Summary
- Cooper reflects on the significant impact working with Vaughn had on his own career, citing Vaughn’s willingness to fail as an inspiration.
- Cooper was in awe of Vaughn’s ability to explore with complete abandon, even if it didn’t always work.
- Watching Vaughn changed Cooper forever and gave him the freedom to be willing to fail in his own career.
Maestro’s Bradley Cooper is reflecting on working alongside Vince Vaughn in the 2005 comedy Wedding Crashers. During a roundtable discussion alongside fellow Best Actor SAG award nominees Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction), Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer), Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers), and Colman Domingo (Rustin), Cooper opened up on the significant impact working with Vaughn had on his own career. When the actors were asked to describe a career-changing moment they shared with another actor, Cooper cited Vaughn (via Variety):
“Up until that point, I was always just trying to get it right on camera. Be present and get it right. I’m watching Vince Vaughn destroy a scene, just crush it, and then he wants another take. It was the scene where the grandmother is shooting him, takes the gun out and he’s running out. He’s just like, ‘I want to do another one.’ In front of everyone…this huge crew and lights and it’s so nerve-wracking…and it was his willingness to fail.”
Cooper calls the film his “breakout role.” Vaughn, on the other hand, was a well-known name at the time, who had risen to stardom following his portrayal of Trent Walker in 1996’s Swingers. Cooper was impressed by Vaughn’s ability to “explore with complete abandon.”
“Watching Vince Vaughn…this huge tough guy, funniest guy, quickest guy…I was just in awe of this human, this man just failing, just willing to try anything. At some point he was just scatting and caught onto this thing and was doing this song. I loved seeing it, but clearly it wasn’t working. But it didn’t even matter,” Cooper said. “It was all of us watching this artist just explore with complete abandon. It was like a diamond through the middle of my head going, ‘That’s it! That freedom to just be absolutely willing to fail.’ It changed me forever. That was the moment.”
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Bradley Coopers’ Post-Wedding Crashers Career
In David Dobkin’s Wedding Crashers, Cooper portrays Sack Lodge, Claire Cleary’s (Rachel McAdams) arrogant boyfriend. As John Beckwith (Owen Wilson) and Jeremy Grey (Vince Vaughn) make their way on a family trip after crashing a family wedding, Cooper’s character becomes suspicious, eventually exposing them. Following the film’s success, Cooper starred in The Hangover and its sequels, later gaining critical acclaim for roles in Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle, American Sniper, and A Star is Born.
Cooper most recently wrote, directed, and starred in the Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro. Along with the SAG nomination for Best Actor, he has earned Academy Award nominations for Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Picture (he describes earning multiple Oscar nominations as “very surreal.”) Cooper will next direct and star in Is This Thing On?
Vaughn most recently appeared in several episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm and is set to return as a series regular for the HBO hit series’ twelfth and final season. Up next, he’ll appear in John Krasinski’s animated feature IF. Among numerous other upcoming projects, Vaughn is set to reprise the role of Peter La Fleur for Dodgeball 2.
