Bradley Cooper isn’t the guy that he used to be. In a rather revealing interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the 37-year-old Hangover actor opens up about his troubled twenties, which included his battle with drugs and alcohol.
“I don’t drink or do drugs at all anymore,” Cooper says, adding that he stopped indulging in the damaging substances at the age of 29. “Being sober helps a great deal.”
Cooper recalls one incident that helped him decide to change his life. “I was at a party and deliberately bashed my head on the concrete floor — like, ‘Hey, look how tough I am!’ And I came up, and blood dripped down,” he says. “And then I did it again. I spent the night at St. Vincent’s Hospital with a sock of ice, waiting for them to stitch me up.”
“I remember looking at my life, my apartment, my dogs, and I thought, ‘What’s happening?’ Cooper explains. “I was so concerned what you thought of me, how I was coming across, how I would survive the day. I always felt like an outsider. I just lived in my head. I realized I wasn’t going to live up to my potential, and that scared the hell out of me. I thought, ‘Wow, I’m actually gonna ruin my life; I’m really gonna ruin it.'”
But now Cooper is on the path to such success you would never guess that he ever faced such troubles in his life. With The Hangover (Parts I and II), Cooper made a name for himself. Now, fans can’t help but wait for any and all of his productions to hit the silver screen (including The Hangover III and Serena, which are scheduled to drop in 2013).
Follow Lindsey on Twitter @LDiMat.
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