Brad Pitt honours Bradley Cooper at Santa Barbara Film Festival
Santa Barbara (US), February 10
Actor Brad Pitt presented his friend and actor Bradley Cooper with one of the Santa Barbara Film Festival’s top honours Outstanding Performer of the Year for his work, starring as Leonard Bernstein in the biopic ‘Maestro’.
While honouring Cooper, Pitt gave a shout out to him in a hilarious way. He joked that the duo has a “couple of things in common,” including “being a movie superstar and also a name,” People reported.
He further said that there was something special about Cooper after watching his work in ‘The Hangover’.
“You’ll see the more irreverent that Alan (Zach Galifianakis) gets, the more Phil (Cooper) is enjoying that irreverence. It’s subtle. It’s often to the side of the frame, but it’s there and it’s interesting. I know this sounds strange, but I was watching that and I know no one else would have brought that to the to the table. And it was something fresh. I knew this guy was going to be around,” said Pitt.
Pitt then spoke about Cooper’s 2018 directorial debut, ‘A Star Is Born’, which the actor also starred in and wrote the screenplay for.
“It’s a film that’s been made a few times. It’s been made really well, so the bar is so high, and yet he’s able to bring in his performance where he’s able to play drunk when he breaks down and still keep an eye on the crew to see the time he’s got the tape.”
“To do that really, really well is nothing short of perfect,” Pitt added.
Pitt then shared views on Cooper’s most recent work. He called ‘Maestro’, “a masterwork” and described one scene in particular between Cooper and his co-star Carey Mulligan, who plays the late composer-conductor’s wife, Felicia Montealegre, as “alive, kinetic, and natural.”
“This is really difficult to achieve. And yes, it takes great actors but it also takes great construction. Now I’m not going to say I know for certain what’s at the heart of Bradley’s brilliance, but I am going to take a stab at it. What I think, it is his voracious love for this little thing we call the human experience and all its struggles, joys, and messiness. My man’s in it, he doesn’t run from any evidence. I think he infused into each frame that he puts up on the screen,” Pitt said.
Pitt concluded his speech by sharing his hopes for Cooper’s success at the upcoming Oscars, where ‘Maestro’ is up for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Mulligan for Best Actress, and Cooper for Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay (shared with co-writer Josh Singer).
“He’s been nominated 12 times and I really hope that this is his year, because he’s willing, but if it’s not, it’s okay, everyone knows it’s just a matter of time,” said Pitt, calling Cooper “the one and only Bradley,” before going on to joke, “And truly Brad is okay, he’s fine. He’s used to it. He’s a Philadelphia Eagles fan.”
Pitt presenting Cooper with his honour comes four years after Cooper presented Pitt with the award for best-supporting actor for ‘Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood’ at the National Board of Review Annual Awards Gala in January 2020.
