Bradley Cooper on his sobriety: “I’ve been very lucky”.

Actor-director Bradley Cooper spoke to Bear Grylls about his sobriety during an appearance in a Season 2 episode of the popular National Geographic series Running Wild With Bear Grylls.

Bradley Cooper: “‘The Hangover’ was pretty career changing. I was 36 when that happened, so I was already in the game for 10 years… I didn’t get lost in fame. In terms of alcohol and drugs, yeah. But that had nothing to do with fame.” https://t.co/QV9wZsWomr

— Variety (@Variety) August 21, 2023

The actor is now celebrating his 19th year of sobriety, having first sought help in 2004, at the age of 29.

Cooper had realized that his drinking was becoming a problem and decided to seek treatment:

“I got sober at 29, and I’ve been sober for 19 years. I’ve been very lucky,” he says.

The actor also admits to Grylls, as reported by Variety, that his alcoholism helped him in 2018 for the character of Jackson Maine in the very first film he directed, A Star Is Born:

“It made it easier to be able to really enter in there… and thank goodness I was at a place in my life where I was at ease with all of that, so I could really let myself go.”

Cooper’s journey to sobriety is certainly an inspiring example for many struggling with addiction.

Looking to the future, note that Bradley Cooper is retrying the feat of simultaneously directing and starring in his brand-new biographical film about the life of the late conductor Leonard Bernstein in Maestro, out in cinemas on November 22 and on Netflix on December 20.