After watching Bradley Cooper play a horndog in the Hangover films, a dreadlocked gangster in Hit and Run, and supporting roles in comedies (both romantic and otherwise), it would be easy to doubt that he has the acting ability to pull off a dramatic lead role in a David O. Russell movie. But considering the heaps of praise Silver Linings Playbook has received, Cooper handled himself just fine as Pat Solatano, a man with bipolar disorder moving back in with his parents after being released from an institution. Nevertheless, in an interview with NPR he expresses the same concerns about his acting ability.
On playing such a vulnerable character — something not in his wheelhouse — Cooper reveals, “I was actually trepidatious about playing Pat. I didn’t think that I really could, and that was probably because deep down somewhere I had just utter fear … of being able to be that open on film. I had never been asked to do a role that demanded that kind of dexterity and truth.”
On that fear, he adds, “And I was terrified, and because of that, the conscious mind said, ‘I don’t really know if I’m right,’ which is kind of crazy because I am from Philadelphia, I’m Italian-Irish, as is Pat Solatano, and I’m a massive Eagles fan. The one thing I did know was if I was going to do this movie, there’s no hiding from the minute you show up to set to the minute you wrap that day.”
