Bradley Cooper graduates in 'sleeper' comedy
Bradley Cooper has spent his Hollywood career being the best friend to the leading man ("Failure to Launch") or the pretty-boy bully ("Wedding Crashers").
"Well, at least they're all alpha males," he says.
But Cooper is graduating from those roles. His romantic turn in "He's Just Not that Into You" (a married man tempted by Scarlett Johansson) started the process. In playing the sanest member of a quartet of pals who hit Vegas and don't remember what they did in "The Hangover," Cooper may leave "best friend/bully" roles behind.
"This guy, Phil, is nothing like Sack Lodge from 'Wedding Crashers,' or anybody else I've played," says the 34 year-old Cooper. "Phil is a guy you want on your team. He's a guy who holds the group together, pieces the puzzle of their lost night together, and you can even see him as a family man, by the end. His bark's bigger than his bite. His life consists of Little League and Sundays at the playground when he used to be a wild man — women, booze, gambling in Vegas."
"Hangover" has "sleeper of the summer" in its DNA. It's a comeback film from the director of "Old School," with a "boundary-testing script" (Hollywood Reporter) that is "unapologetically raunchy" (Variety), a film that could launch its "defacto leading man" (Hollywood Reporter).
"It seemed right on a par with 'Wedding Crashers,' at least in terms of being 'out there,"' Cooper laughs.
Having been a part of a few "boundary-testing" comedies, Cooper has a good sense as to where that comic cutting edge is.
"You've got to go too far in comedy, and I think this movie comes at that edge two ways, verbally and physically. If it works, people are shocked and amazed as well as amused. Todd Philips (the director) has an ability to create a tone in which all this stuff works, and the key to that tone is the lurid backdrop of Vegas."
