Pill-popper? Cooper on writer role

LOS ANGELES—“My mother’s here,” Bradley Cooper announced at the start of a recent press con. “She’s in the back.” With his blue eyes lighting up as he smiled, Bradley teased, “So be nice!”

The 36-year-old actor instantly won points, especially with the female reporters. It’s sweet and gutsy for a Hollywood actor to bring his mom to an interview. That does not happen everyday.

The actor, his hair long, looked relaxed in sweater and jeans.

Bradley stars in director Neil Burger’s “Limitless,” a thriller in which he plays Eddie Morra, a New Yorker with a chronic writer’s block who gets a black market pill, NZT, from his ex-brother-in-law Vernon (Johnny Whitworth). It turns him into a genius. In the process, he transforms from a schlub into a GQ model-looking writer.

Eddie visits Vernon to get more of the pills but finds that he has been murdered. The writer escapes with enough of the drug to keep him a super genius—he learns languages, math, medicine, plays the piano, dresses better and becomes a whiz at day trading.

Complications ensue in the movie that also stars Robert De Niro, Abbie Cornish, Anna Friel and Filipino-American T.V. Carpio.

Asked what he does to escape from stressful times, Bradley quipped: “Um, food maybe? Lately, it’s been a lot of bread. With prosciutto. A lot of Italian food. My mother’s in town so I’m screwed.”

On working with T.V. Carpio (the daughter of Filipina singer Teresa Carpio and Hong Kong businessman Peter Mui) and their sex scene (reportedly cut to avoid an “R”-rating), Bradley gushed: “It’s great that you brought her up. She was wonderful. Usually, you’re just thrown into a scene with someone you haven’t met before. You’re hoping that she’s good so it makes it easier. T.V. was fantastic.”

Bradley explained that the sex scene was “the beginning of the movie so it’s the hook. It was a difficult shoot. It was very intense. We had no time to mess around, especially that scene. They built that hallway on a soundstage. It was very tight quarters. Everybody’s climbing over each other. It was hot.”

There’s much anticipation for “The Hangover Part II” and a lot of interest in the sequel’s setting, Thailand, so Bradley was peppered with questions about them. Director Todd Phillips returns, as do Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms, Justin Bartha, Ken Jeong and Mike Tyson.

“It was the hardest shoot I’ve ever done by far,” Bradley said. “It’s also the hardest shoot that Todd has ever done. I shouldn’t even say this but I think this might be better than the first one. I really do.”

Bradley smiled at the mention of Bangkok. He remarked, “Bangkok is like Vegas on steroids. You put those guys in that setting. The stakes are raised. This is a much bigger movie than the first one.”
Falling for Bangkok
He confessed falling in love with Bangkok. “It’s a wonderful city. I just love the pageantry, the number of people and the chaos,” Bradley pointed out. “No one’s idle. The food’s everywhere. I enjoyed all the little quarters like Chinatown, Little India, the Chao Phraya River. I just couldn’t get enough of it. Everybody really loved Thailand. I miss it. I couldn’t wait to go back. We actually shot two weeks in Krabi, which is on the coast. I couldn’t wait to get back to Bangkok.”

He claimed that he doesn’t feel the pressure for the sequel to surpass the original movie, which was a huge hit. “During the filming, I didn’t feel any pressure because I was just filled with excitement,” Bradley explained. “I was happy to be back with Ed, Zach and Todd. It’s effortless to work with those two guys. And Todd is a wonderful filmmaker.”

‘World’s best monkey’

As for the monkey that appears to have joined the posse in Bangkok, Bradley commented: “I love Crystal. She’s the best monkey in the world. She plays a “he.” I actually worked with her on ‘Failure to Launch,’ which is odd.”

The monkey is in, but former US President Bill Clinton is not, according to Bradley. The ex-president was rumored to have a cameo role. “That would have been nice but it’s not true,” he clarified. “While we were in Bangkok, Bill Clinton was there for an event. So Zach, Todd and I went to attend that event. We were honored enough to have dinner with him afterward and that was it.”

Mel Gibson did get hired to play a cameo but Zach reportedly led the opposition against casting the actor because of his controversial reputation. Asked if he was involved in nixing Mel for the part (it went to Liam Neeson instead), Bradley replied, “I’m not going to comment on that.”

“The Hangover” may have boosted Bradley’s career, but he maintained that he still goes out for auditions.

Back to “Limitless”: Would he take a pill like NZT and what would he do with an enhanced mind? “If I’m going to be honest, of course, I’d take it,” he said with his disarming grin. “I’d probably learn every language I could right away. Then I’d learn to play every instrument. I’d go from there.”

French challenge

For now, Bradley could speak one other language, French. “But I was awful at it at first,” he said. I don’t know what happened. By the grace of God, French caught on 10 years later. But I wish I could learn other languages.”

Without the pill, Bradley said that going over Shakespeare’s plays in college was a challenge. “I remember taking a Shakespeare class in college,” he said. “We had to read ‘Romeo and Juliet.’ I didn’t really read it in high school.” This time, the Bard’s famous play got to him. “I remember sitting in the library, reading it and crying,” he said.

NZT could also make him pick up all the musical instruments scattered in his house. “I used to play the classical bass,” he said. “I used to be able to read music. I can’t do any of those now. I have a piano in my house that I butcher every day and a couple of guitars that I try to do something with. There’s a saxophone lying around somewhere, but I don’t really know how to play any of those things.”

He told that he seems to be a one-man band in his house, Bradley chuckled and countered, “In my head, yeah.”

Bradley is a genial and joking dude in person, but onscreen, he can project an edge—an undercurrent of someone who can cross to the other side. Does he actually also have that quality in person?

“Do I, mom?” he asked her. “No,” came the reply of Gloria, who lost her husband, Bradley’s dad, just last January.

Our colleague from Norway asked Bradley if he has been introduced to Norwegian cooking since the mother of his girlfriend, Renee Zellweger, is from that country. He misheard the “cooking” part.

“Cocaine?” he asked, laughing.

“Cooking,” he was told.

“I don’t think I’ve had any Norwegian cooking,” he quipped. “Or Norwegian cocaine.”

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