feel my dad all the time," Cooper said. "Yeah, I feel him constantly."
"What do you think he would think about you opening on Broadway with 'The Elephant Man'?"
"Oh, he'd be so excited!" he laughed.
For more info:
- "The Elephant Man" at the Booth Theatre, New York; Previews begin November 7
- Follow "The Elephant Man" on Twitter (@ElephantMan) and Facebook
- "The Elephant Man" (play) by Bernard Pomerance (Grove Press)
- David Lynch's "The Elephant Man" on Netflix; Also available on Blu-ray
- "The True Story of the Elephant Man" by Michael Howell & Peter Ford (Skyhorse); Also available in eBook format from U.K. publisher Allison & Busby