Bradley Cooper Opens up About the ‘Miracle’ of Being a Dad

Bradley Cooper is busy promoting his new film A Star is Born co-starring Lady Gaga, and he is opening about how being a dad has changed his career.

The actor said recently in an interview he considers starting a family “a miracle.”

“I guess having a child, and having a family own — which is a miracle and something I’ve always dreamt of — has opened me up even more, I guess, to the day and to be present,” he told NPR.

As Entertainment Tonight reports, Cooper shares 1-year-old daughter, Lea, with girlfriend Irina Shayk, and his family has made him more selective when it comes to the projects he sign on to.

“I spent about 15 years going from movie to movie to movie. And then I hit 39 and I stopped and I said, ‘What do I really want to do?’” he said during the interview. “I want to tell Joseph Merrick’s story in The Elephant Man. So I did that for a year. Then this story came to me, A Star Is Born, and then I spent the next four years doing that.”

This new outlook on his career, where he only works on projects he truly cares about, comes after years building his name in projects such as The Hangover franchise and on various romantic comedies.

Now, as an established Hollywood A-lister, Cooper has the freedom and means to be more choosy in the next phase of his career.

“The one thing I know in the future is: It’s worth all the time to dedicate, even if one piece of art comes out of it in a half a decade, that would still be incredible as los and I can feel like it’s the movie I wanted to make, which is this movie,” Cooper said of A Star Is Born, which he directed as well as co-starred in with Gaga.

The actor revealed that he and Gaga felt an instant connection, which he believes is due to their similar upbringings.

“Here’s the other thing that connected Stefani [Germanotta, Gaga’s given name] and myself right away, is that we were very, very loved as children. And when I meet people that have had that similar upbringing, I can just see it in them,” Cooper said. “And that’s the thing I want my daughter to have — I just always want her to feel loved.”

Cooper further complimented Gaga, who has received much praise ever since the film’s Venice Film Festival premiere, including Oscar buzz.

“I knew nothing about her. I didn’t even know, really, what she looked like before I met her. And I was — I couldn’t believe how comfortable she made me feel, and how present she was — is. And then we went to the piano and sang, and it was this kind of wonderful thing. I couldn’t believe it,” he told the outlet.

“… The first time we sang together — everything’s live; we sing everything live in the movie… And I turned to Lady Gaga, who was singing next to me, and she was looking at me like I was [my character] Jackson Maine. And when you’re in a scene, and the actor is fully believing that you’re the character, you can’t not believe it yourself. So she really gave me that confidence.”

A Star Is Born premieres in theaters Friday, Oct. 5.