Bradley Cooper joined Morning Joe’s cast of characters to chat about acting crazy.
Cooper stars in the new dramedy “Silver Linings Playbook,” a film the Los Angeles Times is calling “irresistibly eccentric.” Written and directed by David O.Russell of “The Fighter” fame, “Playbook” tracks the story of Pat Solatano, played by Cooper, who moves back in with his parents after an eight-month stint in a mental institution. Pat’s one-track focus to win back his estranged wife leads him instead to the also unstable Tiffany (played by Jennifer Lawrence).
Cooper, sporting long locks for the now-shooting “Hangover Part III” (“your favorite trilogy,” he joked to Mika), called both Pat and Tiffany “a little bit on the extreme emotionally, yet they come together in an honest way. O’Russell, all he cares about is authenticity.”
The star-studded cast—with Robert DeNiro, Jacki Weaver, and Julia Stiles added to the line-up—is already getting Oscar nods, in part thanks to Cooper’s ability to portray his character’s bipolar disorder in an effectively jarring yet sensitive way.
“I think when you play someone with a mental disability, there’s danger of making it like a cartoon character of a crazy person,” Willie Geist told Cooper. “But there is a little subtlety here to the way you play it.”
Cooper admitted that while there’s “no Hollywood ending” to the movie, Pat’s Philadelphia Eagles-obsessed family holds him together.
But enough heavy discussion for a Friday morning, Geist decided—what’s it like to work with real star power? “Everybody’s asking about working with DeNiro. But what about her, Sarah Lawrence? She’s incredible,” he asked.
Without missing a beat, Cooper quipped: “Yeah, I love working with a university.”
“Jennifer Lawrence is unbelievable…I love her,” Cooper clarified. The hosts also prompted Cooper for his feelings on the recent election. Though Cooper seemed less than thrilled to acknowledge that he voted for President Obama this election cycle, he called politics a “selfless” and “very admirable profession” because of the pressures imposed by social media and constant documentation. “It’s also incredible how long Mitt Romney’s been running for president,” Cooper added. Joe Scarborough’s response: “Let’s hope that stops.” “Silver Linings Playbook” is out in theaters November 21. Watch the trailer here:
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