Bradley Cooper Talks Death of His Father, Not Wanting to Win an Oscar

Actor says the passing of his dad "changed everything" for him

By Peter Gicas Mar 04, 2013 8:31 PMTags
Bradley Cooper, British GQCourtesy: Brigitte Lacombe for British GQ

Bradley Cooper may have lost the Academy Award to Daniel Day-Lewis, but he's OK with that.

"I don't want to win an Oscar," the Silver Linings Playbook star told British GQ (via U.K.'s Metro) in its latest issue. "It would change nothing. Nothing. The things in my life that aren't fulfilled would not be fullfilled."

Such a perspective clearly stems from seeing his father pass away in 2011.

"I watched him dying and I was there by his bed watching him, breathing with him, and then I saw his last breath and he was gone. I experienced the whole thing," Cooper recalled. "And that was a watershed moment that I was privileged to experience. And it changed everything. Nothing has ever been the same since."

The actor added, "You know William Blake's Songs of Innocence? Well, right there, in that moment, the innocence was gone. Done. Never to return. The beauty is that I just don't sweat s--t anymore."