Hollywood megastars Bradley Cooper and Emma Stone had a meeting of the minds as they joined forces for Variety’s Actors on Actors.
The duo talked shop as they discussed their critically-acclaimed new movies, with Cooper playing legendary composer Leonard Bernstein in the Netflix biopic Maestro and Emma starring in the black comedy Poor Things.
Bradley, 48, and Emma, 35, praised one another’s work in the films as they talked making the flicks, with Cooper briefly discussing using prosthetics to embody Bernstein.
Stone, who watched a cut of Maestro at Cooper’s home with her mother, gushed about the film: ‘My mother and I were an absolute wreck by the middle of the film, and so in awe of what you were doing, what Carey was doing, your direction. That conducting scene, which I was in full body chills for — how long was that?’
Cooper revealed the scene was six-minutes long and was done after praying to ‘Lenny’ for support.
Hollywood megastars Bradley Cooper and Emma Stone had a meeting of the minds as they joined forces for Variety’s Actors on Actors segment
‘I messed up the whole first day. The minute I was behind tempo, it was over. So I woke up in the morning, walked into that church, and it was empty — we’re not supposed to shoot there that day.
‘I was like, I got to give it one more shot. I brought everybody back in, and I actually said a prayer to Lenny in front of everybody, like, “Thank you for this opportunity. We’re going to do it again.” That’s what’s in the movie. It was one take.’
Cooper directs, stars and co-write the script for Maestro – a responsibility he ultimately found liberating.
‘I knew that if Maestro was going to mess up, it was all on me. I was not beholden to anybody else. There was a freedom in that, as well as a huge burden,’ he explained.
‘But that’s why this kind of thing to me feels completely different. I’ll carry it with me the rest of my life. It has changed who I am as an artist. And when I watch your performance in that film, there’s no version where I don’t think that’s the same case for you.
Cooper then discussed using prosthetics to film Maestro: ‘Even though I’m not physically naked, I was completely naked putting on this prosthetic and being him and the way he talked. I would direct the movie that way, just because it was easier. But I felt so vulnerable,’ he explained.
Bradley then asked Emma if she had experienced the same ‘level of abandon’ he did when filming Poor Things.
The Hollywood A-listers shared the spotlight
Stone was looking smart in a pinstripe button down worn beneath a black blazer
Cooper posed for a stunning portrait for the magazine
Cooper directs, stars and co-write the script for Maestro – a responsibility he ultimately found liberating
Stone pictured at the premiere of Poor Things earlier this week
‘Just watching your performance, you had to give yourself permission, which I had to do as well, to just jump off the cliff every day, in terms of giving over to — I don’t know — people laughing at us on set, quite honestly. Did you feel that there was that level of abandon that you had to have?’
Poor Things, which reunites Stone with The Favourite’s director Yorgos Lanthimos, is a fantastical black comedy in which the actress plays a young child whose brain has been implanted in the body of a grown woman by a disfigured scientist (played by Willem Dafoe).
Stone said she too had to let go of her inhibitions to film Poor Things – before revealing her director had the same attitude as Bradley about the outcome of their movie.
‘I did. But to your point, Yorgos says all the time that the final product is on him. There’s a captain of the ship that I fully trust and have such admiration and immense respect for. In that circumstance, people did laugh at me — he would laugh at me.’
She also described the bare-bones crew they had when filming nude scenes.
‘He’d be like, “That one was crazy.” But that was the best because there’s no eggshells. We can fight, we can laugh, all of that is totally free. And when it comes to any of the legitimate nudity, we had this tiny, tiny crew.
‘Robbie Ryan, our cinematographer, looks at me like I’m a table or a lamp. It was amazing. He was just like, “Whatever.” ‘
