Joe Rogan Experience #2435 - Bradley Cooper

Joe Rogan 0:00 [upbeat music]

Joe Rogan 0:02 Joe Rogan Podcast, check it out!

0:04 The Joe Rogan Experience.

0:06 [upbeat music] Train by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night, all day. [upbeat music] Hey, Bradley Cooper. [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 0:13 What's happening, baby? You know what it's like when, uh... Like a Twilight Zone episode or something-

Joe Rogan 0:19 Mm-hmm.

Bradley Cooper 0:19 ... where, like, you're watching the T- this is an episode where, like, I'm watching the TV, and-

Joe Rogan 0:22 And then all of a sudden you're inside of the show.

Bradley Cooper 0:24 And all of a sudden, and you're looking at me.

Joe Rogan 0:25 Oh.

Bradley Cooper 0:25 And I got the m- y- yeah.

Joe Rogan 0:26 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 0:26 And all of a sudden I'm inside the show. It's crazy.

Joe Rogan 0:28 It's weird for me, too. It's we- it's weird for me that it gets weird for other people, too. Like, when I see people-

Bradley Cooper 0:34 Of course

Joe Rogan 0:34 ... being weird about it-

Bradley Cooper 0:35 Yeah

Joe Rogan 0:35 ... I'm like, "It's okay." [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 0:37 I feel comfortable, just so you know.

Joe Rogan 0:38 Oh, good. [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 0:38 You look comfortable.

Joe Rogan 0:39 Yeah, no, no, no.

Bradley Cooper 0:40 But it-

Joe Rogan 0:40 It's excitement. It's weird for me. Like, I was trying to explain this to someone. They're l- they're like, "Do people have a hard time being comfortable on the show?" I go, "I kind of do, too. It's fucking weird."

Bradley Cooper 0:48 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 0:49 It's weird that that many people are watching.

Bradley Cooper 0:51 Yes.

Joe Rogan 0:52 And then you start thinking like, "Oh, don't fuck it up. Don't say that." [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 0:55 Right. [clears throat] But if you think about it, the fact that you did this long-form setup and that we live in a culture where people ta- at least say that every- it's all about short-term-

Joe Rogan 1:07 Yeah

Bradley Cooper 1:08 ... it, it goes against it. The people are interested.

Joe Rogan 1:11 Yeah. Well, [sighs] the short-term stuff does work, you know? Like, short attention span stuff is very popular, e- even with me. Like, but I have been resisting it more and more lately. I'm like, like a fucking heroin addict, like, slowly weaning myself off the drug, and the more I wean myself, the better I feel. Like, physically better. My brain works better.

Bradley Cooper 1:34 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:34 I feel more relaxed. I don't feel like this c- like, Sugar Sean O'Malley, the UFC fighter, he said, "Even when I'm just scrolling, even if it..." He goes, "Even if it's not anything about me," he goes, "there's just, like, a low-level anxiety that I get." I'm like, "Yeah, yeah," because, like, you know you're wasting your time chasing a fix that you're never gonna get, and you're just, like, getting these-

Bradley Cooper 1:56 [clears throat]

Joe Rogan 1:56 ... these short drips of like, "Oh, look at that. Oh, look at that."

Bradley Cooper 2:00 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:00 "Oh, scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll." But that's not what people really want.

Bradley Cooper 2:04 Right.

Joe Rogan 2:04 What people really want is something engaging-

Bradley Cooper 2:06 Yes

Joe Rogan 2:06 ... something you go, "Wow, that's ama-" Like, a great documentary, like, which are still super popular. Like, a great documentary, they're still, you know, like, huge on Netflix and huge on YouTube. So there's always-

Bradley Cooper 2:17 And Oppenheimer was, like, three hours long-

Joe Rogan 2:19 Right! Exactly

Bradley Cooper 2:20 ... and, you know, made a billion dollars.

Joe Rogan 2:21 Exactly.

Bradley Cooper 2:21 So people went.

Joe Rogan 2:23 Humans didn't change. It's just you can hijack the reward system by giving them some short attention span nonsense, and it just, like, tricks their slow-drip dopamine into, like, continuing to watch this stupid shit. But that's not what they want.

Bradley Cooper 2:36 No.

Joe Rogan 2:37 You know? That's not what I want, you know?

Bradley Cooper 2:39 No. It's the difference between, like, yeah, just a little drip of something that has the illusion that I'm getting what I want, as opposed to what I actually need-

Joe Rogan 2:47 Yes

Bradley Cooper 2:47 ... which is sort of a reminder that I exist.

Joe Rogan 2:51 Yes. [laughing] Yes.

Bradley Cooper 2:53 And that I'm communicating with somebody, and I can relate to it-

Joe Rogan 2:56 Yes

Bradley Cooper 2:56 ... which is a different thing. And I only know this 'cause I've never been on social media, but sometimes... There was one time I got on, somehow got on TikTok, and it was all police footage.

Joe Rogan 3:05 Oi.

Bradley Cooper 3:05 You know, like, uh... And I was just- I remember laying on my couch. 40 minutes went by, and I was just doing this, and it was, like, the first part of the video, and then what happened? And then, like, the second part, part two.

Joe Rogan 3:16 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 3:16 And that was the only time I experienced it. I thought, "I gotta stay away from this, 'cause I won't leave the house."

Joe Rogan 3:21 It's bad. It's bad for you, too, because it programs you to think that that is going on everywhere in the world. Like, if you have eight billion people that are interacting with people all over the world, and you only take the worst examples of that and broadcast it-

Bradley Cooper 3:37 [clears throat]

Joe Rogan 3:37 ... and then it becomes viral, and millions and millions of people think... It rewires your way you think about human beings.

Bradley Cooper 3:44 But the... And the other thing is about memory. Someone was talking about Niagara Falls the other day, and I just thought, "I've been there, right?" And then I'm like, "Have I been there?" [laughing]

Joe Rogan 3:53 [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 3:53 Or did I see a video? [laughing] Like, like, or was, or was that one of the things when I put the Oculus on?

Joe Rogan 3:59 Right, right, right.

Bradley Cooper 4:00 Honestly, I can't remember, but I know what it feels like to be looking at it.

Joe Rogan 4:04 Oh, yeah.

Bradley Cooper 4:05 So the it's, it's, it's, it's, it's changing the way memory works.

Joe Rogan 4:10 F- 100%.

Bradley Cooper 4:11 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 4:12 I've, um, come... I've hit a wall in my memory, like a tangible wall, because, uh, and I think it's connected to, like, Dunbar's number. Like, Dunbar's number is the amount of people that you can keep in your head, like, because we evolved in these tribal scenarios. We, we evolved with, like, 150 people, and so the way Dunbar, uh, calculated it, there's, like, very close, intimate, close-circle people, which is a small amount, and then, uh, uh, immediately after that, there's a slightly larger amount, and then it gets up to... What is it, like, it gets up to, like, 1,000 people?

4:46 1,500.

4:46 1,500 people? That's the most amount of people you can keep in your head. So there's, like, five people that are, like, your tightest of tight, and then 15 are, like, slightly outside of that, and it gets all the way up to a- about 1,500 people-

Bradley Cooper 4:57 Excuse me

Joe Rogan 4:57 ... recognizable people. But-

Bradley Cooper 5:00 I would think I'd be able to... That you could keep in your head.

Joe Rogan 5:03 Yeah, but I'm way past 1,500 people, so I'm fucked.

Bradley Cooper 5:07 Right.

Joe Rogan 5:08 Like, I am, like... There's people that I know really well, and then I see them, and I'm like, "I don't remember his name."

Bradley Cooper 5:14 Yeah, 1,500 sounds right.

Joe Rogan 5:15 And it, it seems bad.

Bradley Cooper 5:16 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 5:16 Like, I'm like, "Why can't I remember his fucking name?"

Bradley Cooper 5:18 I can't remember more than that.

Joe Rogan 5:19 I can't remember his name.

Bradley Cooper 5:19 Oh, I'm hor- I'm horrible with names.

Joe Rogan 5:20 But it's just because my hard drive sucks. It's like I don't have enough room.

Bradley Cooper 5:25 Right.

Joe Rogan 5:25 It's like, you know, when you... The old iPhones, it's like, "You've run out of, you know, max space."

Bradley Cooper 5:30 Yeah. [chuckles]

Joe Rogan 5:30 Like, oh, geez, I gotta start deleting photos and videos, and you go-

Bradley Cooper 5:32 Now, do you get anxiety with that, or do you s- sort of breathe through and say, "Well, it's just the way it is?"

Joe Rogan 5:37 I kind of just deal with it.

Bradley Cooper 5:38 Yeah, me too.

Joe Rogan 5:39 I mean, it is what it is. But, but my memory itself is, like, very good and also very bad at the same time.

Bradley Cooper 5:46 Yeah, me too. I r- I'm, I have a serious problem remembering people's names.

Joe Rogan 5:50 Well, you think about how many people you meet-

Bradley Cooper 5:51 Like, as I was saying it, I was like... And I've watched the show so many times, I was like, "Jamie, right, that's Jamie." Like, as you were saying it-

Joe Rogan 5:55 Right, right, right, right

Bradley Cooper 5:55 ... I'm like, "Let me see who can I re- do I remember any of the guys I just met?" Can't tell you one.

Joe Rogan 5:59 Right.

Bradley Cooper 5:59 I just met them, shook their hand, looked them in the eye, but-

Joe Rogan 6:01 They say their names-

Bradley Cooper 6:01 Yeah

Joe Rogan 6:01 ... and it just goes in and out.

Bradley Cooper 6:03 I just can't... Yeah.

Joe Rogan 6:03 And some people get upset. "What's my name?"

Bradley Cooper 6:05 I know, I know.

Joe Rogan 6:05 I'm like, "I don't fucking know!"

Bradley Cooper 6:07 I know. Yeah, "Oh, you don't remember me?" [laughing] You don't re-

Joe Rogan 6:08 Yeah. [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 6:08 I'm like, "Uh-"... We, you don't remember? "What's my name?" And you're like, "Ah." [laughs]

Joe Rogan 6:13 Well, that's why in Hollywood, people love to say, "Good to see you-

Bradley Cooper 6:17 [laughs] Right

Joe Rogan 6:17 ... instead of, "Nice to meet you."

Bradley Cooper 6:19 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 6:19 Like, "Bitch, you met me two years ago." Like, "I don't remember!"

Bradley Cooper 6:23 Yeah, Leonard Bernstein had a great thing that he would always do about, "I loved you in the last thing you did." [laughs]

Joe Rogan 6:27 Ah, that's funny. That's funny. Speaking of which, I watched your movie, um, Is This Thing On? And it's good. It's really good, man.

Bradley Cooper 6:35 Oh, thanks, man.

Joe Rogan 6:36 It's, it's, it's one of the best representations of someone attempting to do stand-up, and it's like, it's, it's a really good film. And it... You know, but it's not really just about stand-up. It's a- it's about these people with this v- it's about at... They're, they're actual human beings. Like, these are complicated, real, like, not car- caricature-ish, not cartoonish people. Like, like, I get that these are real people.

Bradley Cooper 7:00 Right. Good.

Joe Rogan 7:01 Complicated, real-

Bradley Cooper 7:02 Yeah

Joe Rogan 7:02 ... people that are trying to figure out their relationships-

Bradley Cooper 7:06 Good

Joe Rogan 7:06 ... and in the context of this one guy, Will Arnett, is attempting to do stand-up.

Bradley Cooper 7:10 Right.

Joe Rogan 7:11 So it was great.

Bradley Cooper 7:12 I'm glad you say that, like, so you f- 'cause, uh, you know, I moved to, uh, New York in, um, '97, and, and then that was my introduction to any comedy world other than with my dad. I used to watch, uh, Rodney Dangerfield's, you know, uh, New Year's Eve special. We used to watch it every year, you know, and it was Elaine Boosler and-

Joe Rogan 7:33 Mm-hmm

Bradley Cooper 7:33 ... Sam Kinison and, and Dice, and, you know-

Joe Rogan 7:35 God, Elaine Boosler. I forgot about her.

Bradley Cooper 7:36 Yeah. [laughs] I'm pretty sure-

Joe Rogan 7:37 Wow

Bradley Cooper 7:37 ... she was on there, yeah.

Joe Rogan 7:38 Oh, yeah-

Bradley Cooper 7:39 Yeah

Joe Rogan 7:39 ... yeah, yeah, yeah.

Bradley Cooper 7:39 And, um, and I was obsessed with Dice when I was, like, in eighth grade. I memorized one of his records, and I would do it-

Joe Rogan 7:44 [laughs]

Bradley Cooper 7:44 ... in the train station with all my friends. [laughs] 'Cause back then, that's all you did, right? You would memorize stuff.

Joe Rogan 7:49 Oh, yeah, me too.

Bradley Cooper 7:50 Yeah, there was no video to look at. You know, you wouldn't all sit around. You would just memorize and then, you know, regale your friends with your-

Joe Rogan 7:55 Yeah

Bradley Cooper 7:55 ... your impersonation of him. And then, um, and Richard Pryor was my hero, hero growing up. That was my idol. So I had this thing with stand-up comedy, and then I moved to New York, and I'm all of a sudden immersed with these clubs and, and Upright Citizens Brigade had just started. And I did this movie, Wet Hot American Summer, and uh, all... There was all these people. I didn't even know about The State. Remember that show on, uh, MTV? They, there was this-

Joe Rogan 8:15 Uh-huh.

Bradley Cooper 8:16 Yeah, all this.

Joe Rogan 8:17 Sure.

Bradley Cooper 8:17 And so I just, you know, little by little, immersed myself into that world, and I just became fascinated with the culture. And then Zach Galifianakis, who I met, like, in 2001, way before Hangover, I used to go and watch him do stuff, and I just loved the culture. And when Will was telling me about this, I was like, "Oh, let's set it in New York and the Cellar," 'cause I just love the, the, the geography of the Cellar, too. That you go in the Olive Tree, and you walk down into this place, and it's this whole other world. And, um, and it just felt like, yeah, I really went, like, "Can I... Can we pull this off where it's authentic, where you are watching it at home, and you get a sense of..." The fact that you're saying that, you know, you feel like it got it, you know, within the striking distance makes me really happy.

Joe Rogan 8:58 Yeah, it's striking distance. It's like the... One of the only films- or, like, Punchline was an interesting film, the Tom Hanks, Sally Fields comedy.

Bradley Cooper 9:06 Yeah, yeah, of course.

Joe Rogan 9:07 But it was bullshit. Like, you watch it, you're like, "What, they have lockers? Like, what the fuck is this?" Like, [laughs] like... And also, the comedy wasn't good. It wasn't real comedy. It was like, it felt flat and fake, and people were laughing at nothing. The Will stuff felt real.

Bradley Cooper 9:21 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 9:21 It felt real, you know? Like, the clubs felt with the, like, a guy trying to work out-

Bradley Cooper 9:26 Right

Joe Rogan 9:26 ... what it's like to be on stage in open mic. And then the fact you got Jordan Jensen in, who I love-

Bradley Cooper 9:31 Yeah, of course.

Joe Rogan 9:31 She was fucking great. I texted her afterwards. I'm like, "You killed it."

Bradley Cooper 9:33 Isn't she great in the movie?

Joe Rogan 9:35 She's great.

Bradley Cooper 9:36 Yeah, she-

Joe Rogan 9:36 She's so natural

Bradley Cooper 9:36 ... I mean, the minute I started shooting her, I was like, "Oh, wait a second."

Joe Rogan 9:39 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 9:39 Yeah. It was like... And the first thing I had shot with her was one of her, uh, one, one of her sets, and I was just up there with the camera, and I came around, and her profile... And actually, I felt like I was in A Star Is Born. She looked a lot like Gaga and Ally, like, singing "Shallow."

Joe Rogan 9:53 Oh, wow.

Bradley Cooper 9:53 I, I had, like, this weird moment. I was like, "Whoa." Um, and then she was just incredible, and then the, then as it went on, she had a larger part in the movie, and then that whole thing when they're talking about the small penis, and we go up to her, and just her writing that down, and she was just so fluid. And I was like, "Oh, yeah, she's got it, man. She's got it."

Joe Rogan 10:10 She's great. She's really great.

Bradley Cooper 10:12 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 10:12 She's a really unique person, like a very-

Bradley Cooper 10:14 Yes [laughs]

Joe Rogan 10:15 ... unusual per- like, even just talking to her on the podcast.

Bradley Cooper 10:16 Oh, yeah. Grew up on a farm with two moms, and yeah.

Joe Rogan 10:19 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 10:19 Yeah, amazing, yeah. She could do anything.

Joe Rogan 10:21 I know.

Bradley Cooper 10:21 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 10:21 And she's so fun. She's fun on stage, too.

Bradley Cooper 10:24 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 10:24 Like, she's great, like, working the crowds.

Bradley Cooper 10:26 Very smart.

Joe Rogan 10:27 No, very smart.

Bradley Cooper 10:27 Very smart.

Joe Rogan 10:28 Yeah. But, like, her character-

Bradley Cooper 10:30 [laughs]

Joe Rogan 10:30 ... like, the way she interacted, I'm like, "Well, that's so realistic." Like, "We should fuck." Like, that kind of scene. [laughs]

Bradley Cooper 10:35 Ex- exactly. Yeah, exa- exactly.

Joe Rogan 10:36 [laughs]

Bradley Cooper 10:36 And then you go back to the, like, East Village or Chinatown apartment. You know, they live in-

Joe Rogan 10:40 Yeah

Bradley Cooper 10:40 ... where it's all one room.

Joe Rogan 10:41 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 10:42 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 10:42 I, I believe it.

Bradley Cooper 10:42 Yeah, me too.

Joe Rogan 10:43 Yeah. It was great. It's, it's like, you know, you're never gonna really capture stand-up in a movie because it's like, to capture what it is, you would need, like, years, months.

Bradley Cooper 10:53 And also, you would need a movie dedicated to it.

Joe Rogan 10:55 Exactly.

Bradley Cooper 10:55 The movie's not dedicated to it.

Joe Rogan 10:57 Exactly.

Bradley Cooper 10:57 Do you know what I mean? It was just about, can I, can I make you feel like you're there wa- or that you're with him on stage?

Joe Rogan 11:02 Yes.

Bradley Cooper 11:03 That what that could be like.

Joe Rogan 11:04 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 11:05 You know?

Joe Rogan 11:05 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 11:05 The, the silence, and then the cameras, boom.

Joe Rogan 11:08 Mm-hmm.

Bradley Cooper 11:08 There's nowhere to go.

Joe Rogan 11:09 How did you, uh, work out the stand-up scenes? Did you have real audiences, and then they just-

Bradley Cooper 11:15 It was never just real audiences because, um, you, you have to hit the quota of extras with SAG and all that.

Joe Rogan 11:21 Oh.

Bradley Cooper 11:21 But, but we, we, we tried to do it as authentic as possible, which was everybody that works at the Cellar, they're there in the movie, the... Everybody who agreed to do it. So all the waiters and everything, the staff, that's all people that work there. Um, Liz, who's the manager, who plays the manager, she's the manager of the Cellar. So all those people are real, but then the patrons, we s- I can't remember what the email was or what the, the, the, the, the ask was, but, like, people who like to go to stand-up comedy, who go, who go regularly. And then once they were there, I never told them what was gonna happen. I never directed them once. It was like, whatever the- they're laughing at, that's it, and I don't do many takes. So you're getting an authentic reaction. Now, it's hyped up because there's cameras there, and it's a movie, but they're not told what to do. And-

Joe Rogan 12:05 It feels like that.

Bradley Cooper 12:06 And so... And even in the mix, like, we never added anything. There was no added laugh, nothing.

Joe Rogan 12:11 Oh, that's great.

Bradley Cooper 12:11 Yeah, yeah, it's all... 'Cause I was like, "It's just gotta be real," 'cause I wanted Will to just... You know, I just don't want him to act.

Joe Rogan 12:16 Right.

Bradley Cooper 12:17 Right?

Joe Rogan 12:17 Right, right.

Bradley Cooper 12:17 I just want him to... And that's why, you know, you, uh, Shane Gillis was kind of... The first time he ever went up was here at the mothership.... Shane gave him four minutes of his set. [laughing] And he and I, and Will and I flew to Austin, and we're sitting in the green room, and Shane was, like, an hour and a half late. And Tony was there, and, uh, he was so nice. I'd never met Tony before, and that's where I smelled the thing, you know, I did the smell-

Joe Rogan 12:38 Oh, the smelling salts? [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 12:39 Yeah, dude, fuck me! [laughing] That shit is no joke, dude.

Joe Rogan 12:43 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 12:43 [chuckles] Um, and, and that was the first time Will ever went up, and we, he was just trying some of that material and went up as Alex Novak. 'Cause I was like, "When do you have an opportunity as an actor to actually do the thing you're preparing to do?" Like, you can-

Joe Rogan 12:55 Right.

Bradley Cooper 12:56 And like, think about how much that would cost. Like, you can go into a room where there's real people-

Joe Rogan 12:59 Right.

Bradley Cooper 13:00 ... It's all, and then every step that you're taking, you're in a club. So he did that, and then when we back- went back to New York, he did it, like, three times a week, four or five times a night for, like, six weeks.

Joe Rogan 13:10 Wow!

Bradley Cooper 13:10 Just so he could understand what it's like. And some people didn't know who he was. You know, you get a lot of tourists come into New York City.

Joe Rogan 13:16 Mm-hmm.

Bradley Cooper 13:16 And there were nights where you knew that he, when he said Alex Novak, they're like, "Cool." [chuckles]

Joe Rogan 13:21 Right.

Bradley Cooper 13:22 Not like, "You're not Alex Novak."

Joe Rogan 13:23 Right, right, right.

Bradley Cooper 13:24 You know, they're like, "Okay, let's see what you got."

Joe Rogan 13:26 Wow.

Bradley Cooper 13:26 And, uh, so that was really, that was really great.

Joe Rogan 13:29 How did you... Who wrote this film?

Bradley Cooper 13:31 Uh, he wrote it with this guy, Mark Chappell. It was a, it was a movie that was more about his, uh, based on this guy, John Bishop, who's a real comedian, is a very successful comedian in the UK. And, and he, Will met that guy, uh, on a barge somewhere, and, and he was at, talking about his story, and he was like, "Yeah, I was in... I was doing something else. My wife and I were breaking up, and I walked into a bar, a pub one night. I didn't wanna pay the cover." That really happened to this guy. So he put his name down, and then they called him, and then he was like, "Yeah, I'm getting a divorce," and got a couple chuckles. But he just loved it. Never done comedy, nothing before that, and he kept going back, and he, like, was obsessed by it. And then, like, weeks later, his wife, estranged wife, walked into a place he was doing an open mic at with her girlfriends, and he was doing a set about their relationship. So that actually happened.

Joe Rogan 14:20 Wow!

Bradley Cooper 14:20 I know.

Joe Rogan 14:21 [chuckles]

Bradley Cooper 14:21 And then they got back together, and they're still together. And then now he, like, he tours around the world. Like, he's makes a living as a comedian.

Joe Rogan 14:27 That's incredible.

Bradley Cooper 14:28 Yeah. So when he was telling me that, I was doing another movie, and I remember I was like, "What are you working on?" 'Cause we've been friends for, for, like, 25 years. And, um, and he was telling me that, and I was like, I just imagine Will... 'Cause I know him so well, and he's so charismatic and funny and just has this presence that, that is kind of lacking. I don't feel like there's, like, a male archetype now that fits him. He's like, he's like Robert Mitchum. He reminds me of, like, a young Robert Mitchum, Will Arnett. And he's telling me that, I'm like, his voice and, like, that face, stand-up comedy. I was like, I just couldn't get it out of my head, Joe. And I was like: "Hey, man, like, can, can I read it? Like, what, how far along are you guys?" And I read it, and I was like, I didn't quite... Because, like you, I'd never seen a movie that I thought nailed it, and I love stand-up comedy so much. I was like, "And I have no desire to try to redo it." And also, comedy is so massive right now, and, and the specials are so great and cinematic right now, that there's no reason to try to make a fictional movie about something that we can watch as a documentary or a docuseries or a show that is authentic. I was like, "So, but I still would really love to capture it cinematically. So what if it's a foil, and the movie's about the two of them?"

Joe Rogan 15:33 Mm.

Bradley Cooper 15:33 " 'Cause that's interesting."

Joe Rogan 15:34 Yes.

Bradley Cooper 15:34 "And you suck." [laughing]

Joe Rogan 15:37 [laughing] Well, that was one of the great scenes where Jordan was like, "You're bad."

Bradley Cooper 15:40 Yeah, she's like, "You're bad. You're really bad." [laughing]

Joe Rogan 15:43 [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 15:43 And it's much more about just what, what stand-up comedy- with anything, and you talk about this on your show, doing anything that puts you out of your comfort zone.

Joe Rogan 15:51 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 15:52 Anything that pushes you, you're gonna, you're gonna improve as a human being. That was really what that, that whole thing is about, and I just love the culture and the world, and I thought there's so much tangible stuff there for me to get excited about cinematically and story-wise. But really, it's like, it could have been anything.

Joe Rogan 16:09 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 16:09 Just something that he'd never done, that had- he had puts himself out there, and that in doing it, in doing it, he just sort of gets more comfortable, you know, and then the mic comes off the stand, and then he's leaning against the wall. And by the end of it, and then the way it was structured, it allows him to do that vampire set at the end of the movie, where all he's doing is exercising what he's feeling emotionally 'cause he's comfortable in this s- setting.

Joe Rogan 16:33 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 16:34 Because the old him, when he has that fight with her in the attic, he just would've kept that all inside.

Joe Rogan 16:39 Mm-hmm.

Bradley Cooper 16:40 And he would've been catatonic at his kids' assembly, where we meet him in the beginning of the movie. 'Cause you just don't know what to do with all that. But if you have an outlet, something expressive-

Joe Rogan 16:50 Yes

Bradley Cooper 16:50 ... you can, you can, a- you know, exercise it in a healthy way.

Joe Rogan 16:54 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 16:54 So that, that's what, that, that's w- that really was the point of that whole part of it being stand-up comedy and open mic.

Joe Rogan 17:01 What you really nailed is someone trying it for the first time. You, you guys really nailed that. You really nailed a beginner in comedy. Like, it seemed completely realistic.

Bradley Cooper 17:12 Great. Great.

Joe Rogan 17:12 Yeah, and, like, I think that's one of the reasons why Kill Tony is so popular.

Bradley Cooper 17:16 Yes!

Joe Rogan 17:17 You know, 'cause you get to see-

Bradley Cooper 17:18 Yes

Joe Rogan 17:18 ... like, you can't, that, that raw reality-

Bradley Cooper 17:21 Yeah

Joe Rogan 17:21 ... of someone who has never done stand-up before. Like, there was people that went up at Madison Square Garden in front of-

Bradley Cooper 17:26 Yes, nuts

Joe Rogan 17:26 ... 16,000 people that had never done stand-up before. [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 17:30 Dude, dude, dude.

Joe Rogan 17:31 [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 17:31 No, no, no, that's... Just, it's just, [chuckles] no, it's-

Joe Rogan 17:34 Don't do that!

Bradley Cooper 17:35 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 17:36 You should be in a fucking smoky room-

Bradley Cooper 17:38 Yes

Joe Rogan 17:38 ... well, not smoky anymore, but a tiny fucking room where disinterested people, where everyone's bombing, and you bomb, too, and it's not that big a deal.

Bradley Cooper 17:45 Right.

Joe Rogan 17:46 'Cause you might have some potential, but if you fucking bomb in front of 16,000 people, the pain of that, you may never recover.

Bradley Cooper 17:53 Also, just thinking about the au- like, 'cause you're gonna hear your voice through the, you know, echoing.

Joe Rogan 17:58 Right.

Bradley Cooper 17:58 It's ca- it can't be just in a... Like, so there, I imagine there's an echo, so you're not only bombing, but you're hearing it reverberate. [chuckles]

Joe Rogan 18:05 You don't really feel the echo. You don't hear the echo 'cause you, you have monitors on stage, so it's coming to you-

Bradley Cooper 18:10 I see

Joe Rogan 18:10 ... pretty flat.

Bradley Cooper 18:10 Okay.

Joe Rogan 18:11 But the noise-... of your voice, where you've never heard your voice-

Bradley Cooper 18:16 Right

Joe Rogan 18:16 ... into a microphone before-

Bradley Cooper 18:17 Right

Joe Rogan 18:17 ... ever.

Bradley Cooper 18:17 Right.

Joe Rogan 18:18 And now you're in front of 16,000 people doing it.

Bradley Cooper 18:21 That's nuts.

Joe Rogan 18:21 And then Tony's sitting there looking at you-

Bradley Cooper 18:23 Oh, dude

Joe Rogan 18:23 ... and Shane's there, and I'm there. [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 18:24 It's like a nightmare. It's like you're, you're walking into a nightmare.

Joe Rogan 18:27 Well, but just doing stand-up in front of, like, a guy like Shane Gillis is crazy.

Bradley Cooper 18:31 Crazy.

Joe Rogan 18:31 He's sitting right next to you. You've never done stand-up. You're gonna do stand-up right next to a guy who's selling out arenas. Like, that's nuts!

Bradley Cooper 18:37 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 18:37 That, that feeling is nuts.

Bradley Cooper 18:39 But it's wonderful to watch-

Joe Rogan 18:40 Oh, yeah

Bradley Cooper 18:40 ... 'cause you're watching authentic reactions-

Joe Rogan 18:42 Yes

Bradley Cooper 18:42 ... happening in real time.

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Bradley Cooper 20:04 Right

Joe Rogan 20:05 ... as c- as clean a mental food-

Bradley Cooper 20:07 Yeah

Joe Rogan 20:07 ... as you're gonna get.

Bradley Cooper 20:08 Yeah, it's true.

Joe Rogan 20:09 Yeah. It's just that we... W- I think human beings really love seeing what it's like when someone starts out doing something. Because a lot of people have these ideas, like, "Ah, maybe I could try that," or, "Maybe I could learn how to play guitar," or, "Maybe I could do that." But it's just the getting going and sucking at something in the beginning is terrifying for people. So when they see someone just try it, I think they're like: "Oh, look at him go. Look at him go. He's out there doing it!"

Bradley Cooper 20:35 Right.

Joe Rogan 20:35 "He's on the bike. He's moving." You know, it's like you see-

Bradley Cooper 20:39 Yeah

Joe Rogan 20:39 ... actual people that are trying to do something that they've never done before, and it's exciting.

Bradley Cooper 20:44 And also, the, the, the one thing I wanted to touch on is the craft of it all. You know, that it's, that it takes a lot of work. I know that it's not... You know, just, you know, the writing. You know, when she says at that one point, she's like, "You gotta write."

Joe Rogan 20:55 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 20:55 "You know, and keep going up." And I think most people, at least I didn't know before I started going, that people go up three or four times a night.

Joe Rogan 21:01 Mm-hmm.

Bradley Cooper 21:02 Like, I didn't under- And so that was something I thought it was important to convey.

Joe Rogan 21:06 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 21:06 Just the work ethic that's needed.

Joe Rogan 21:08 Well, New York is really great for that, and it's always had a culture of that. It's had a culture of guys hopping from club to club and doing set to set because there's so many clubs in, in Manhattan. So guys would just, you know... Uh, I think the most guy- I ever heard one guy did eight, eight or nine sets a night.

Bradley Cooper 21:25 Wow!

Joe Rogan 21:25 Like, they're just like... That, that's how many clubs there are.

Bradley Cooper 21:27 Right.

Joe Rogan 21:27 So you just hop all over the place.

Bradley Cooper 21:29 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 21:29 You start your night at, like, 8:00 PM, and finish at 2:00 AM.

Bradley Cooper 21:31 Yeah, downtown. There's a ton downtown that you can go uptown.

Joe Rogan 21:33 Uh-huh.

Bradley Cooper 21:33 Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 21:34 You can go all over the place. It's, um... We've got a lot of that here now. There's just so many clubs in Austin now.

Bradley Cooper 21:40 I mean, when we went there, what you built is incredible.

Joe Rogan 21:43 Thank you.

Bradley Cooper 21:44 The culture-

Joe Rogan 21:44 It's fine

Bradley Cooper 21:45 ... everything. You know, I showed the movie to a stand-up who hadn't done stand-up in, like, 15 years, and he said, "The only thing that for sure you got wrong is the culture." I was like: "What do you mean?" He's like, "No, people aren't that nice." And I was like: "Actually, I think you're wrong." I was like, "It's changed." I was like, "People are supportive now."

Joe Rogan 22:01 It's in where you go. There's places where it's not very supportive.

Bradley Cooper 22:04 Really?

Joe Rogan 22:04 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 22:04 But at least, like, I used to go to The Cellar, like, in early 2000s, didn't feel like it does now.

Joe Rogan 22:08 Right. Well, I think Ari Shaffir changed that a lot. He brought, like, the culture of LA to New York-

Bradley Cooper 22:15 Mm

Joe Rogan 22:15 ... where you're, like, more supportive of each other. It was always, like, dog against dog because it... Really, w- the way it all started out was in the 1990s, it was all about everyone was auditioning for a sitcom, and-

Bradley Cooper 22:29 Right

Joe Rogan 22:29 ... if you and I were, if, if I showed up to audition for a sitcom, I'm like, "Oh, fuck, Bradley's here. He's going for the same part. Fuck that guy!" You know what it was?

Bradley Cooper 22:36 Sure.

Joe Rogan 22:36 'Cause it was like, that could change your life.

Bradley Cooper 22:38 Right.

Joe Rogan 22:38 If you got that sitcom, now all of a sudden, you're fucking huge, and I'm still, like, struggling to pay my rent, eating ramen, and it could have been me.

Bradley Cooper 22:45 Right.

Joe Rogan 22:46 And so there's this, like, serious resentment that happens in the 1990s because everybody... Like, the, the golden carrot at the end of the stick was The Tonight Show, or, you know, hosting a late... If you could get your own late-night show, "Oh, my God, he made it. He's a host of The Tonight Show." That was, like, the thing that only one person could get. And then there was, like, the sitcom. Like, if it really worked out, they'd b- make a sitcom around you, and you'd get a development deal. So there was... People would psychologically backstab people. People would talk shit to people before they went on stage.

Bradley Cooper 23:16 Wow!

Joe Rogan 23:16 They would try to hijack their-

Bradley Cooper 23:17 Right

Joe Rogan 23:17 ... fucking mind.

Bradley Cooper 23:18 Right. [chuckles]

Joe Rogan 23:18 Right before they... Like, really, it was dark.

Bradley Cooper 23:20 Crazy.

Joe Rogan 23:21 And then the internet came around, and then the internet, instead of people being your competitors, they became not just your friends and not just your colleagues, but also an asset. Because if you're doing a podcast, and you've got, uh, your funny friends on, then your podcast is better.

Bradley Cooper 23:39 Right.

Joe Rogan 23:39 And then if you tell people about their podcast, then their podcast is better, and then you go on their podcast, and that's better, and everybody benefits from everybody else doing well. So it beca- it completely reversed the system, and then it became much more about being supportive of each other. And then everybody kind of realized, like, "Hey, it's way more fun when we're all having fun," you know? And since the television thing kind of died off, the sitcom thing kind of died off with reality shows, and then it was really just more about getting clips up on the internet and about getting... And then there was Netflix specials, so it wasn't just everybody trying to get an HBO special. There was way more specials, and then you could just upload specials to YouTube, and it became this way more collaborative, supportive environment. And then Ari Shaffir took that, that we had kind of like established in LA, and brought that to New York-

Bradley Cooper 24:30 Mm

Joe Rogan 24:30 ... and a lot of those guys ran with it.

Bradley Cooper 24:32 ... Yeah, I mean, that's the way to go. People always say, you know, there's a lot of room at the top.

Joe Rogan 24:36 Yeah!

Bradley Cooper 24:36 There's a lot.

Joe Rogan 24:37 There's a lot of room in stand-up, for sure.

Bradley Cooper 24:39 You know, and it's like, and everybody has their own lane, even within this big highway.

Joe Rogan 24:42 Uh-huh.

Bradley Cooper 24:43 And it's- and, and everybody wants to be with other people. Who wants to be a lone wolf, really?

Joe Rogan 24:47 For a long period of time. [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 24:48 Yeah. [laughing]

Joe Rogan 24:49 There's a few. There's a few out there, but they're all psychologically destroyed.

Bradley Cooper 24:53 [laughing]

Joe Rogan 24:53 They're just a mess.

Bradley Cooper 24:54 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 24:55 Who doesn't wanna have friends? It's crazy.

Bradley Cooper 24:56 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 24:57 I don't get it. But, you know, it's that aspect of the culture I felt like in the movie you guys nailed, which is a realistic aspect-

Bradley Cooper 25:06 Good. Uh

Joe Rogan 25:06 ... a, a realistic portrayal of what it's like, where a bunch of people just... They were all busting each other's balls-

Bradley Cooper 25:11 Yeah

Joe Rogan 25:11 ... and having fun.

Bradley Cooper 25:11 Oh, yeah, exactly. Yeah, you could be supportive and still honest.

Joe Rogan 25:13 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 25:14 That was the thing.

Joe Rogan 25:14 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 25:14 There's no lack of honesty or-

Joe Rogan 25:16 Yes

Bradley Cooper 25:16 ... criticism. It's just, it's not done with the hope that you, your demo- for your demise.

Joe Rogan 25:21 Yes.

Bradley Cooper 25:22 That's the difference.

Joe Rogan 25:23 Yeah, I think the '90s, like, poisoned a lot of comedians. It poisoned them because it gave you this idea that the whole thing was about a means to an end, and that end was a sitcom.

Bradley Cooper 25:35 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 25:35 And everybody thought you just had to get a sitcom. Gotta get a sitcom. And that was at- what everybody was working towards. There's people that were developing their entire act based around a, around a persona that they could sell to the networks.

Bradley Cooper 25:46 Were you doing stand-up before, uh, your sitcom?

Joe Rogan 25:49 Yes.

Bradley Cooper 25:50 I see.

Joe Rogan 25:50 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 25:51 Okay, so d- is that how that happened? Did someone see you, and then they were like, "Oh, you gotta, you gotta try this show?"

Joe Rogan 25:56 Yeah, I got... I got ridiculously lucky. Like, you know, a lot of people say, "Oh, I worked really hard to get on a sitcom." Nope. Nah, I got lucky. I did the MTV... I never had any aspirations to act at all.

Bradley Cooper 26:08 Right.

Joe Rogan 26:08 I did MTV Half-Hour Comedy Hour. I got a development deal, and all of a sudden, I'm in- living in LA, and I'm on a sitcom.

Bradley Cooper 26:14 Wow.

Joe Rogan 26:14 And it happened in a couple of months.

Bradley Cooper 26:15 And a great sitcom.

Joe Rogan 26:17 I was on a bad one first. I was on a bad one-

Bradley Cooper 26:20 Oh

Joe Rogan 26:20 ... called Hardball.

Bradley Cooper 26:21 Okay.

Joe Rogan 26:21 It was a sitcom on Fox where I played a baseball player. That show got canceled, and unfortunately, I thought it was gonna go, 'cause I was retarded. I was, you know, [chuckles] 20, 25 years old, [coughs] 26 years old, and I was like, "Oh, this is gonna take off. I should get an apartment." So I had a lease on an apartment, and I wanted to move.

Bradley Cooper 26:38 By the way, everybody... I'm sure people were telling you that it was gonna take off, too.

Joe Rogan 26:40 Oh, yeah!

Bradley Cooper 26:41 Yeah, of course.

Joe Rogan 26:41 Everybody believed it.

Bradley Cooper 26:42 Yeah, you're gonna win an Emmy.

Joe Rogan 26:43 Well, the guys-

Bradley Cooper 26:44 Yeah

Joe Rogan 26:44 ... who made it, uh, Jeff Martin and Kevin Curran, they worked on The Simpsons. They worked on Married... With Children. They were really good.

Bradley Cooper 26:49 Oh, wow.

Joe Rogan 26:49 But then the Fox people came in and just ruined it. Like, the executives came in, and they brought in a bunch of hacks and just ruined the show.

Bradley Cooper 26:55 Did you have fun doing it?

Joe Rogan 26:56 Oh, yeah, I had a g- I had a kind of good time, but I also missed comedy, and I missed New York people, and I wanted to get out of there. I was like, "I gotta get back to New York. Fuck this place"-

Bradley Cooper 27:06 Right

Joe Rogan 27:06 ... as soon as it was over. But then I was like, "Fuck, I got this lease." So I had a lease for a year, and then I got a development deal.

Bradley Cooper 27:12 So how long were you in LA at that time?

Joe Rogan 27:14 Oh, I was only in LA for, like, a few months.

Bradley Cooper 27:17 Wow!

Joe Rogan 27:17 Yeah. So I moved out there to do the show.

Bradley Cooper 27:20 Right.

Joe Rogan 27:20 I s- I got a lease, like, almost immediately, and then I was out there for a few months. [clears throat] Show got canceled, and then, um, I got a development deal to do something for NBC, and they were gonna do a, a, my own sitcom. And but as we were developing it, they said, "Hey, there's a show that we're doing. It's called News Radio. It's already been picked up. We already did the pilot, uh, but we fired one pe- one person from the pilot, and we want you to read for this." And that's how I got on News Radio.

Bradley Cooper 27:48 Got it.

Joe Rogan 27:48 That's how it happened. Like, that was the s- only second show I ever auditioned for, ever.

Bradley Cooper 27:53 Wow!

Joe Rogan 27:53 So I had one show-

Bradley Cooper 27:54 That is a very unique-

Joe Rogan 27:54 It went on air and got canceled.

Bradley Cooper 27:55 You had a very unique track.

Joe Rogan 27:57 Dumb luck.

Bradley Cooper 27:57 That's nuts.

Joe Rogan 27:59 Stumbled into it-

Bradley Cooper 27:59 Wow

Joe Rogan 27:59 ... 100%. I can't take any credit for it. Dumb luck.

Bradley Cooper 28:02 That's amazing. [chuckles]

Joe Rogan 28:03 Just my ability to keep it together in auditions-

Bradley Cooper 28:06 Yeah

Joe Rogan 28:06 ... and not, not crack-

Bradley Cooper 28:07 Yeah

Joe Rogan 28:07 ... with no acting experience at all.

Bradley Cooper 28:09 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 28:09 But it was just not... It wasn't something that I aspired to, so it w- it didn't have the kind of pressure that it probably had for a lot of people.

Bradley Cooper 28:15 And it probably didn't have the same kind of elation, too.

Joe Rogan 28:18 Right.

Bradley Cooper 28:19 Like, you pr- I assume it was not something you really wanted. It was like, it was fun, but you weren't like, "This is, uh, this is, like... This feels right."

Joe Rogan 28:25 No, what it felt like is, "Ooh, I'm gonna make- get money."

Bradley Cooper 28:28 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 28:28 "I'm gonna get some money."

Bradley Cooper 28:29 Yeah, then something's wrong.

Joe Rogan 28:29 That's what it was like. [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 28:30 Yeah. [chuckles] Something's wrong.

Joe Rogan 28:31 I was like, "This is good. I'm gonna get money, and I don't have to worry about money." That's how I thought about it.

Bradley Cooper 28:35 Right.

Joe Rogan 28:36 And then when I was doing it, I was like, "Wow, I'm so lucky. Like, how did I stumble onto... I'm here with Phil Hartman? This is crazy."

Bradley Cooper 28:41 Yeah, it's crazy, dude.

Joe Rogan 28:42 Dave Foley and Steven Root-

Bradley Cooper 28:44 It's crazy

Joe Rogan 28:44 ... Maura Tierney. Like, this is nuts.

Bradley Cooper 28:45 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 28:46 It was a crazy cast.

Bradley Cooper 28:47 And Sorkin wrote it, right?

Joe Rogan 28:48 No, it was Paul Simms.

Bradley Cooper 28:49 Paul Simms, right.

Joe Rogan 28:50 Yeah, who had just left Larry Sanders Show.

Bradley Cooper 28:53 Right.

Joe Rogan 28:53 So he left the Larry Sanders-

Bradley Cooper 28:54 Oh, my gosh.

Joe Rogan 28:54 Yeah, it was crazy luck. Just stupid, dumb luck.

Bradley Cooper 28:58 That's right, Sorkin did that other show with Jeff Daniels, right?

Joe Rogan 29:00 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 29:01 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:01 It was-

Bradley Cooper 29:01 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:02 It was a lot of fun. Um, so but, but back in those days, like, everybody was working towards that, and fortunately, I already had that. So my thing was just, like, continue to work on stand-up and just work on my stand-up, and if this all goes away, I- I'll just go back to being a comic.

Bradley Cooper 29:19 And doing stand-up in LA.

Joe Rogan 29:21 Yes.

Bradley Cooper 29:21 Right, so-

Joe Rogan 29:22 Yeah

Bradley Cooper 29:22 ... and, and so that was new? That's w-

Joe Rogan 29:24 Yeah, and that's where I encountered, like, the worst backstabbing I've ever seen in my life. Like-

Bradley Cooper 29:29 So you're coming from New York, where you didn't feel that?

Joe Rogan 29:31 You didn't feel it as much.

Bradley Cooper 29:32 Right.

Joe Rogan 29:32 You know, you felt, like, a lot of shit talking, but that was fun.

Bradley Cooper 29:35 Right.

Joe Rogan 29:35 You know, the guys would make fun of you if you bombed.

Bradley Cooper 29:37 Right, they were doing it to your face.

Joe Rogan 29:38 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 29:38 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:38 They were doing it to your face, and [clears throat] it was a more like, um... It was just a more ball-busting, like, silly environment-

Bradley Cooper 29:46 Right

Joe Rogan 29:46 ... in New York. It wasn't... Uh, no one thought they were gonna get famous in New York. You know, they were all just-

Bradley Cooper 29:51 Right

Joe Rogan 29:52 ... just doing sets.

Bradley Cooper 29:53 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:54 But in LA, everybody had this idea to get a sitcom, and then in the 1990s, they started giving out development deals. That was the big thing. You get, like, a 200,000, half a million dollar development deal, and then all of a sudden, you have all this money, and you're living it, and so everybody was working towards that. So it became, instead of, like, people working towards just being a stand-up, it became stand-up was a means to an end, and then all these other people, they were in your way to get that goal.

Bradley Cooper 30:23 Jesus.

Joe Rogan 30:23 And then your agent was telling you that's what you had to do, and every-

Bradley Cooper 30:25 Right

Joe Rogan 30:25 ... 'cause they wanted that money, too.

Bradley Cooper 30:27 Right.

Joe Rogan 30:27 So it was all, like, programming people to go after the sitcom.

Bradley Cooper 30:30 So completely different culture in the stand-up community there.

Joe Rogan 30:32 Exactly, but then that all went away.... it all went away. Like, this, the, the idea of working towards a sitcom is not- it's like working towards a, a career in ham radio. [chuckles]

Bradley Cooper 30:42 Right.

Joe Rogan 30:43 It just fucking went away! [chuckles]

Bradley Cooper 30:44 Well, you say that Ari changed it. How did he do it?

Joe Rogan 30:46 [coughs] 'Cause he brought the LA culture to New York. Ari moved from LA back to New York, and he... I mean, everybody that I talked to in New York was always like, "You guys are doing it wrong." Like, it's not-

Bradley Cooper 30:57 And people listened to him?

Joe Rogan 30:58 Yeah. Well, because he was established, and he was a really good comic, and they were like-

Bradley Cooper 31:02 Okay

Joe Rogan 31:02 ... "I think he's right."

Bradley Cooper 31:03 Wow.

Joe Rogan 31:03 And they would come to N- they would come to LA. Like, a lot of guys, like Andrew Schulz and a lot of these other guys, they would come to LA, and they went, "Bro, everybody's so fucking nice here, and they're all just having a great time. Like, why aren't we doing that? Why aren't we just having a great time?" And so it shifted.

Bradley Cooper 31:17 Hmm.

Joe Rogan 31:18 It's just the... It was the culture of the internet. The internet changed everything because there was no longer this one thing that 100 guys were trying to audition for. Now, it was anybody could just put up something online, and then you- all your friends became assets. They all became, like, valuable to you-

Bradley Cooper 31:36 Right

Joe Rogan 31:36 ... instead of competitors.

Bradley Cooper 31:38 That's cool.

Joe Rogan 31:40 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 31:40 Do you go up, uh, in these cities ever now?

Joe Rogan 31:43 I do. If I'm in LA, I'll still do sets in LA. I haven't been in a while, but, you know, most of the time I'm at my own club.

Bradley Cooper 31:50 Right.

Joe Rogan 31:50 It makes it way... Yeah, also, I have teenage kids, and they're... I, I wanna be home.

Bradley Cooper 31:55 Did you do The Cellar?

Joe Rogan 31:56 Yeah, I did The Cellar-

Bradley Cooper 31:57 Yeah, yeah

Joe Rogan 31:57 ... back in the day, but more I did, I did The Stand. I did c- um, Catch when it was there.

Bradley Cooper 32:03 Right.

Joe Rogan 32:03 I did, um, [tsks] uh... I always did Dangerfield's. Dangerfield's was great-

Bradley Cooper 32:09 Wow

Joe Rogan 32:09 ... because it was, like, a hole in the wall. There was hardly anybody there.

Bradley Cooper 32:13 Is that where he shot his special?

Joe Rogan 32:15 Yes.

Bradley Cooper 32:15 Wow!

Joe Rogan 32:16 Yeah. It was big in the '80s, and then something happened, and by the-

Bradley Cooper 32:19 Right

Joe Rogan 32:19 ... time I got there in the '90s, it was, like, fucking dead.

Bradley Cooper 32:22 Wow.

Joe Rogan 32:22 One time I went there, and I had a spot [clears throat] at, like, um, 8:30, and I don't remember what time the show started, but there was a few people on before me, and I got there, and the people that were on before me were sitting at the bar. I go: "What's going on?" They're like, "There's no crowd." I'm like, "There's no crowd? There's nobody?" And so then this couple walked up, and, uh, they bought tickets for the comedy show, and, and this guy, Bobby, who was the doorman, like, "Step right up..." He was a Scottish guy. "Come on in. I'll have you seated." He s- he seats them down. There's no one there, just them. They sit down. "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Dangerfield's.-"

Bradley Cooper 32:54 [chuckles]

Joe Rogan 32:54 "Your first act..." And we all did stand-up for two fucking people.

Bradley Cooper 32:58 Wow!

Joe Rogan 32:59 Yeah, the whole night was two people.

Bradley Cooper 33:01 [chuckles]

Joe Rogan 33:02 And they had a great time.

Bradley Cooper 33:03 I'm sure.

Joe Rogan 33:03 They s- but it was weird. It's like when you're doing stand-up for just two people-

Bradley Cooper 33:08 Yeah, you're only looking at two people.

Joe Rogan 33:09 But you also realize how much of your act is bullshit, how much of your act is, like, s- fucking dance moves. It's just nonsense, like English on the cue ball. It's like you're doing a lot of silly things that, like, don't even... Well, and you, you're not connecting with real humans.

Bradley Cooper 33:25 Right.

Joe Rogan 33:25 And when there's two people there, it, like, cuts the fat out of-

Bradley Cooper 33:28 Yeah, yeah

Joe Rogan 33:28 ... all of your shit.

Bradley Cooper 33:30 Of course.

Joe Rogan 33:30 And you recognize where the flaws in your writing are and the flaws in your delivery. But Dangerfield's was... [tsks] It was a wild little place. It was, uh, it was like a classic comedy club that didn't have any... No industry went there. No agents, no managers went there.

Bradley Cooper 33:50 Wow. Always?

Joe Rogan 33:50 Yeah. It was just, like, a bunch of weird degenerates, and it was fun.

Bradley Cooper 33:54 Wow.

Joe Rogan 33:55 That was a fun place. So I did that club a lot, but I l- a lot of... I did the road a lot.

Bradley Cooper 34:00 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 34:01 'Cause that was how I could make money, and I could headline, like, I'd do an hour.

Bradley Cooper 34:04 Wow.

Joe Rogan 34:04 'Cause if you're in the city, you're doing 15-minute sets-

Bradley Cooper 34:06 Right

Joe Rogan 34:06 ... or 10-minute sets. Like, that's great, but it's hard to piece together an hour out of 10-minute sets because you kinda wanna let the material breathe and put it all together-

Bradley Cooper 34:16 Yeah, of course

Joe Rogan 34:16 ... and compose it-

Bradley Cooper 34:17 Yeah

Joe Rogan 34:17 ... into one big thing, and you really can work on that a lot more if you're actually headlining.

Bradley Cooper 34:22 Do you watch a lot of specials, comedy specials nowadays?

Joe Rogan 34:25 I don't. I watch a lot of comics, like, when I see them at the club.

Bradley Cooper 34:28 Live.

Joe Rogan 34:28 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 34:28 Right, but not, not like, um, you know-

Joe Rogan 34:30 No, I probably should. [sighs] I probably should watch more of them, but really, comedy is... It, it's like an artistic form of hypnosis, and the real way to see comedy is to be there live.

Bradley Cooper 34:43 Right.

Joe Rogan 34:43 'Cause you're, like, l... And you know when the person's locked in, and you know when they're not. You feel it. They got you. Like, they're thinking for you.

Bradley Cooper 34:50 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 34:51 Like, if, if I'm watching Attell, and he's at, like, the Mothership, and he's killing, like, we're all like this. We're, like, locked into his brain, and we're letting him, like, take us on a ride.

Bradley Cooper 35:00 Yeah, of course.

Joe Rogan 35:00 'Cause it's like a kind of a form of hypnosis.

Bradley Cooper 35:03 Yes.

Joe Rogan 35:03 And I th- I really think that a stand-up special, as good as they are, you're maybe getting 60 to 70% of the experience of actually being there.

Bradley Cooper 35:11 That's why I l- enjoy watching to see how different people make them.

Joe Rogan 35:15 Mm.

Bradley Cooper 35:15 'Cause it's all different types.

Joe Rogan 35:17 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 35:17 You know, some are heavily edited, which always brings me out, if there's a way to keep it so you feel like you're in the room.

Joe Rogan 35:22 Right.

Bradley Cooper 35:23 You know, I remember it was in Mr. Tambourine Man or the T- the, uh, Chris Rock special where... When he changed the tone of it, and he started talking about jerking off to porn and how he became addicted to porn, and it was that great, uh, filmmaker who, uh, who's a comedian, who does music. He did that thing during COVID when he was, uh, um, in his house.

Joe Rogan 35:43 Bo Burnham.

35:43 Bo Burnham.

Bradley Cooper 35:44 Bo Burnham.

Joe Rogan 35:44 Oh.

Bradley Cooper 35:44 I think he directed it.

Joe Rogan 35:45 Oh, really?

Bradley Cooper 35:45 And the camera just keeps going on, keeps going on. By the time... You don't even realize it, 'cause you're hypnotized. You're right here on Chris Rock, and I think probably subconsciously, just thinking about it now, that's probably one of the things, 'cause that's kind of the frame I used the whole time on Alex on Wheel.

Joe Rogan 35:59 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 36:00 But I remember watching it, going like, "When the fuck did this become a close-up?" [laughing]

Joe Rogan 36:03 [chuckles]

Bradley Cooper 36:04 You know? But that's what, that's what it was happening.

Joe Rogan 36:06 Right.

Bradley Cooper 36:06 So there was a, there was a synergy between the camera and what he was doing in the place.

Joe Rogan 36:10 Right.

Bradley Cooper 36:10 At least made me feel like cinematically I was there, and this is what he was doing, hypnotizing me.

Joe Rogan 36:16 Right, and then the opposite of that was the special that Chris Rock did where he changed clothes.

Bradley Cooper 36:22 Mm.

Joe Rogan 36:22 So he was doing a special where he filmed part of it in one place and another part of it in another place, and he spliced the two of them together with different outfits.

Bradley Cooper 36:31 Mm.

Joe Rogan 36:32 So you would have him begin a bit with one outfit on and then end the bit with a different outfit on.

Bradley Cooper 36:37 Right, so you're... Yeah.

Joe Rogan 36:37 And you're like, "What are you-

Bradley Cooper 36:38 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 36:38 "Whose idea was this?"

Bradley Cooper 36:40 Yeah, 'cause the minute you cut-

Joe Rogan 36:41 Right

Bradley Cooper 36:41 ... and edit in any way, you know, even podcasts audio-wise, that's the thing I've learned. You know, some people, you know, they edit the audio of a podcast, and you're like, "That's not... Someone didn't take a breath before they answered."

Joe Rogan 36:52 ... oh, like cutting out-

Bradley Cooper 36:53 Yes-

Joe Rogan 36:53 in between?

Bradley Cooper 36:54 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 36:54 Yeah. Oh.

Bradley Cooper 36:54 It's a, it's, it's a whole other rhythm.

Joe Rogan 36:56 Right. Well, that's the YouTube thing, right? They- YouTube, for a long time, was doing these things where they would cut out all the pauses in between people talking thing, and it became like a style of editing-

Bradley Cooper 37:07 Right

Joe Rogan 37:07 ... where it's like, shocking. But the idea is-

Bradley Cooper 37:09 For my ears, like, I, it, I, it's impossible for me to get in.

Joe Rogan 37:12 Right.

Bradley Cooper 37:13 It's just, it's just impossible.

Joe Rogan 37:14 Well, it's, it's the short attention span concept.

Bradley Cooper 37:17 Right.

Joe Rogan 37:17 The, the... You're, you're just saying, "People are so fucking stupid, you can't give them any breaks. You c- you can't give them any breath. You gotta keep talking, keep talking, keep talking," and then, d- do you know, [gibberish]

Bradley Cooper 37:24 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 37:24 And it's like, it's exhausting.

Bradley Cooper 37:25 After a while, it's just like this wash and yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 37:27 They're just trying to keep you engaged as much as possible by editing instead of by having actually interesting content.

Bradley Cooper 37:34 Compelling content.

Joe Rogan 37:35 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 37:36 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 37:36 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 37:37 But it's an interesting exercise. Yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's a... I, I enjoy watching... Like, I think Josh Safdie did Sandler's one, and he w- and, uh, and he did all this backstage, and he walked up, and then he was in many locations, but he was playing music a lot. Yeah, I just like watching everybody's different, you know, sort of exploration of different stand-up shows 'cause it's such a huge, viable market. So people... You know, it's, it's fun to watch how they do it. I think that's probably why, 'cause I watched so many of them, I wanted to do it in a way, in a movie.

Joe Rogan 38:04 Have you done stand-up at all?

Bradley Cooper 38:05 Never. Never did it.

Joe Rogan 38:06 Never?

Bradley Cooper 38:06 No.

Joe Rogan 38:07 Have you thought about it?

Bradley Cooper 38:08 No.

Joe Rogan 38:08 When you were doing the film, did you think about doing it?

Bradley Cooper 38:10 No, no.

Joe Rogan 38:11 No? [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 38:12 [laughing] I... Yeah, and I don't know why, Joe. Yeah. But no, I just... It's not like one of those things that I feel, um, compelled to do. But would it, would it be fun? Would I be scared? All those things. Um, will I try an open mic one night? Yeah, I probably should. Um, but it's not... I didn't feel compelled to do it, no.

Joe Rogan 38:31 The problem would be if you did it, and it went okay, but you're like, "I think I could do better"-

Bradley Cooper 38:37 And then I'm-

Joe Rogan 38:37 ... and then you're gone. [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 38:40 You know me? [laughing]

Joe Rogan 38:42 I know everybody!

Bradley Cooper 38:43 [laughing]

Joe Rogan 38:43 It's kind of the same thing with all of us.

Bradley Cooper 38:45 Yeah, of course, dude.

Joe Rogan 38:46 There's always a part of you-

Bradley Cooper 38:46 Yeah

Joe Rogan 38:46 ... like, "I think I can do better."

Bradley Cooper 38:48 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 38:48 And then next thing you know, like, "I gotta leave. I gotta go, go do a set."

Bradley Cooper 38:51 Right.

Joe Rogan 38:51 Like, what the fuck are you doing?

Bradley Cooper 38:52 Like, "What's going on?"

Joe Rogan 38:52 Like, this is-

Bradley Cooper 38:52 "Dad, I haven't eaten dinner." "No, no, no, no." [laughing]

Joe Rogan 38:55 [laughing] It's like all artistic pursuits, they can become an obsession, and they become an addiction, and they become a part of you. And then-

Bradley Cooper 39:03 Yeah

Joe Rogan 39:03 ... it's like your brain naturally goes towards that pathway of thinking about that thing all day.

Bradley Cooper 39:10 Yeah, which I love.

Joe Rogan 39:12 Oh, it's great-

Bradley Cooper 39:12 Yeah

Joe Rogan 39:12 ... if it's a fun thing.

Bradley Cooper 39:14 I remember being 11 and watching The Elephant Man and knowing at that moment... You okay?

Joe Rogan 39:18 Yeah, I'm sweating.

Bradley Cooper 39:19 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 39:19 Just gotta take this.

Bradley Cooper 39:20 Knowing at that moment that like, "Oh, this is what I wanna do for the rest of my life." B-

Joe Rogan 39:24 When you saw The Elephant Man?

Bradley Cooper 39:24 Yeah. [chuckles]

Joe Rogan 39:25 Really?

Bradley Cooper 39:25 Yeah, I remember-

Joe Rogan 39:26 Why was it that movie?

Bradley Cooper 39:28 I, I mean, I don't know. I mean, but if... I've thought about it a lot, obviously. Um, first, David Lynch directed it, and I remember the scene, Anthony Hopkins... I loved film, so I always loved film. My dad loved film. But it wasn't, like, a conscious thing where I was like, "This is it." And I remember, you know, in my living room, it's on the TV. I saw all the movies on the TV. You know, I never saw Apocalypse Now in a movie theater, or Godfather, or anything.

Joe Rogan 39:52 Right.

Bradley Cooper 39:52 Blazing Saddles, Longest Yard Runner, or, you know, it... None, none, none of it. It was all on the television. And, um, but I was watching The Elephant Man. It was on HBO. It came through Philadelphia, where I live, Comcast, and they would show, like, it all the time, and it was Anthony Hopkins coming in, and he's seeing, uh, Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man, for the first time. And the way David Lynch shot it, you only see his shadow, and then Hopkins starts crying, and I don't know, I was just like, I was there in that cellar with him, and I was like... I forgot I was in the living room. And then and the whole movie was like that, and I- it came out, and I was like: "I just want... I want that." So-

Joe Rogan 40:27 So was that, like, the first seed that was planted, you think?

Bradley Cooper 40:29 Yeah, that was it.

Joe Rogan 40:30 How old were you?

Bradley Cooper 40:31 It was the first and only. It was the... I was 11. It was like-

Joe Rogan 40:34 Wow!

Bradley Cooper 40:34 ... it was like, bam! It was like a shot.

Joe Rogan 40:37 There's a scene right here. So this-

Bradley Cooper 40:39 Yeah, it's right, it's right... It's this. This is it.

Joe Rogan 40:42 Oh, look how young Anthony Hopkins looks.

Bradley Cooper 40:49 Yeah, he looks- [clip from movie] Yeah, he was incredible.

Speaker 40:49 Stand up. Stand up! [heavy breathing] Turn around. Turn around. Turn around. [dramatic music]

Joe Rogan 41:29 Wow. [sighs]

Bradley Cooper 41:33 Wow.

Joe Rogan 41:34 So that was it.

Bradley Cooper 41:35 [exhales] Yeah. [exhales]

Joe Rogan 41:36 Wow.

Bradley Cooper 41:39 [exhales]

Joe Rogan 41:39 What is it like watching that now, like-

Bradley Cooper 41:41 Yeah

Joe Rogan 41:41 ... thinking that that-

Bradley Cooper 41:43 I-

Joe Rogan 41:43 ... planted a seed that-

Bradley Cooper 41:43 Yeah, I'm like-

Joe Rogan 41:44 ... changed your whole life?

Bradley Cooper 41:45 I'm like... Well, first I thought, "Wasn't it a shadow?" But that was before, and then I'm like, "Oh, yeah," and then, yeah, then I was just in it. Then all of a sudden, I was there. Then I was like, "Is Joe in it? Does he know what I'm talking about?"

Joe Rogan 41:53 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 41:53 And then I was... And then as my brain started going, the movie kept bringing me in it.

Joe Rogan 41:57 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 41:58 And then, then by the end, by that push-in, I was like, "I'm just watching this guy look at this thing for the first time," and then, "Fuck, look at this beast, Anthony Hopkins."

Joe Rogan 42:04 I wonder what he was looking at when he was crying.

Bradley Cooper 42:06 I know.

Joe Rogan 42:07 You know, because to be able to pull that out of your eyeballs-

Bradley Cooper 42:09 Oh, dude, and I wrote... So I went to grad school and moved to New York, wrote him a letter because our dean said somehow he knew him or he had, uh, he, he... I, uh, the, the school I went to, that I only got into because they let anybody in. [laughing]

Joe Rogan 42:22 [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 42:23 Um, they did that show, Inside the Actors Studio.

Joe Rogan 42:26 Oh, wow.

Bradley Cooper 42:26 Do you remember that on TV on Broadway?

Joe Rogan 42:28 Yeah, I remember that show.

Bradley Cooper 42:28 Yeah, and so our thesis was the show. There was, like, our, our... Not, like, our... There was a class that... But it was a class, like, technically a class. And so all these incredible people would come on, and Anthony Hopkins was there, and, and I was there for that. And then I wrote him a letter just telling him, and I asked, uh, James Lipton, that was his name, the dean.

Joe Rogan 42:48 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 42:49 And, uh, and then, then, you know, and then never, you know, I never heard from him ever. And then, um, you know, and now I know him, dude.... Do you know what I'm saying?

Joe Rogan 42:57 How weird!

Bradley Cooper 42:58 It's bro, it's crazy.

Joe Rogan 42:59 It's so weird, right?

Bradley Cooper 43:00 Oh, I, I- [chuckles]

Joe Rogan 43:02 I'd never get over that.

Bradley Cooper 43:03 Me neither-

Joe Rogan 43:04 Like, meeting-

Bradley Cooper 43:04 ... Ever!

Joe Rogan 43:06 Ever. [chuckles]

Bradley Cooper 43:06 And there's some guys, I don't know if you feel this way, too, but, like, there's some guys, like, then they become your friends, but still, I still feel a little bit of, like, extra energy when I'm around them.

Joe Rogan 43:17 Oh, yeah.

Bradley Cooper 43:17 Like, it'll never go away.

Joe Rogan 43:18 Right. Yeah, for sure.

Bradley Cooper 43:20 It's crazy.

Joe Rogan 43:21 For me, one of the big ones was Tarantino. Like-

Bradley Cooper 43:23 Oh, yeah

Joe Rogan 43:24 ... hanging out with Tarantino is-

Bradley Cooper 43:24 Yeah, that would be nuts

Joe Rogan 43:25 ... it's so odd. Going to dinner with him-

Bradley Cooper 43:27 Yeah, it's crazy

Joe Rogan 43:27 ... hanging out with him here, c- him coming to the club. He'd come hang at, hang out in the green room.

Bradley Cooper 43:32 That's nuts.

Joe Rogan 43:32 It's just weird. It's like, "That's Quentin Tarantino."

Bradley Cooper 43:35 Yeah. That's cra- yeah, and then, a- and it never goes away. As close as you get and as m- even when your brain's off, right? 'Cause that's always the litmus, is my brain off when I'm with the person?

Joe Rogan 43:43 Right, yeah.

Bradley Cooper 43:43 That's, like, when like, "Okay."

Joe Rogan 43:45 Right.

Bradley Cooper 43:46 And even, like, Clint Eastwood, who I did American Sniper with, I mean, it was always Clint Eastwood. And I got to a point where my brain was off, you know, but still, I'm just like, "What if my dad was alive?" [laughing]

Joe Rogan 43:57 [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 43:57 "If my dad was alive, he would flip the fuck out." [chuckles]

Joe Rogan 44:01 What was it like doing that scene with the fake baby?

Bradley Cooper 44:03 Oh, bro.

Joe Rogan 44:03 Was that weird?

Bradley Cooper 44:04 It's so funny.

Joe Rogan 44:04 [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 44:04 I was just talking about that two days ago, dude. And you know, I've come full circle.

Joe Rogan 44:10 Yeah?

Bradley Cooper 44:10 I actually think it's dope. [chuckles]

Joe Rogan 44:11 Really? [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 44:13 [laughing] I think it's fucking dope.

Joe Rogan 44:15 Why?

Bradley Cooper 44:15 Because it's so just like, "Wow, look at these people, fully invested, and it's a doll." [laughing] And he's-

Joe Rogan 44:23 Well, there's, like, a scene where you're, like, kinda, like, moving the hand-

Bradley Cooper 44:25 Yeah

Joe Rogan 44:25 ... a little bit with your finger.

Bradley Cooper 44:26 No, I, I could tell you the, I could tell you the whole thing, dude.

Joe Rogan 44:28 [exhales]

Bradley Cooper 44:28 So we had three sets of, uh, twins, and, uh, Clint likes to shoot fast, which I loved and love. And they were crying, and they weren't ready, and he was like, "You know what? Let's just, uh, let's put, let's put the doll in." [laughing]

Joe Rogan 44:42 [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 44:42 And I was like, "Okay." I was like, "All right."

Joe Rogan 44:44 [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 44:44 And, and, and I have the doll. And I remember, and I made a joke on set, and I was like, I was like, "Uh, I just saved you 35 grand," 'cause I moved his, his, uh, his hand with my thumb.

Joe Rogan 44:54 Yeah. [chuckles]

Bradley Cooper 44:54 You know, like, "I saved Visual Effects, like, 50 grand."

Joe Rogan 44:57 [chuckles]

Bradley Cooper 44:57 Like, made a joke about it. And then we got to post, and we were in Vancouver, uh, at the... doing the meeting. But you know, everybody defers to the boss, and I still remember being in a, in a room, and I'm... Like, a theater, we're watching, and they're like, "Okay, Clint, so we did this, and, uh, you know, the tank has dirt on it," and, you know, whatever visual effects they had done. We get to the baby, and they're like, "Okay, Clint, this is, uh, this scene," and it ends. And I'm literally behind Clint. I just see the back of his head, and I'm waiting for everybody to raise their hand. [chuckles]

Joe Rogan 45:27 [chuckles]

Bradley Cooper 45:28 Like, "We gotta spend more money and make, make the kid real."

Joe Rogan 45:31 [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 45:31 And, uh, I think the kid had, like, two fingers, too. Like, they weren't even... It was like an, "Hey, yeah, that's-"

Joe Rogan 45:35 There it is.

Bradley Cooper 45:36 "Yeah, that's it! That's me. I'm doing that."

Joe Rogan 45:38 [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 45:38 "That's it." [laughing]

Joe Rogan 45:41 [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 45:41 But dude, it's kinda dope. [laughing]

Joe Rogan 45:44 [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 45:44 I love it now. I've come full circle. So, so every- and I raised my hand, and I was like, "Clint, I just think that it's clear, you know, that that's not a b- baby."

Joe Rogan 45:54 [chuckles]

Bradley Cooper 45:54 "And what would... Do we, can we at least just find out what the cost would be?" And no one, and no one said anything, and then I remember he was like, "No, I think, I think we move on."

Joe Rogan 46:04 Wow! [chuckles]

Bradley Cooper 46:05 And that was it, dude.

Joe Rogan 46:06 [chuckles]

Bradley Cooper 46:06 And that was it, and I was like, "Okay. Okay."

Joe Rogan 46:08 [chuckles]

Bradley Cooper 46:09 And I remember talking to the other producer. I was like, "This is gonna come back." [laughing]

Joe Rogan 46:13 [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 46:13 I was like, "Bro, this is gonna come back to haunt us." And I remember he said, "No, Bradley, you're too close to the movie."

Joe Rogan 46:17 Oh. [chuckles]

Bradley Cooper 46:18 I was like, "I don't think so, dude." [chuckles]

Joe Rogan 46:19 No, everybody's like-

Bradley Cooper 46:20 Yeah

Joe Rogan 46:20 ... "Look, he's moving his thumb. This is crazy. That's a rubber baby."

Bradley Cooper 46:24 Crazy, dude. Then there's another one, too, when, like, I'm... Uh, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's crazy.

Joe Rogan 46:29 What is it like doing a film like that, where you're playing an actual human being? Is that, is that different than, like, a, a, like, a written character that has no physical body, that you, you, you can kind of become who you think the words represent?

Bradley Cooper 46:44 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 46:45 But when you're playing a guy like Chris Kyle, like, you're, you're playing an, a human.

Bradley Cooper 46:49 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 46:50 And you're trying to figure out a way to make it as realistic as possible, but you're acting. Like, what is that like?

Bradley Cooper 46:58 I mean, the, the thing that just popped in my head is the pressure. Is, is... It's like night and day. Because there are people that you have to, um, serve. You know, especially with Chris Kyle, we started making that movie, he was alive.

Joe Rogan 47:16 Wow.

Bradley Cooper 47:16 He got killed while we were... He was still negotiating with Warner Brother- Uh, no, I think he, they, we'd just closed his deal, and then he was murdered on February 2nd, I believe. And, uh, and it was just like, "Whoa!" And, um, and then but it... In fact, we were like, "Now we really gotta make this movie." And, um, and then Clint and I flew to Midlothian, Texas, and met with his family, and his widow, and his parents, and then the kids. And I had played, I pla- I did The Elephant Man. I did it as a play in my thesis in grad school, and then I did it at Williamstown, and then I actually did it in New York and London. So, and that, and I... Even though it's a long time ago, that was the first time I felt that responsibility, 'cause I actually loved that guy, Joseph Merrick, and I did t- and I felt that responsibility to him. So I had done something like that before.

Joe Rogan 48:02 Mm.

Bradley Cooper 48:03 But this was the first... This was the next time. It was massive, Joe, but I think that, that... It's like, you're always looking for, what's the fuel that's gonna allow me to work as hard as I can? And the fuel when you're playing a real person is, like, there's, like, four extra canisters or, like, vats of firepower for you to work hard.

Joe Rogan 48:23 Mm.

Bradley Cooper 48:23 Because you just... You know, you're looking across at the eyes of someone and say, "I'm gonna serve your son, or your husband, or your father." It's a major responsibility.

Joe Rogan 48:32 Maybe even more major because he's, now he's deceased.

Bradley Cooper 48:35 Yeah. It was, it was, it was mind-blowing. Um, but and it terrified me. And also, like, I'm 185 pounds at that point, from Northeast Philadelphia. This guy's from Midlothian, Texas, SEAL Team 3. You know, it's like, how... A- And, and the way Clint works, the way we did work, you know, uh, Kevin Lace, who was a SEAL Team 3 with Chris, was in the movie. He played Dauber. Jacob Schick, who was One Tribe, which is what I'm wearing, he was a Marine that in... Did you ever see American Sniper?

Joe Rogan 49:03 Yes.

Bradley Cooper 49:04 Yeah, m- there's that scene where he goes to the hospital, and there's all the guys that have been wounded. Jacob Schick is one of them. You know, so these are real guys. It's all real.... so I step in. You know, I've got to, I [chuckles] I'm gonna die unless I believe I'm Chris.

Joe Rogan 49:19 Right.

Bradley Cooper 49:19 Think, like, so I have to do whatever I can so that I believe I'm Chris. If I believe I'm Chris, then I have a shot at everybody else potentially going along with this illusion. I just have to, I have to be absolutely fearless when I walked on set. So I just... It just made me work so hard, that I had never worked hard. That if, if it's a created character, you know, it's, it's different. But it comes with a different set of challenges. You know, it depend- it just depends on what it is. But I do know, and then with Leonard Bernstein, I did the same thing, huge responsibility, like massive, that I felt-

Joe Rogan 49:53 Right

Bradley Cooper 49:54 ... to his kids.

Joe Rogan 49:55 Right. Right.

Bradley Cooper 49:55 To people that loved him. Um, but, but ma- mainly his kids, all three. His son has passed away since then, but his three kids are like, okay. You know, they're like handing you... You know, it's like if someone went to your daughter in 12 years and said, "Here's this movie about your father." Do you know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 50:11 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 50:12 You know?

Joe Rogan 50:12 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 50:13 And the, and this guy's sitting across and be like, "Okay, I'm gonna play your father." Uh, that's just a whole other thing. Because the truth is, like, if it's good, it's gonna last a long time, and it's gonna be a thing that marks their journey.

Joe Rogan 50:27 Right.

Bradley Cooper 50:27 So I'm a part of, whatever little part of Chris's journey. So you give somebody, you... The faith that whoever has the power to give to that artist is just, you know... So it just made me work. You know, like, you just, you just don't stop working till you get to the point where you believe you're him, or you believe that he's a part of you, something's working.

Joe Rogan 50:47 Did you meet Chris Kyle?

Bradley Cooper 50:48 Never. Just talked to him on the phone once.

Joe Rogan 50:50 Oh, wow!

Bradley Cooper 50:51 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 50:51 So what did you... Like, what, did you train to-

Bradley Cooper 50:55 Oh, yeah

Joe Rogan 50:55 Like, what did you do-

Bradley Cooper 50:56 Oh, yeah

Joe Rogan 50:56 ... to try to, like-

Bradley Cooper 50:57 Yeah. Well, here's... It's interesting, right? It's like, well, I couldn't do anything that would ever achieve what he achieved, but it's like, what can I do to look like a master, right? So there's three weapons, the .338 Lapua, the .50 cal, the, uh, the, uh, rifle. It's like, what can I do? How much time do I have? I think I had, like, six months. Also, luckily, we're the same shoe size, same age. He has a hole in his ear, I do. You find things that, like, you know, uh, uh, same height. I was like, "Oh, this is, this is great." Uh, and then I just, like... But he's 238 pounds, so the first thing was 6,000 calories a day, found a trainer, and just-

Joe Rogan 51:33 6,000?

Bradley Cooper 51:34 Yeah, 6,000 calories a day.

Joe Rogan 51:35 How did you force 6,000-

Bradley Cooper 51:36 Oh, first I did it with real food, and that was a big mistake. [laughing]

Joe Rogan 51:40 [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 51:41 'Cause I couldn't get up. I re- remember the first week I did it, I had an incredible chef, and, and, and then I would- I couldn't get up. Like, I couldn't move, like, I couldn't move my stomach. So then we, I think we split, like, half of it into protein shakes, but it was still 6,000 calories.

Joe Rogan 51:55 When you say you couldn't get up, like, what do you mean?

Bradley Cooper 51:57 Meaning my stomach wasn't able to process that much food. Yeah, whatever, whatever happened, I couldn't-

Joe Rogan 52:02 It was just getting blocked?

Bradley Cooper 52:03 Getting blocked. Like, major pain, like I was giving birth or something, what I would imagine. So then we'd change it, and it would be like huge meal, shake, huge meal, shake. Worked out twice a day, fi- I had three rest days, no cardio. It was all about strength training. Like, and then, and it was all focused around deadlifting.

Joe Rogan 52:22 Oh, okay.

Bradley Cooper 52:23 And, uh, it was this guy, Jason Walsh, who I worked with. And, um, and I did that... Yeah, so it would be, like, Monday to- Monday, 5:30 a.m., and then a 4:30 p.m. or, like, 3:30. Monday, Tuesday, rest Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, rest Saturday, Sunday, and did that. And I got up to 238 pounds, and a lot of it was, like, 'cause I was thinking about him, his neck, and he mi- so I gained, like, I would do all these, all the neck stuff, and it was his shoulders. Like, I just wanted so you could shoot over, and it's like, you know, which we did all the time in the movie, where the guy's just, you know, Chris.

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Joe Rogan 54:20 Um, how much weight did you gain?

Bradley Cooper 54:22 I went from 185 to 238.

Joe Rogan 54:24 Whoa!

Bradley Cooper 54:24 Yeah, and all naturally, 'cause I, cancer's in my family. I've had skin cancer, and, like, I'm terrified of anything. So I was, like, not gonna do that. Um, so, you know-

Joe Rogan 54:35 You take creatine or anything?

Bradley Cooper 54:36 I took creatine, yeah. Which, by the way, I just started again, like, three months ago.

Joe Rogan 54:40 Oh, it's amazing.

Bradley Cooper 54:40 Dude, [chuckles] I'm on this push-up thread with a bunch of dads at my school-

Joe Rogan 54:45 [chuckles]

Bradley Cooper 54:45 ... and we do 100 push-ups a day, and if we don't, you have to pay $10 into a pool, and then when we get to 800, we go to Chinatown, and I'll have a meal with the money. And then I started taking creatine, like, two and a half months ago, and, uh, we just upped it to 150. I was like, "This is..." 'Cause I could only do... And we'd, like, YouTube the perfect pushup, which I didn't know, which is, like, a whole other world. Uh, and then now it's like, it's, uh, I mean, creatine is incredible.

Joe Rogan 55:08 It's incredible, but for your brain as well.

Bradley Cooper 55:09 I know, I've, I've heard you say that.

Joe Rogan 55:11 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 55:11 Like, I can't tell that, 'cause I also take Zyns all the time, so it's like I don't know what's doing it. [laughing]

Joe Rogan 55:16 [laughs] Yeah, me too. I do the same thing.

Bradley Cooper 55:19 [laughs] Um, but, but, um... Yeah, where was I on the Chris thing?

Joe Rogan 55:23 You were talking about gaining weight and how you did it.

Bradley Cooper 55:24 Oh, yeah, ga- oh, yeah.

Joe Rogan 55:25 You went to 238?

Bradley Cooper 55:25 So then I worked with, and I worked with the guy who... So I was doing that in conjunction with, um, learning about sniping and, uh, working with Kevin Lace, this guy Dawber. We would go up to the Disney Ranch and work with, like, 600-yard head targets, prone, that I would just do all the time. And then we, then once we cast the rest of the team, we did all this stuff. But really, Kevin Lace, this guy Dawber, was the guy, 'cause he was there, and he was there through the whole shooting, just so everything would be real. And we just drilled it. We became a group. Like, you know, we did the work. But it wasn't so much about, like... I was like, "I have this amount of time." G- doing, like, SEAL boot camp will do nothing for me.

Joe Rogan 56:00 Right.

Bradley Cooper 56:00 Like, like, that, that'll just give me the brain of, like, how hard this is, and will I be broken? I've done this... Not that I couldn't have d- not maybe I would've been broken, but I felt like I do understand that. Like, I've been through certain things where, like, I understand what it's like to push myself to beyond my breaking point and what that looks like and feels like. What I don't know is when I'm looking at a target, and I have to factor in the, you know, the curve of the Earth.

Joe Rogan 56:24 Mm.

Bradley Cooper 56:25 You know, like, that's the stuff I want to learn.

Joe Rogan 56:27 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 56:27 Um, so that's where I focused, was those three weapons, sh- you know, live rounds, gaining the weight, so I felt like I was with-

Joe Rogan 56:35 ... Here we go. We're back.

Bradley Cooper 56:37 Um, it's like all of a sudden you're like, "Oh, you didn't take the drug?" [laughs]

Joe Rogan 56:41 [laughs]

Bradley Cooper 56:43 Do you, there's... You know what I'm saying?

Joe Rogan 56:44 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 56:45 [laughs] Um, like, "No, I'm not on it." [laughs] Um, and then, and then so it was those two things in conjunction.

Joe Rogan 56:52 The curve of the Earth is nuts-

Bradley Cooper 56:54 Yeah

Joe Rogan 56:54 -if you think about that.

Bradley Cooper 56:55 Dude, it's crazy.

Joe Rogan 56:55 Long-distance shots, you have to factor in-

Bradley Cooper 56:56 And then it's the fact that these guys stayed up-

Joe Rogan 56:58 ... the curve of the Earth

Bradley Cooper 56:58 ... 24 hours and would pee in their... You know, never get up to pee, just pee right there, right in the room. You know, o- o- o- I mean, I said, "No." And then, by the way, it's a human be- I mean, it's just-

Joe Rogan 57:06 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 57:06 Forget it. Um, and then just working with this guy, Tim Monich, on, like, his voice. To me, it's all, all, the voice is everything. It's all about the voice and, like, where he's from. And Chris was interesting because his accent started to change. You know, 'cause he, once he got out, and then he did that, um... He did a couple of shows. You know, he wrote that book-

Joe Rogan 57:24 Mm-hmm

Bradley Cooper 57:24 ... which is how I came across and then gave it to Clint. Um, so he had an interesting accent that kinda changed a little bit. Um, but yeah, just the voice, just hitting the voice. I would work this guy five days a week. You know, you know, and I had, I had tons of stuff. I had so much information that Taya Kyle had been so generous to give me, so many home videos, uh, you know, correspondence. You know, o- I, I used to work out to his... Which I just did the other day. I hadn't... It's so funny we're talking about this. I literally just did it two days ago, um, worked out to his playlist. I had both of his, uh, workout playlists.

Joe Rogan 57:58 Oh, wow!

Bradley Cooper 57:59 And I, and I ma- and I blew up two huge posters, and one was him just like this-

Joe Rogan 58:04 [laughs]

Bradley Cooper 58:04 ... and one with his gun. And I would do that and look at him o- every morning. It was just, like, this beautiful ritual that I felt like I was with him every day.

Joe Rogan 58:10 How long did you take to prepare?

Bradley Cooper 58:12 I th- I, I'd have to look back. I think I, I did it fast, but I think we had about six months or five months. But, like, you know, full-on, that's it, nothing else.

Joe Rogan 58:19 Right.

Bradley Cooper 58:19 I didn't have a kid back then. It was like, that was it.

Joe Rogan 58:21 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 58:22 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 58:23 That's... There's, there's something very unique about someone doing a film about an actual person.

Bradley Cooper 58:29 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 58:29 Like, a great actor doing... Like De Niro when he played, uh, Jake LaMotta-

Bradley Cooper 58:33 Yeah

Joe Rogan 58:33 ... in Raging Bull.

Bradley Cooper 58:34 Of course.

Joe Rogan 58:34 Like, that, [clears throat] that was one of the first... Like, I mean, he became-

Bradley Cooper 58:39 Yeah

Joe Rogan 58:39 ... a different person.

Bradley Cooper 58:40 Yeah. Yeah, you have to.

Joe Rogan 58:41 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 58:42 You have to. There's, like, a merging of you and that, whatever that idea or the soul, whatever, of the person. It sounds so hokey. You know, I get it. But if you ask me what my memory is of, of making Sniper, like, memory, like, on, in scenes, it's not that, like, uh, I was acting. It's just, that's not my memory.

Joe Rogan 59:03 What is the memory?

Bradley Cooper 59:04 Of, like, "Okay, now we're gonna do this," and it's, like, me as him doing it.

Joe Rogan 59:08 Wow.

Bradley Cooper 59:09 You know? That's, that's-

Joe Rogan 59:10 Is that a mind fuck when you stop, when, like, the movie wraps?

Bradley Cooper 59:14 Well, the good thing is you do it with Clint, who takes the piss out of fucking everything. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 59:17 Oh, does he?

Bradley Cooper 59:18 So yeah, so we would go to dinner at night. [laughs] And, uh, and I learned from Christian Bale in American Hustle, like, he just stayed in... 'Cause I didn't understand this, "stay in the character all the time." You know, you hear these stories, but you don't know what the real is. Like, how does that work? You see a cellphone, do you, like, lose your mind? Like, how do you-

Joe Rogan 59:33 [laughs]

Bradley Cooper 59:33 ... What is it? What, how do you do it?

Joe Rogan 59:35 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 59:35 And Bale, it's, it's like, oh, I overthought it. Bale would just stay... He was, played this character that's from New York in, in American Hustle. And I go in there, the first day I met him, he was his accent, and the rest of the movie, even, like, on weekends, it was the, it was him, Christian. And I could- we would talk about stuff and his kid, but he would just speak in that voice. And I was like, "Oh, it's that simple." Like, it's not some big thing. Like, once you get the voice-

Joe Rogan 59:58 That is weird, though.

Bradley Cooper 59:59 You know, but, but I took it, I mean, and it's wonderful. 'Cause then you feel like you're not acting, and you're in the voice.

Joe Rogan 1:00:03 Right.

Bradley Cooper 1:00:03 You're... And I'd do it all... Like, so, so I would be in that voice of Chris for the whole movie, and then we would go to, like, a restaurant when we were, like, up in Lancaster shooting or something, and Clint would then make fun of me and my accent as Chris and order a steak. And it was just-

Joe Rogan 1:00:16 [laughs]

Bradley Cooper 1:00:16 ... it was, it was great. Yeah. [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:00:18 He's fucking sabotaging your performance. [laughs] He's making you self-conscious. That's crazy.

Bradley Cooper 1:00:23 It was awesome.

Joe Rogan 1:00:24 That's crazy.

Bradley Cooper 1:00:25 Yeah. It was-

Joe Rogan 1:00:26 I, I always wondered what it's like to be around someone who's, like, method, whether, whether on-

Bradley Cooper 1:00:29 But I don't know that I... I wouldn't... You know, method is also a term that it, you know, it-

Joe Rogan 1:00:33 What does it mean?

Bradley Cooper 1:00:33 Well, the method, well, what hap- it started in Russia, right? And then, uh, um, you know, that book, uh, On Acting, that I should know, c- um, you know, what's his name? Uh, but he came, and then the group theater started, and it was like... You know, and all these people then disbanded, and there's Harry Berliner and there's... Yeah, Stanislavski, exactly. And there was this other guy, Vsevolod Meyerhold, that also talked about, uh, the, that every rehearsal... It, it's very interesting, and I read all this in grad school. And then the group theater came in, and then Elia Kazan was a huge part of it becoming popular because you had this guy that was sweeping floors at the Actor's Studio and then started directing plays, and then all of a sudden, he's a huge movie director. And he's putting Marlon Brando, who was part of the Actor's Studio, starring in his movies. You know, and, and he's doing... And so it all just sort of erupted. But then it branched out. And so there's people that are dogmatic about it, about it's only using your... You know, you're substituting, so if I'm doing a scene with you, like, you aren't you, you're my brother.... you know?

Joe Rogan 1:01:32 Right.

Bradley Cooper 1:01:33 But, but, but it's evolved into, it's like what works for you. To me, it's like you use your, your own experience plus your imagination, you know, but that's, that's the sort- that's the, you know, sort of a very layman's 50-second, uh, you know, telling of what the origin of the method is. But I went to the Actor's Studio, which is based in the method. That's where I went to grad school.

Joe Rogan 1:01:55 Um, i- is it easy?

Bradley Cooper 1:01:56 And it's very valuable, 'cause I didn't know shit before that. I mean, I did, I did a couple of plays at Georgetown. I didn't know any- I mean, I just loved acting, but I didn't do anything about it. I was terrified as a kid. Like, we did this thing in high school where we had to, as seniors, we would put on our show where we would make fun of our teachers, and I, like, I could do my Latin teacher, Mr. Burke. I was like... And I actually sang in it. We sang, and I was like... But I was terrified, Joe, for the whole year. Sleepless nights for a year leading up to it. That's how scared I was in public. I remember doing, like, a fifth grade presentation with the poster boards about Locke and Hobbes, and the poster shaking so hard 'cause I was-

Joe Rogan 1:02:30 [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 1:02:30 ... 'cause I was so nervous. I was like, "How am I gonna... What's this fear thing?"

Joe Rogan 1:02:33 Isn't that weird?

Bradley Cooper 1:02:34 I know. But then at, in college, I did a couple of plays, but I still didn't know what I was doing, but I loved it. And I was like, little stuff. I was like Asilon, the server in Dangerous Liaisons, but I still remember, like, I closed the door in a rhythm, rhythmic way, and people laughed. And I remember I was like, "Ooh." I was like, "This feels good."

Joe Rogan 1:02:51 [chuckles]

Bradley Cooper 1:02:52 And then, and then so I w- applied to grad school there, and then all of a sudden, it was like I got a huge foundation of, like, what I could do. You know, that your insecurities are actually your attributes, your fears are stuff that, you know, all this thing that you've... You're a sensitive kid, this is all good stuff, and I never felt that way before about any of that. And I had this teacher, Elizabeth Kemp, who was incredible, who then passed away in my house years later.

Joe Rogan 1:03:17 Oh.

Bradley Cooper 1:03:17 She got sick. Yeah, it's crazy.

Joe Rogan 1:03:19 Passed away in your house?

Bradley Cooper 1:03:20 Yeah, in Venice, California. Yeah, she was sick, so we put her hospice there, but, um, she was incredible. And she did this basic technique class, and it was the first time ever, 'cause I didn't, you know, grow up therapy or... and none of that was even, you know, in the vicinity of talking about your feelings. You know, my, I loved my dad, but I grew up in, you know, the '80s in Northeast Philadelphia with a Irish-Italian upbringing. That wasn't part of the deal. And, um, and then all of a sudden, in grad school with other guys and women, and we're, like, laying down, and she wants us to go through an experience of loss and betrayal when we were children. It's like, what the fuck? And actually, I could take all that stuff I've been ashamed of, and it, it, I could use it and bring it into art. I don't know, it really clicked with me-

Joe Rogan 1:04:02 Wow

Bradley Cooper 1:04:02 ... in a huge way. Um, so, and I use it even to this day. All the movies I do, I, I always get the actors together and do, like, a workshop for a week that's based on dreams that she also taught me, and I, I just find it invaluable. Any way you can just... How can I just get to a place where we're just talking to each other, and I don't, you know, what c- and then all this stuff I feel, it's okay.

Joe Rogan 1:04:23 Right. Right.

Bradley Cooper 1:04:24 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:04:25 When you're doing a guy like Chris, it, it must also be kind of easier to keep the accent than to try to reestablish it right before every scene.

Bradley Cooper 1:04:33 Joe, you just said it. It's a logical thing.

Joe Rogan 1:04:35 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:04:36 Th- that's it. It's a logical thing. The idea of me talking with an accent or even thinking that it's an accent, 'cause you don't think about it anymore. The whole point is I'm not doing an a- if I'm doing a scene with you, and I'm thinking about how I'm talking, it's over. It's a wrap.

Joe Rogan 1:04:50 Right.

Bradley Cooper 1:04:50 It's not real.

Joe Rogan 1:04:51 Right.

Bradley Cooper 1:04:51 But if I'm just talking to you, and it, it happens to be the voice that I've been working on for however long time, then we're in it. We got a shot.

Joe Rogan 1:04:59 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:04:59 And if I'm stopping it, there's no way I'm not thinking about [mimicking trilling] .

Joe Rogan 1:05:03 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:05:03 So yes, Joe, that is the reason.

Joe Rogan 1:05:06 You know what's a really underappreciated talent is voice actors who do audiobooks. I was watching a video of this guy, 'cause I never knew how they did it, and I kind of assumed that whenever they had to change accents, they probably had a pause, or they were, [clears throat] blah, blah, blah, did... But there's a, there's a video of a guy doing the voiceover for Lord of the Rings, the Lord of the Rings audiobook, and he goes into Smeagol, he goes into the Gollum character while he's doing narration. There's no break. He just smoothly transitions into Smeagol.

Bradley Cooper 1:05:40 [chuckles] It's great, it's great.

Joe Rogan 1:05:40 It's fucking incredible!

Bradley Cooper 1:05:42 Yeah, I know. It's nuts.

Joe Rogan 1:05:43 It, it is absolutely masterful and completely underappreciated.

Bradley Cooper 1:05:48 Yeah, I agree with you.

Joe Rogan 1:05:49 'Cause if you watch this guy do it, I, I, I don't know the gentleman's name, who's the voiceover actor, but I love audiobooks.

Bradley Cooper 1:05:56 Yes.

Joe Rogan 1:05:56 This, that guy. Listen to this guy.

Bradley Cooper 1:05:59 Oh, it's Andy Serkis?

Joe Rogan 1:05:59 Yes.

Bradley Cooper 1:06:00 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1:06:00 ... Smeagol was holding a debate with some other thought that used the same voice but made it squeak and hiss. A pale light and a green light alternated in his eyes as he spoke. "Smeagol-

Joe Rogan 1:06:21 [chuckles]

Speaker 1:06:21 ... you promised," said the first thought. "Yes. Yes, my precious," came the answer. [laughing]

Joe Rogan 1:06:33 [laughing] Amazing!

Bradley Cooper 1:06:35 That's great.

Joe Rogan 1:06:35 Fucking amazing.

Bradley Cooper 1:06:36 That is crazy.

Joe Rogan 1:06:37 Like, that... What a master!

Bradley Cooper 1:06:39 Yeah.

Speaker 1:06:39 You may have it.

Bradley Cooper 1:06:41 And you're talking about a master actor.

Joe Rogan 1:06:43 Yes.

Bradley Cooper 1:06:43 Yeah, you know, 'cause he's been in a lot of movies. He's directed. He directed that great movie, uh, that was like, uh, Jungle Book, a version of Jungle Book, that Christian Bale actually played the Panther, I believe. He's incredible, and I got to meet him. He, he's like, this guy's, like, a one-off generational talent. Yeah, he's insane.

Joe Rogan 1:07:00 You have to be-

Bradley Cooper 1:07:01 Yeah, yeah

Joe Rogan 1:07:01 ... to be that good-

Bradley Cooper 1:07:03 Yeah

Joe Rogan 1:07:03 ... at voiceover acting.

Bradley Cooper 1:07:03 Yeah, and he's just-

Joe Rogan 1:07:04 You have to be

Bradley Cooper 1:07:04 ... a great actor.

Joe Rogan 1:07:05 Yeah, you have to be.

Bradley Cooper 1:07:06 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:07:06 I mean-

Bradley Cooper 1:07:06 Yeah, I, I agree. And my mother watches this, uh... She'll kill me that I'm saying [laughing] this. My mother watches-- first of all, she loves Turkish, uh, soap operas, so she watches everything-

Joe Rogan 1:07:15 Turkish soap operas?

Bradley Cooper 1:07:16 Turkish. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:07:17 Why them specifically?

Bradley Cooper 1:07:19 I don't know. She just, she graduated from Hallmark into Turkish soap operas. [laughing]

Joe Rogan 1:07:23 [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 1:07:25 And she-

Joe Rogan 1:07:25 The Hallmark Channel! [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 1:07:27 ... And, uh, and then she's evolved even further. She just watches a screen where there's two people, AI images, and it's just a person telling a story. And I often, I'll come down making breakfast, 'cause when she stays with me in New York, she has the room down there, and I'll be, like, making my daughter breakfast, and I could hear it. Or I'll go to the bathroom, which is right next to her, and I'm always like, "Wow, these guys, these voice..." I mean, 'cause the guy's carrying it all. It's just an image, and she'll watch it for-... hours. [laughing]

Joe Rogan 1:07:52 [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 1:07:53 And I'm like: "What's gonna happen? Is he gonna make that- is the firm gonna hire him? Is she gonna- did she see the note?" [chuckles] Like, he's- it's ama- I was like, "Yeah, it's really an art form."

Joe Rogan 1:08:01 Turkish.

Bradley Cooper 1:08:02 Yeah. I remember the first time I came down, I was like, "Oh, no, what happened?" 'Cause I'm just hearing... I'm like, "What happened?" And I walk in, and I'm like: "Mom, what are you, what are you watching?" She's like, "Oh, no, this guy's the best actor in the world." [laughing]

Joe Rogan 1:08:14 [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 1:08:14 "This guy..." And so she just reads the subtitles.

Joe Rogan 1:08:16 [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 1:08:16 Yeah, she did it for, like, she's watched... It's called, um-

Joe Rogan 1:08:19 Oh.

Bradley Cooper 1:08:20 Oh, uh, oh. If you look up, uh... [exhales] He's a, oh, what's it called? Circle, uh, is it dove, bird, bird something? How could I forget it?

Joe Rogan 1:08:38 Early Bird?

Bradley Cooper 1:08:38 Oh, baby.

Joe Rogan 1:08:39 Is that it?

Bradley Cooper 1:08:39 Early Bird.

Joe Rogan 1:08:40 Early Bird?

Bradley Cooper 1:08:41 Oh, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:08:43 And- [chuckles]

Bradley Cooper 1:08:43 Oh, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:08:43 Explain this.

Bradley Cooper 1:08:44 So it's a soap o- it's a soap opera. There's, like, 360 episodes. She's watched them all, like-

Joe Rogan 1:08:49 [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 1:08:49 ... probably four times. [chuckles] And she'll come in, she'll, like, do-

Joe Rogan 1:08:53 [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 1:08:53 ... a marathon session, come in to make some food. She's like, "It's this guy, just the way he moves. This guy's the best actor."

Joe Rogan 1:09:00 Is- [chuckles]

Bradley Cooper 1:09:01 No, that's him. That's him. Yeah, that's him.

Joe Rogan 1:09:05 Is it speaking in Turkish with-

Bradley Cooper 1:09:07 Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:09:08 Let me hear this.

Bradley Cooper 1:09:08 Oh, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:09:08 Let me hear some of this. [footsteps]

Bradley Cooper 1:09:10 This looks like, um... Yeah, that's it. Yeah, there he is.

Speaker 1:09:14 ...

Bradley Cooper 1:09:18 Yeah, there he is.

Speaker 1:09:20 ...

Joe Rogan 1:09:22 And so she likes this, she, and she does the voiceover, she l- she reads the-

Bradley Cooper 1:09:26 No, so that's, that's, that was the middle stage. Now she's graduated to... It's different now, where she just watches two AI images, and it's an, a story.

Joe Rogan 1:09:34 [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 1:09:34 But she did this for a good, like, eight years.

Joe Rogan 1:09:37 But why is she-

Bradley Cooper 1:09:37 All through Covid.

Joe Rogan 1:09:38 Why was she into this?

Bradley Cooper 1:09:40 I don't know. She must have come across it one day on y- somewhere, and then that was it.

Joe Rogan 1:09:43 She just got hooked?

Bradley Cooper 1:09:44 Oh, I mean, hooked isn't even the word. Yeah. By the way, it's pretty good. [chuckles]

Joe Rogan 1:09:51 Is it?

Bradley Cooper 1:09:51 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:09:51 You watch it?

Bradley Cooper 1:09:52 Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he's great, and the, and the woman in it is great, too. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:09:56 Do you consume a lot of films? Do you watch a lot of acting?

Bradley Cooper 1:09:59 I watch a lot of everything.

Joe Rogan 1:10:00 Yeah?

Bradley Cooper 1:10:01 I love television, uh, films, and then, you know, like, eight months ago, I, I know I'm late to the game, came across, across podcasts. Yes.

Joe Rogan 1:10:10 Only eight months ago?

Bradley Cooper 1:10:11 Yeah, pretty much.

Joe Rogan 1:10:12 Wow.

Bradley Cooper 1:10:12 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:10:13 That's interesting.

Bradley Cooper 1:10:14 Isn't it? Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:10:15 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:10:15 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:10:15 What, what made you get into that?

Bradley Cooper 1:10:21 I can't remember, but it was your podcast, and I'm trying to think what it was. And then, and then it was like, oh, and then I came... And then, you know, once you watch something on, uh, your phone, it, like, suggests other things.

Joe Rogan 1:10:31 Mm-hmm.

Bradley Cooper 1:10:32 And, uh, and then you had two guys on that I thought were really interesting, and then they do a trigo- trigonometry.

Joe Rogan 1:10:37 Yeah, trigonometry.

Bradley Cooper 1:10:37 And I, and then I find that very fascinating.

Joe Rogan 1:10:39 Oh, they're great.

Bradley Cooper 1:10:40 Yeah, great.

Joe Rogan 1:10:40 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:10:40 And so that's how it just started. So now it's like a huge part of... Like, I have this whole little thing, like, like, often I'll go to bed and my daughter's listening to your voice. [chuckles] But I do put on headphones sometimes, 'cause I love, like, just at the end of the day, listening, listening or watching, I'll put it on the side table. Yeah, it's v- I- podcasts are incredible, and it's very soothing. Very soothing.

Joe Rogan 1:10:59 That's interesting. I hardly ever listen to them anymore.

Bradley Cooper 1:11:02 But I love-

Joe Rogan 1:11:02 I use to listen to them all the time

Bradley Cooper 1:11:03 ... I love TV, I love it. Yeah, I, I take in a lot of content, I guess.

Joe Rogan 1:11:06 Have you watched The Beast in Me on Netflix-

Bradley Cooper 1:11:09 I did

Joe Rogan 1:11:09 ... with Claire Danes?

Bradley Cooper 1:11:10 Oh, dude.

Joe Rogan 1:11:10 Holy shit, dude!

Bradley Cooper 1:11:12 Dude. Dude. And that guy, um, Keri Russell's husband, Ma- Matthew Rhys, dude.

Joe Rogan 1:11:18 The, the bad guy.

Bradley Cooper 1:11:19 Yeah, he's-

Joe Rogan 1:11:19 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:11:20 He's, he's-

Joe Rogan 1:11:20 How fucking good is that guy?

Bradley Cooper 1:11:22 So I did a movie with him years ago called Burnt, about a chef, and we had never met, and there's a scene where my character, he was trying to get sober, and he's- he went off the wagon, and he goes into this guy, their old nemesis, they were nemesis with each other, his restaurant at- after hours, and, um, it was, like, a pretty dark scene that we never met, the- me and this guy, this actor, right, before we shot. And I come in, and then, I don't know what was... I was pretty, it was- I was pretty locked in, and there's one scene which wasn't really scripted, and I took, you know, those sous vide bags, and I put it over my head to try to- 'cause he's trying to kill himself. Which, by the way, I was like: "Oh, this, this could work [laughing] if I don't get help." Those things are strong and tight. And then we had this experience, Joe, where then he was ripping it off me, trying to g- for me not to kill myself. And I don't know him that well, but we had... That's the thing about, like, making art together, like, we had that ex- W- it'll never... Every time I see him, I've seen him maybe six times at, like, certain things or s- something, I always feel like we're bonded forever, just based on this one experience that we had. And he's an incredible actor. He's just-

Joe Rogan 1:12:33 [chuckles]

Bradley Cooper 1:12:33 And he, and I... The end of that show, him in the end of that show-

Joe Rogan 1:12:36 Oh, God!

Bradley Cooper 1:12:36 Dude, just... And Claire Danes is like-

Joe Rogan 1:12:38 Off the charts.

Bradley Cooper 1:12:39 Did you see that show she did with Jesse Eisenberg?

Joe Rogan 1:12:42 What's that?

Bradley Cooper 1:12:42 Um, there's a, there's this another series she did-

Joe Rogan 1:12:45 Homeland?

Bradley Cooper 1:12:46 No, no, no.

Joe Rogan 1:12:47 No.

Bradley Cooper 1:12:47 It was like sh- Fleishman, the something with Fleishman.

Joe Rogan 1:12:50 Fleishman is in Trouble?

Bradley Cooper 1:12:51 Yeah, Fleishman. There's this-

Joe Rogan 1:12:52 No!

Bradley Cooper 1:12:53 Yeah. Oh, she's incredible in that, too.

Joe Rogan 1:12:54 What is-

Bradley Cooper 1:12:54 There's a scene where she's basically having a, a mental breakdown, and you're watching, and you're like, "This, this can't be acting." Yeah, it's that show.

Joe Rogan 1:13:01 Fleishman is in Trouble.

Bradley Cooper 1:13:02 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:13:02 It's on FX? I never even heard of this.

Bradley Cooper 1:13:05 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:13:06 It's really good?

Bradley Cooper 1:13:07 Yeah, I li- I enjoyed it, but... And I enjoyed her at the end. There's one scene that, like, really rocked me, where I just fully... You know, I mean, that's just like, I just saw this movie, Hamnet. I don't know if you guys saw that or not.

Joe Rogan 1:13:16 No.

Bradley Cooper 1:13:18 Th- that's what I love about movies. So Jesse Buckley in this movie, it's... She's basically playing, like, the most difficult role ever, the loss and all that stuff. And I fully, Joe, full- I'm watching it, sitting there, fully believing that this person is going through this. Do you know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 1:13:34 Yes.

Bradley Cooper 1:13:34 And, like, when you do that, when I believe that you're actually going through it, I mean, that's it. That's... And, like, that- her performance in that movie is so amazing.

Joe Rogan 1:13:43 She's so good, dude.

Bradley Cooper 1:13:44 Dude, dude.

Joe Rogan 1:13:44 In, in The Beast in Me-

Bradley Cooper 1:13:46 Are you talking about Claire Danes or Jesse Buckley now?

Joe Rogan 1:13:46 Jesse, Jesse.

Bradley Cooper 1:13:47 Uh-

Joe Rogan 1:13:47 No

Bradley Cooper 1:13:48 ... well, both.

Joe Rogan 1:13:48 Claire Danes, yeah. [chuckles]

Bradley Cooper 1:13:49 Claire Danes and Jesse Buckley.

Joe Rogan 1:13:50 Yeah, they're both amazing.

Bradley Cooper 1:13:51 But, but Claire Danes is so good in The Beast in Me. There, there's, there's moments where-

Joe Rogan 1:13:55 Oh, yeah

Bradley Cooper 1:13:55 ... like, her fucking lips are trembling, and-

Joe Rogan 1:13:57 No, it's nuts, dude.

Bradley Cooper 1:13:57 No, she's touched. She's like-

Joe Rogan 1:13:58 Her eyes are darting back

Bradley Cooper 1:14:00 ... she's on another level.

Joe Rogan 1:14:00 Yeah, right, touched.

Bradley Cooper 1:14:00 She's on a-

Joe Rogan 1:14:01 Right?

Bradley Cooper 1:14:01 She's touched.

Joe Rogan 1:14:02 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:14:02 Yes, no question.

Joe Rogan 1:14:03 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:14:03 No question, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:14:05 ... she locks in in this very crazy way. She was great in fucking Homeland, too.

Bradley Cooper 1:14:09 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:14:09 She's-

Bradley Cooper 1:14:10 I never saw Homeland.

Joe Rogan 1:14:10 Oh, it's great. It's really good. She just locks in. She locks in-

Bradley Cooper 1:14:15 Yeah

Joe Rogan 1:14:15 ... in this very strange way, where you fucking 100% believe her.

Bradley Cooper 1:14:19 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:14:20 Like, believe it behind the eyes.

Bradley Cooper 1:14:21 It's the greatest.

Joe Rogan 1:14:22 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:14:22 I mean, that, I mean, that's what... That, that's the heroine for me-

Joe Rogan 1:14:24 Mm-hmm

Bradley Cooper 1:14:24 ... in this industry.

Joe Rogan 1:14:25 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:14:25 It's like, when you're, when you're around and you're creating this thing, and it's just... And all of a sudden, it's like, "Whoa!"

Joe Rogan 1:14:29 Yeah. Yeah, it's-

Bradley Cooper 1:14:30 You're like, "Holy shit, it's happening."

Joe Rogan 1:14:32 But it's like, I had this conversation with Ethan Hawke. I was... 'Cause I was asking him about there, there's-

Bradley Cooper 1:14:37 But I felt like that with Will, just real quick. You know, that vampire scene, that's how-- 'cause I was sh- I was operating it, right?

Joe Rogan 1:14:42 Right.

Bradley Cooper 1:14:42 I, I, I don't know how you felt watching it, the scene-

Joe Rogan 1:14:44 But when he was on stage, yes.

Bradley Cooper 1:14:45 At the very end.

Joe Rogan 1:14:46 Yes, yes, yes.

Bradley Cooper 1:14:47 I was like-

Joe Rogan 1:14:48 Yes

Bradley Cooper 1:14:48 ... I fully believed it.

Joe Rogan 1:14:49 Yes.

Bradley Cooper 1:14:49 And it... And those peo- And then when I went to the audience, and they're just like-

Joe Rogan 1:14:53 Right

Bradley Cooper 1:14:53 ... 'cause they didn't know what the fuck's going on.

Joe Rogan 1:14:55 Right. Right.

Bradley Cooper 1:14:56 Like, that was one of those moments I had on this movie where I was like, "Oh, my man is locked-

Joe Rogan 1:15:00 Yeah

Bradley Cooper 1:15:00 ... the fuck in."

Joe Rogan 1:15:01 Oh, 100%. Yeah, 100%. It was very uncomfortable for me. [laughs]

Bradley Cooper 1:15:04 You felt that? [laughs]

Joe Rogan 1:15:05 Yeah. Yes!

Bradley Cooper 1:15:06 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:15:06 Oh, 100%.

Bradley Cooper 1:15:07 Oh, good.

Joe Rogan 1:15:07 Definitely. The, I was... I have this conversation with Ethan Hawke about that. I go, "What is happening when I believe someone?" Like, I was talking about the scene in, um, that movie with him and Julia Roberts, the, about the end of the world.

Bradley Cooper 1:15:19 Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, of course.

Joe Rogan 1:15:20 There's a, there's a scene with him and Kevin Bacon.

Bradley Cooper 1:15:24 Yeah, when they go to the house.

Joe Rogan 1:15:25 Yes.

Bradley Cooper 1:15:25 And also, uh, there's three guys in that scene.

Joe Rogan 1:15:28 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:15:28 Um... Oh, my God.

Joe Rogan 1:15:29 I know-

Bradley Cooper 1:15:29 He's amazing. Yeah, from Moonlight, and he's been in tons of stuff. Gr- uh, uh, Green Book. I know him.

Joe Rogan 1:15:36 Yeah, J- Jamie will pull it up. I can't... I'll fuck his name up if I pronounce it.

1:15:40 Sorry.

1:15:41 What is it?

1:15:42 Sorry, while I'm working.

1:15:43 Um...

1:15:46 Oh, uh, it's, uh, Mahershala Ali.

1:15:47 That's it.

Bradley Cooper 1:15:48 Mahershala Ali.

Joe Rogan 1:15:48 Mahershala Ali.

Bradley Cooper 1:15:49 Yes.

Joe Rogan 1:15:49 Um, d- I believe it. I know that's Kevin Bacon. I know that's Ethan Hawke.

Bradley Cooper 1:15:54 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:15:54 I believe he's gonna shoot him.

Bradley Cooper 1:15:55 Yeah, no question.

Joe Rogan 1:15:56 I believe it.

Bradley Cooper 1:15:56 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:15:56 Like, I go, "What is that?"

Bradley Cooper 1:15:57 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:15:57 "Like, what is going on?" I go, " 'Cause is it k- k-..." It's almost like a form of hypnosis.

Bradley Cooper 1:16:03 Yes.

Joe Rogan 1:16:03 And he's like, "Yes."

Bradley Cooper 1:16:04 Yeah, that's it.

Joe Rogan 1:16:05 "Yeah, yeah, you have to actually be there. You actu- you have to actually be there. Like, yeah, you're saying the lines you're supposed to say, but what's happening is, like, you really are there. You really believe it, and that... If you don't believe it, the audience doesn't believe it." And we've all been there before. Like, one time, I ate an edible, and I went to go see, uh, one of those M- Marvel movies, and, uh, in the mid... I was, I was really high.

Bradley Cooper 1:16:30 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:16:30 And while I was watching the movie, I'm like, "This guy's acting." [laughs] You know, it's just like-

Bradley Cooper 1:16:36 Of course

Joe Rogan 1:16:37 ... it just made, you know-

Bradley Cooper 1:16:38 No, I-

Joe Rogan 1:16:38 ... when you're really sensitive and tuned in-

Bradley Cooper 1:16:40 I get angry, 'cause I'm like, "I wanna, I wanna go on the ride." I, I'm, like, the best watcher, 'cause I want, I want, when that thing starts-

Joe Rogan 1:16:45 Yes

Bradley Cooper 1:16:45 ... I wanna go on the ride.

Joe Rogan 1:16:46 I wanna go on the ride.

Bradley Cooper 1:16:47 Yes.

Joe Rogan 1:16:48 Like, like him and Denzel in Training Day.

Bradley Cooper 1:16:51 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:16:51 Like, that... There's a v- a few scenes where you're like, "Okay, this is really-

Bradley Cooper 1:16:54 Oh, yeah

Joe Rogan 1:16:55 ... this is happening."

Bradley Cooper 1:16:55 Especially in the, in the car.

Joe Rogan 1:16:56 Yes!

Bradley Cooper 1:16:57 Yeah, dude.

Joe Rogan 1:16:57 That's the one.

Bradley Cooper 1:16:57 Oh, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:16:58 This is really happening.

Bradley Cooper 1:16:59 Yes.

Joe Rogan 1:16:59 Like, this is real.

Bradley Cooper 1:17:01 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:17:01 And like-

Bradley Cooper 1:17:01 Ethan Hawke's so good in that movie.

Joe Rogan 1:17:02 Yeah. He's re- he's great.

Bradley Cooper 1:17:04 Yeah, he's great in everything.

Joe Rogan 1:17:05 But-

Bradley Cooper 1:17:06 But he's sick in that movie.

Joe Rogan 1:17:07 But he's also, when you talk to him, you realize, "Okay, this is an actual artist."

Bradley Cooper 1:17:11 Yeah, he's a unique dude.

Joe Rogan 1:17:12 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:17:13 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:17:13 He's not a guy who's, like, trying to be a movie star.

Bradley Cooper 1:17:15 No, no, no.

Joe Rogan 1:17:15 He's an artist that does movies.

Bradley Cooper 1:17:18 Yeah, but I don't know how many people... I don't know. It's like, how many comedians who just wanna be famous are gonna l- I, I don't even know how you could do it. You have to love it.

Joe Rogan 1:17:26 Right.

Bradley Cooper 1:17:26 It's just too hard. W- that's not enough of a fuel.

Joe Rogan 1:17:30 No.

Bradley Cooper 1:17:30 It's n- it's not. That w- h- how... That's just not enough fuel.

Joe Rogan 1:17:32 It won't take you far enough.

Bradley Cooper 1:17:33 It's just not a fuel to keep doing it.

Joe Rogan 1:17:35 Right.

Bradley Cooper 1:17:36 Because if you don't love it, I think you would find it monotonous, and maybe boring, and tedious, and inconsequential.

Joe Rogan 1:17:42 You're going on a road trip with an eighth of a tank of gas. You're not gonna make it.

Bradley Cooper 1:17:46 You're not gonna make it.

Joe Rogan 1:17:46 You're stomping on the gas and-

Bradley Cooper 1:17:47 Yeah

Joe Rogan 1:17:47 ... trying to pull out of the parking lot, but it's not that.

Bradley Cooper 1:17:49 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:17:50 It's a long drive.

Bradley Cooper 1:17:51 And my experience in the 26 years that I've been in this is, like, most of the people, if not all, that I've worked with, they love it.

Joe Rogan 1:17:58 Yes.

Bradley Cooper 1:17:58 They love it.

Joe Rogan 1:17:59 They have to.

Bradley Cooper 1:18:00 Otherwise, uh, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:18:02 If you wanna be great at something, you have to love it.

Bradley Cooper 1:18:03 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:18:04 I can't, I can't imagine-

Bradley Cooper 1:18:06 There's no point.

Joe Rogan 1:18:06 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:18:06 'Cause it's not even that you want... Yes, you wanna be great at it, but you just love doing it.

Joe Rogan 1:18:09 Right. Right.

Bradley Cooper 1:18:10 That's it!

Joe Rogan 1:18:11 Right.

Bradley Cooper 1:18:11 It's just-

Joe Rogan 1:18:11 And the love is how it becomes great.

Bradley Cooper 1:18:13 And then the fear is when you get famous or people get popular early, that can be confusing because you start to have, like, um, "I have to maintain a certain..." You start getting careful. Like, I was thinking about when you said, like, "What is that thing when it's just, it's hypnosis?" The key to that is willing to fail. That's what I learned-

Joe Rogan 1:18:33 Mm

Bradley Cooper 1:18:34 ... as an actor, is like, "Oh yeah, just don't take it too seriously. Here we go."

Joe Rogan 1:18:39 Mm.

Bradley Cooper 1:18:39 "We're rolling the camera. We can fuck... Let's just... Here, let's see what happens. I'm gonna go out on a limb. Maybe it won't work," but, like, yeah, be willing to, like, completely fail.

Joe Rogan 1:18:48 Yeah, willing to fail.

Bradley Cooper 1:18:48 And the minute you do that, it's like, oh, and all of a sudden, there's this reservoir of space in your head and your soul to actually create even more of an, of an imaginary circumstances.

Joe Rogan 1:19:01 Mm.

Bradley Cooper 1:19:01 Now, if you haven't done your work, you're fucked anyway.

Joe Rogan 1:19:03 Right.

Bradley Cooper 1:19:04 But, like, but once you're there, it's like, once you're like, "Oh yeah, everybody, we can just fail. Let's just, let's just fail"-

Joe Rogan 1:19:09 How do you p-

Bradley Cooper 1:19:10 Does that make sense? Do you know what I'm saying?

Joe Rogan 1:19:11 It 100% makes sense. It makes sense because the only way you're gonna really find out what it is, is to, like, try it all kinds of ways.

Bradley Cooper 1:19:18 Yes. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:19:19 That we... I was just having the conversation, you know, Brian Callen, our mutual friend, uh, he, he texted me last night. He's like, "I got a new bit, and I just ate a dick. I have to go up on stage with it tonight. It's fucking terrible." He goes, "But I know there's something in there." And we were, we were talking on the phone right before the show. He's like, "Dude, my fucking new bit just bombed. It ate dick last night. I don't know what to do. I go, but I know there's something there." It's like, you've got to be willing to bomb. You gotta be willing to eat a dick.

Bradley Cooper 1:19:45 If you don't, I don't know how... I, yeah, I don't know any... If you're careful, you're, it's, you're, it's over.

Joe Rogan 1:19:50 You can't.

Bradley Cooper 1:19:51 Careful is death.

Joe Rogan 1:19:52 I talked to Chris Rock once, and he told me that that bit that he did, that was one of his all-time classic blip- bits, "I love Black people, I hate N-word."

Bradley Cooper 1:20:00 Right. Right.

Joe Rogan 1:20:00 He goes, "That bit bombed for, like, a year."

Bradley Cooper 1:20:03 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:20:04 [laughs] He couldn't get, couldn't get it to work. He's like, "I know there's something in there, but I have to find it."

Bradley Cooper 1:20:10 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:20:10 "And it took a fucking year."... and think about, we're talking about a year of going up at the Store, going up at the Improv, going here, going to the Laugh Factory, going here, going there. Fuck! Pulling your hair out. Fuck! Trying to figure it out. A fucking year, man.

Bradley Cooper 1:20:25 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:20:25 Uh, uh, and when you're Chris Rock, you're already Chris Rock.

Bradley Cooper 1:20:29 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:20:29 And you, for... You know, you could talk about getting your dick sucked, you could talk about something, people will laugh. And you're like, "I think there's something here. I gotta grind this fucking thing down-

Bradley Cooper 1:20:38 Yeah

Joe Rogan 1:20:38 ... until I get an edge to it." And it took him a year.

Bradley Cooper 1:20:41 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:20:42 Like, you have to be willing to fuck around.

Bradley Cooper 1:20:44 And to suffer through all that.

Joe Rogan 1:20:46 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:20:46 And enjoy the suffering. You start to like... Once, once you do it enough, fail enough in front of people, it starts to be easier.

Joe Rogan 1:20:54 Yeah, and then you come out on the other end, and you're like, [exhales] -

Bradley Cooper 1:20:56 Yeah, and I'm still alive.

Joe Rogan 1:20:57 Glad I did it.

Bradley Cooper 1:20:57 I'm still alive.

Joe Rogan 1:20:57 Yeah, glad I did it.

Bradley Cooper 1:20:58 Yeah, but this wasn't as big as I thought.

Joe Rogan 1:20:59 No.

Bradley Cooper 1:21:00 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:21:00 And then you have to do it again. That's... And then you put out a special, and then once you put out a special, you start from scratch, and then you're fucking terrified. 'Cause now you're a famous comedian with no material-

Bradley Cooper 1:21:11 Right

Joe Rogan 1:21:11 ... or terrible material, and you have to figure out a way to make it good.

Bradley Cooper 1:21:14 And that plays into what I was talking about, like, when you have- when you've achieved something, and then there's that pressure you put on yourself that it has to be that good or better.

Joe Rogan 1:21:22 Right.

Bradley Cooper 1:21:23 And then all of a sudden, you're in a different game-

Joe Rogan 1:21:25 Mm-hmm

Bradley Cooper 1:21:26 ... than, than just, like, the doing. I think that that-

Joe Rogan 1:21:29 Well, the play it safe game is the scariest game.

Bradley Cooper 1:21:31 Or yeah, or, or somehow think that it's, it's somehow that controllable. 'Cause really, all this stuff we're talking about, it's really kind of out of our control.

Joe Rogan 1:21:40 Mm-hmm.

Bradley Cooper 1:21:40 You know, when it's working, I don't feel in control at all.

Joe Rogan 1:21:43 Right. You feel like a passenger.

Bradley Cooper 1:21:44 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:21:45 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:21:45 And that's, by the way, that's the high.

Joe Rogan 1:21:47 Uh-huh.

Bradley Cooper 1:21:48 There's nothing fun about controlling everything.

Joe Rogan 1:21:49 Right.

Bradley Cooper 1:21:49 There's no fun in that. But when you're like, "Whoa, wait a second. What's happening?"

Joe Rogan 1:21:53 Like, the zone is-

Bradley Cooper 1:21:54 The zone

Joe Rogan 1:21:54 ... being a passenger.

Bradley Cooper 1:21:55 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:21:55 It's like being an observer of something.

Bradley Cooper 1:21:57 Sports, too.

Joe Rogan 1:21:58 Right.

Bradley Cooper 1:21:58 I think it, it works in every field.

Joe Rogan 1:21:59 Oh, yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:21:59 It's like they, they, they talk about it, you know? It's like, yeah, that's it.

Joe Rogan 1:22:03 Oh, yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:22:03 That's it. And it just takes a ton, a year of doing the thing, you know? Because there are moments that I can even think of where... 'Cause you do think, like, "That's okay. It doesn't matter." There are a couple where, like, actually, if this moment doesn't work out, [chuckles] like, it may not be over, but you're definitely gonna go down along the ladder.

Joe Rogan 1:22:19 Yes.

Bradley Cooper 1:22:20 You know?

Joe Rogan 1:22:20 Yes.

Bradley Cooper 1:22:20 And it's like, okay, and that's, that pressure, you know? Yeah. You gotta love it.

Joe Rogan 1:22:26 How do you pick a project? Like, how do you decide what you wanna do, and how much time do you spend deliberating on it?

Bradley Cooper 1:22:33 Mm.

Joe Rogan 1:22:36 'Cause you're in a unique position where you can do a lot of things.

Bradley Cooper 1:22:39 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:22:39 You can kind of do whatever you want. So it's like, what gets your juices going? Like, how do you decide what to do?

Bradley Cooper 1:22:47 It's all about, um, something igniting in me that, uh... Like, for example, uh, when I was little, I thought, like, I- al- obsessed with Vietnam. I was obsessed as a kid.

Joe Rogan 1:23:00 With what?

Bradley Cooper 1:23:00 Vietnam.

Joe Rogan 1:23:00 Vietnam.

Bradley Cooper 1:23:00 The War in Vietnam. And my math teacher was a, was a recon in, in Vietnam, Bill Calm, and I was, like, obsessed with this guy, and he, he was fascinating. Fascinating. He was a pole vaulter, and he... That was his cue for the chalkboard, was a broken, one of his broken pole vault, um, sticks.

Joe Rogan 1:23:18 Oh, wow!

Bradley Cooper 1:23:19 And he would always... And he always wore sweatpants, and he would lean against the thing. So all day long, half of his sweatpants would be full of chalk. [chuckles] And he would always smoke cigarettes on the athletic field and stand on the bench, and so he'd always be perched there. And like my dad, he would never put out his butts. He would always save them. So he always smelled like, like tobacco, his hands. And I... And then my f- this other guy, ca- his father came and talked about this book, Guns Up, which is an incredible book about a machine gunner in Vietnam. So, and then I asked my dad if I could go to the military academy. Like, I would do something, and then like, uh, uh, you know, Thin Red Line destroyed me-

Joe Rogan 1:23:55 Mm

Bradley Cooper 1:23:55 ... the Terrence Malick movie, and Apocalypse Now-

Joe Rogan 1:23:57 Great fucking movie

Bradley Cooper 1:23:57 ... I was, like, obsessed with, and all these films. Um, and so I always wanted to do something about pl- I always felt like I had a love enough and an interest enough that playing a soldier would be something that I felt like I had a reservoir. So that led me to Chris.

Joe Rogan 1:24:12 Wow.

Bradley Cooper 1:24:13 That was that. Um, it's all specific things. It was just Joseph Merrick, you know, the Elephant Man. Like, when I was... I had no money, and I took a... I got a one- I Tower Air, went to London, uh, and, like, w- tracked his, his steps at Hospital Road and where he went out, just 'cause I was obsessed with this guy, Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man.

Joe Rogan 1:24:30 Mm-hmm.

Bradley Cooper 1:24:31 And then it wound up, you know, then making it, you know, doing the play at Broadway, where they originated it, you know? And then, um, A Star Is Born was really about... I just love... I l- I always wanted to direct. I don't think I dreamt that big, but I, I really realized, what I loved about the process of the industry I'm in is the making of it. I never felt like I fit in just acting. I never felt like I thought... Like, at the first... Like, like you, like, I went to LA with a job. Like, I went to grad school in New York. I thought I'd just be a theater actor if I was lucky. If I could make a living as an actor, I... This is a home run. My dad was terrified, you know, 'cause he came from North Philadelphia, only guy to come out of the neighborhood, kind of. There were a couple other guys. But then he became a stockbroker, and then his son's gonna do acting- [clears throat] ... and be 70 grand in debt, uh, in grad school. You know, Fannie Mae, thank God. But, like, you know, and I didn't know if I was gonna pay it off. And, uh, but, but that said, I, we, we grew up, like, upper-middle class, but still, I was like, "I'm paying for grad school." I took a loan out, and then... So he was terrified. And then I got a job on this show, Alias, that brought me to LA. But the minute I got there, I didn't know anything about check the gate. I knew nothing. You know what I mean? [chuckles] I knew nothing. I just loved movies. And so I was obsessed, Joe. Obsessed. I would go in the editing room, and I found out, like, very hard when I was... When I went there, I got very depressed. I was like, "This is high school all over again."

Joe Rogan 1:25:49 Me too.

Bradley Cooper 1:25:50 Holy, holy.

Joe Rogan 1:25:50 That's exactly how I felt.

Bradley Cooper 1:25:51 I was like, "What the..." I mean, I could... I went to grad school. I'm in New York City. There's guys that I can relate to and talk about movies. I was in heaven. Then I get this job that I think is gonna be the Holy Grail, and I'm miserable. [chuckles] Living in the first floor of this woman's house-

Joe Rogan 1:26:06 [chuckles]

Bradley Cooper 1:26:06 ... just like-... it was crazy. I was like, "I didn't know I could be this depressed." I mean, depressed, like, I need water, and, like, the idea of going to the Rite Aid on, um, on, uh, Sunset and, and Fairfax was, like, too much.

Joe Rogan 1:26:20 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:26:21 And, uh, yeah, that was rough.

Joe Rogan 1:26:23 It's depressing-

Bradley Cooper 1:26:24 Yeah

Joe Rogan 1:26:24 ... when you first go, especially when you're in that-

Bradley Cooper 1:26:26 Well, I just couldn't get in-

Joe Rogan 1:26:27 cold, weird environment-

Bradley Cooper 1:26:29 Yeah

Joe Rogan 1:26:29 ... of people.

Bradley Cooper 1:26:29 And you, and no one, just no- and I was on a show that was awesome, and everybody's exploding, and, like, no one. It was like, "Who the g- who's this guy?" So that, not only that I'm there, and then everybody's like, you know... I'm just like, you know, a ghost.

Joe Rogan 1:26:41 Right, right, right.

Bradley Cooper 1:26:41 So there's that. So your insecurity is just pr- you know, exemp- is, is just, you know, astronomical.

Joe Rogan 1:26:47 It was, for me, it was also one of the first times that I ever moved somewhere where I didn't know anyone.

Bradley Cooper 1:26:51 I, me too. I knew nobody. J.J. Abrams hired me, and, and then Berky, this guy, was the only guy that I knew, that he'd introduced me to, and then I met Jennifer Garner, was, like, the second person I met, and then, yeah, I didn't know anybody.

Joe Rogan 1:27:04 It's weird.

Bradley Cooper 1:27:05 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:27:06 I remember I was on the set of the show-

Bradley Cooper 1:27:08 Oh, Brian Klugman, I did know that guy. He was, like, one of my best friends on that.

Joe Rogan 1:27:11 Oh, he's great.

Bradley Cooper 1:27:11 You know Brian Klugman?

Joe Rogan 1:27:12 No, I know who he is, though.

Bradley Cooper 1:27:13 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:27:13 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:27:13 He's, we, we grew up since we were, like, nine.

Joe Rogan 1:27:15 Oh, wow.

Bradley Cooper 1:27:15 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:27:16 Um, I was on the set of this show, and, um, a girl gave me a hug, and I realized no one had touched me in weeks.

Bradley Cooper 1:27:23 [laughing]

Joe Rogan 1:27:24 And the hug she gave me, I was like, "Ah." It, it was like, uh, my battery got recharged.

Bradley Cooper 1:27:29 Seriously.

Joe Rogan 1:27:29 Like, I didn't-

Bradley Cooper 1:27:30 Yeah

Joe Rogan 1:27:30 ... realize I needed a hug.

Bradley Cooper 1:27:31 Yeah. Yeah, isolation.

Joe Rogan 1:27:32 You know, people, people say, "Do you need a hug?" Like, I never thought, like, "Nobody needs a hug."

Bradley Cooper 1:27:35 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:27:36 No, I fucking needed a hug.

Bradley Cooper 1:27:37 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:27:37 I got a-

Bradley Cooper 1:27:37 I was very similar.

Joe Rogan 1:27:38 She's like, "Give me a hug!"

Bradley Cooper 1:27:39 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:27:39 She hugged me, I was like, "Oh, thank you."

Bradley Cooper 1:27:42 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:27:42 I felt so good. It's, it's weird. It's a weird feeling.

Bradley Cooper 1:27:45 It's a, it's a hell of a place to go.

Joe Rogan 1:27:47 Oh.

Bradley Cooper 1:27:48 It is, like, it... Wow!

Joe Rogan 1:27:50 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:27:50 Yeah, I, I had a hard time.

Joe Rogan 1:27:52 Well, the whole environment of LA is so strange because you have the primary industry... If, if it's not the primary industry, it's most certainly driving all unders, uh, all other industries, is a bunch of people trying to make it, right? So it's a bunch of people with a hole in their soul they need to fill up with other people's attention, and they're coming there to try to get attention. They're try- coming there to try to make it, and the one thing that they have to do is audition. So you have to try to be accepted by someone, so you'd be judged. You go in there, and you get return- you get rejected over and over and over again, which just fuels the same, like, need that's inside you. It, like, makes it even worse. And everybody's concentrating on this one thing-

Bradley Cooper 1:28:43 Mm

Joe Rogan 1:28:43 ... like, trying to get success.

Bradley Cooper 1:28:44 Mm.

Joe Rogan 1:28:44 And then you realize, like, "Oh, my doctor wanted to be an actor. Oh, the waiter's an actor." [claps] Like, every- everyone's trying to do this thing where you have to get chosen. So then people calculate how they behave, and talk, and what their political philosophy is, and their life philosophy is, based on g- becoming, ingratiating themselves with casting directors-

Bradley Cooper 1:29:07 Mm

Joe Rogan 1:29:08 ... and with executives, like, getting these people to like you. And then these people realize that, so they have, like, they, they're controlling the s- the twigs that work the puppet strings, and it just becomes this very strange environment of a, a complete lack of any, like, real critical thinking and any real, like, uh, e- embracing any alternative perspectives on things. Everyone is just trying to align their stars correctly so that they can make it.

Bradley Cooper 1:29:37 Mm.

Joe Rogan 1:29:38 And it becomes weird.

Bradley Cooper 1:29:38 I mean, that was... My experience was more because I went there with a job, right?

Joe Rogan 1:29:43 Right.

Bradley Cooper 1:29:43 And, you know, New York for me, I don't know, I went on 2,000 auditions. Like, I remember when I first booked a job with Sex and the City, I booked some commercials and extra work, which was great. But the first job I booked, I remember I was like, I was terrified 'cause I s- got to the point where I was a, I was a doorman at a hotel, and I would audition, and that was a great life. And I... If I got a callback, it was great, but then when I had to do it, I remember literally like, "Whoa, whoa, I have to do... Like, wait, wait, what?"

Joe Rogan 1:30:07 I'm actually acting?

Bradley Cooper 1:30:07 "I actually have to do it?" Um-

Joe Rogan 1:30:09 What was it? What was the first thing you had to do?

Bradley Cooper 1:30:10 It was, I played Jake, the downtown smoker, in the Sex and the City with Sarah Jessica Parker, and I couldn't drive, uh, standard, never learned how to drive standard, so they sent me to O'Dell Dri- O'Dell's Driving School, and all I thought about was, like, "Don't have her head hit the dashboard- [laughing]

Joe Rogan 1:30:22 ... [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 1:30:22 ... when we pull into the corner." And I still messed it up, and they had another guy do it, and then I just had to do this thing, you know, when the camera scene, you go, "You okay?" [chuckles] You know, like you're pulling in. [chuckles]

Joe Rogan 1:30:32 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:30:32 But I worked so hard on it. Um, no, but LA for me, it was re- I think it, for me at least, was the geography. You, going from New York City, where, you know, you can go to Bar Six, which is on 6th Avenue. No matter who you are, you go with your couple friends, like, you just feel like you're in a cool place or a place that's vibrant. LA, it's like, if I wasn't at work, I was in, I was in that, that, uh, first floor of the house or my car, rental car-

Joe Rogan 1:31:01 Yes

Bradley Cooper 1:31:02 ... and that was it.

Joe Rogan 1:31:03 Yes.

Bradley Cooper 1:31:03 And, like, and, and the world, which I could feel because I was seeing posters everywhere and billboards, which I'd never been ex- except for driving to Atlantic City, you know, and seeing who was gonna, you know, gonna be, you know, as a residency, I- that... It, it was really the stimulus, the stimuli of that city aesthetically, and how compartmentalized it is. So what I felt like, like it's, if you're not in, you're out.

Joe Rogan 1:31:28 Right.

Bradley Cooper 1:31:29 And I just remember thinking, like, "Some- somebody somewhere in this town is having a ball right now- [laughing]

Joe Rogan 1:31:34 [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 1:31:34 ... and it's not me." [laughing] Do you know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 1:31:37 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:31:37 And then that just leads to: How can I cope?

Joe Rogan 1:31:41 Right.

Bradley Cooper 1:31:41 You know, and, like, you know, not getting into bars, clubs, you know, and, like, girls not really looking at you, you know, and all that stuff, and all of a sudden, it's like seventh grade, and I'm 25 years old. And it's like, "And I should be happy 'cause I paid, um, by the end of this year, I'm gonna pay off my student loan, but I'm fucking miserable, and what's wrong with me?" You know, it... But to me, it was the geography of it. You know, New York City is so wonderful because no matter what you're thinking... Like, when I would do The Elephant Man, I would take the subway to 42nd Street, and my preparation for the play was getting off the subway, going to the theater. 'Cause the amount of thousands of people-... that are forcing me to be present-

Joe Rogan 1:32:20 Yes

Bradley Cooper 1:32:20 ... was, it was wonderful.

Joe Rogan 1:32:21 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:32:21 It was like doing a 12-minute relaxation, 'cause you're just, it's life, vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom. And you're like, [exhales] get through, you know? And then by the time you get to this theater, you're like, "Okay!" You know, but LA, it's like you're in your car-

Joe Rogan 1:32:34 Mm-hmm

Bradley Cooper 1:32:34 ... and the thing, you pull up to the studio, the thing, da, da, you walk, and you know, and then all of a sudden it's like, "Okay, here we go." And you're like, "Oh, okay, h- hold on a second."

Joe Rogan 1:32:43 Yeah, that thing that New York has that LA doesn't have is all walks of life are all intertwined. You're walking down the street together, there's a billionaire, and a homeless guy, and a fucking, you know, ne'er-do-well, and an office worker.

Bradley Cooper 1:33:00 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:33:00 And everyone's walking to where they go, and they walk into restaurants, and they get in cabs, and they get on the subway, and everybody intermingles.

Bradley Cooper 1:33:08 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:33:08 Where in LA, it's you get in your car, you drive to a place, and then you go to your house, and you don't ever, like, walk around.

Bradley Cooper 1:33:17 No, and if some weird interaction happened on set or someone said something, you're like, "Oh," then you're just at home [chuckles] thinking about it.

Joe Rogan 1:33:24 Right, right.

Bradley Cooper 1:33:24 Do you know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 1:33:25 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:33:25 There's no like, "Well, I, I went on and did this after that," you know?

Joe Rogan 1:33:28 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:33:28 And I actually took up golf, which is crazy, and I would play at the... Malibu had this public golf course, and I would say, "I've got to do something," 'cause I'm an early morning... I, I wake up early. I always have. So I'm up at, like, 5:30, and so I did, like, a 6:40, 7:00 tee time with these two guys, and that was actually nice. I did that for six months, and I would play, but like, you just try to find something that, you know, I just need to interact and do something else.

Joe Rogan 1:33:51 Something that makes you human.

Bradley Cooper 1:33:52 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:33:52 Yeah. Yeah, for me, it was pool halls.

Bradley Cooper 1:33:53 But I have to say, like, I do love... Oh, interesting.

Joe Rogan 1:33:56 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:33:56 Michael Vartan, who was on Alias, huge... Did you ever play pool with him?

Joe Rogan 1:33:59 No.

Bradley Cooper 1:34:00 Oh, he was hu- he would go all the time.

Joe Rogan 1:34:02 No kidding?

Bradley Cooper 1:34:03 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:34:03 Oh.

Bradley Cooper 1:34:03 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:34:03 I wish I'd met him.

Bradley Cooper 1:34:04 Yeah, he would go all the time. Yeah, to that one place that had, like, tons of, uh... I'm sure you know it.

Joe Rogan 1:34:10 Probably Hollywood Billiards.

Bradley Cooper 1:34:11 Maybe, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:34:12 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:34:12 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:34:12 Yeah, Hollywood Billiards was the spot.

Bradley Cooper 1:34:14 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:34:14 Yeah, it's, uh... In New York, that was a big thing for me, too. Uh, it would, like, almost hijack my comedy career, 'cause I was doing... I was playing pool, like, eight hours a day. I was playing in tournaments. I was traveling around and going to tournaments. And when I m- came to LA, that was, like, one of the few things that made me- that made sense to me. Like, "Oh, I get it, pool players.

Bradley Cooper 1:34:32 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:34:32 "I know pool players."

Bradley Cooper 1:34:33 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:34:33 "I can hang out with them. They're normal people."

Bradley Cooper 1:34:34 That's a great asset you had there.

Joe Rogan 1:34:36 Some- having something like that-

Bradley Cooper 1:34:38 Yeah, yeah

Joe Rogan 1:34:38 ... martial arts was always like that.

Bradley Cooper 1:34:39 Huge.

Joe Rogan 1:34:40 Some- having something where you have something that you do.

Bradley Cooper 1:34:42 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:34:42 'Cause if I was only doing acting-

Bradley Cooper 1:34:44 Oh, no, you'd lose your mind.

Joe Rogan 1:34:45 I'd go crazy, yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:34:45 And I g- went there, and I fell in love with the movie making, the getting back to my original part, and I would go and a- so I'd ask J.J. Abrams if I could sit in the editing rooms. So I would basically shoot my one scene a week, which was like, "Hey, how was your trip, Sydney?" You know, I didn't have a big part [chuckles] .

Joe Rogan 1:35:00 Right.

Bradley Cooper 1:35:00 And then, but I would spend the rest of the day in the editing rooms, and then I would ask Ken Olin, who was so generous, the, one of the showrunners, if I could just shadow him and just be around all the time. And I would take-

Joe Rogan 1:35:09 Oh, that's cool!

Bradley Cooper 1:35:10 ... and I would take everybody's dailies home. Back then, it was on VHS tapes. It was Carl Lumbly, Victor Garber, Ron Rifkin, all these great, gr- uh, Victor and Ron were from New York, these great New Yo- New York actors that came out, and I would just watch their dailies and learn. You know, just learn.

Joe Rogan 1:35:24 Ah.

Bradley Cooper 1:35:24 And, and I, and that's when I was like, "I love this."

Joe Rogan 1:35:26 Ah.

Bradley Cooper 1:35:27 "Like, I fucking love this."

Joe Rogan 1:35:29 Well, that's what I love. I love when people love things.

Bradley Cooper 1:35:32 Yeah, and I do, man. Like, I can't get enough of it.

Joe Rogan 1:35:35 I am 100% fascinated with people that love what they do. I, I can watch people make furniture. There's a guy that I watch on YouTube who just makes desks and tables-

Bradley Cooper 1:35:46 Right

Joe Rogan 1:35:46 ... out of, like, r- what, what is it called? Live... What is it called when they, they take it, and it has the actual, uh, outline of the wood? What is it called? They take slabs. He takes, like, slabs of walnut-

Bradley Cooper 1:35:59 Mm-hmm

Joe Rogan 1:35:59 ... and makes these tables, and he narrates while he's building it-

Bradley Cooper 1:36:02 Wow

Joe Rogan 1:36:02 ... and describes the process of it and how he's trying to precisely align all these joints and these... You know, he's like, he's got pegs and holes-

Bradley Cooper 1:36:10 Yeah, it's the best

Joe Rogan 1:36:11 ... and he has to slide it into place.

Bradley Cooper 1:36:12 Live edge slab.

Joe Rogan 1:36:12 That's it, live edge.

Bradley Cooper 1:36:14 That's the other great thing about what I get to do. So you do a movie like, uh, Sniper, and you get to be with these people who have dedicated their lives to this thing, and you're watching them do it. Like in Maestro, I got to go to the London Symphony Orchestra. Each person, since they were four, have been doing this, and they're all unicorns. Do you know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 1:36:33 Yes.

Bradley Cooper 1:36:33 In A Star Is Born, all these musicians. It's like, even Burn, I got to go to these restaurants and, and study under these people. I mean, that's the thing that's like, that's the greatest thing in the world.

Joe Rogan 1:36:43 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:36:43 It's nuts.

Joe Rogan 1:36:44 It's nuts.

Bradley Cooper 1:36:44 It's, it's nuts. And, like, even this movie, the access I got to have to the cellar and all the stuff and all the people, it was like, I learned so much more than I ever knew.

Joe Rogan 1:36:53 Well, it expands you as a human.

Bradley Cooper 1:36:55 Oh, no question.

Joe Rogan 1:36:56 You know more about what it is-

Bradley Cooper 1:36:58 Yes

Joe Rogan 1:36:58 ... to be a human.

Bradley Cooper 1:36:59 Yes.

Joe Rogan 1:36:59 Like, oh, there's a human who just plays the flute.

Bradley Cooper 1:37:01 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:37:02 You know? Uh, we were talking in the green room last night about André 3000. Was that, was the name?

1:37:06 Yeah.

1:37:06 I'm saying it right?

1:37:07 Yeah.

1:37:07 I al- I almost said 5000, but that's wrong.

1:37:09 André 3000.

1:37:10 André 3000 from OutKast.

1:37:11 Yeah.

1:37:11 He plays the flute now.

1:37:12 Yeah.

1:37:13 That's all he does, he plays the flute. Like, a friend of mine ran into him in, um, downtown in, um, Colorado. He said he, he was in, in Denver just walking around with his flute, and no one was bothering him. And he's like, "Holy shit, he's just fucking playing the flute." [chuckles]

Bradley Cooper 1:37:30 Yeah. That's a guy who loves what he does.

Joe Rogan 1:37:32 Just... I mean, apparently, he made an entire album where he just plays the flute.

Bradley Cooper 1:37:37 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:37:38 And he's just, like, not into doing anything else.

Bradley Cooper 1:37:40 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:37:41 Just into, like, being an artist and playing the flute.

Bradley Cooper 1:37:44 Yeah. It's dope.

Joe Rogan 1:37:46 Right.

Bradley Cooper 1:37:46 Yeah. [chuckles]

Joe Rogan 1:37:46 Yeah, it's like, [chuckles] fuck, I wish I was that guy, you know?

Bradley Cooper 1:37:49 But you seem to be. I mean, you do, you know, uh, hunting and billiards, and already you've got, like, two up on most people-

Joe Rogan 1:37:56 Well-

Bradley Cooper 1:37:56 ... besides what you already do.

Joe Rogan 1:37:58 But I do things that are, uh, that I think are gonna ex- help me figure out who I am, and I think the only way you really figure out who you are is to do difficult things.

Bradley Cooper 1:38:12 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:38:13 And when you're doing difficult things, you kind of learn about yourself. You learn about, "Oh, why do I have this desire to take a shortcut? Why don't I go with the law- why not do it the right way?" Like, what am- what it is, what is it about-

Bradley Cooper 1:38:24 Oh, yeah

Joe Rogan 1:38:24 ... getting good at something?

Bradley Cooper 1:38:25 I mean, I think me at my base, I'm very lazy.

Joe Rogan 1:38:28 ... I think everybody is.

Bradley Cooper 1:38:29 I mean, like-

Joe Rogan 1:38:30 It's a default setting.

Bradley Cooper 1:38:31 Yeah, no question.

Joe Rogan 1:38:32 Default setting for humans. Goggins talks about it.

Bradley Cooper 1:38:34 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:38:35 Like, Goggins talks about, like, one of the things about Goggins is he always talks about how when, when he was fat and lazy. Like, he used to be fat and lazy, now he's, like, the most disciplined human-

Bradley Cooper 1:38:43 Yeah

Joe Rogan 1:38:43 ... that's ever lived. And he forced himself to become that.

Bradley Cooper 1:38:46 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:38:46 But his default set- he goes, he goes, he goes, "Even now," he goes, "sometimes I look at my shoes for, like, a half hour before I put those motherfuckers on." [laughs]

Bradley Cooper 1:38:54 Yeah. I mean, I'll be doing something during the day, and I'm like, "I can't wait till my daughter's in bed," and I'm upstairs, and I'm just laying down on the couch, and I'm just, whatever's on.

Joe Rogan 1:39:02 Yeah. [chuckles]

Bradley Cooper 1:39:03 And that's my goal for the day. I'm like, "What's going on here?" [chuckles]

Joe Rogan 1:39:06 Sometimes that's good, though.

Bradley Cooper 1:39:07 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:39:08 I, I view that as a reset. I think it's-

Bradley Cooper 1:39:11 Mm

Joe Rogan 1:39:11 ... important to just sit-

Bradley Cooper 1:39:12 I enjoy it

Joe Rogan 1:39:13 ... and reset.

Bradley Cooper 1:39:13 I, yeah, I don't kill myself over it.

Joe Rogan 1:39:15 No.

Bradley Cooper 1:39:15 But I do recognize that there is a feeling... But then I look at the, you know, I look at the sort of landscape, I'm like, well, it's hard for me to def- to categorize myself as lazy if I just look at the facts.

Joe Rogan 1:39:25 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:39:25 You know? But I do feel, and it's what you're saying, it's that default setting.

Joe Rogan 1:39:29 Well, I think with everybody-

Bradley Cooper 1:39:30 Yeah

Joe Rogan 1:39:30 ... it's, like, normal for human beings to seek comfort, because it's difficult to acquire. Especially in tribal societies, back when we were just hunter and gatherers and just trying to figure out how to stay alive, like, the idea of relaxation was impossible.

Bradley Cooper 1:39:45 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:39:45 And if you could get down-

Bradley Cooper 1:39:46 There's no time

Joe Rogan 1:39:46 ... "Oh, that's what I want. I wanna stop chasing antelope [chuckles] and just fucking take a nap." And you can't.

Bradley Cooper 1:39:52 Or maybe they found a relaxed state in that, because you, when you're doing those things, uh, you know, for a long period of time, I feel like I am relaxed in that, but it just takes a lot of work.

Joe Rogan 1:40:01 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:40:02 You know, a lot of over and over. But the be- the, the, the true high is when you're doing these things, where it first started out and you were horrible at it, and then all of a sudden, you're going out on a hunt or whatever, and you're like, "I'm relaxed."

Joe Rogan 1:40:16 I'm never relaxed on a hunt.

Bradley Cooper 1:40:17 Well, I've never hunted, so I can't relate to that.

Joe Rogan 1:40:19 It's not a relaxing thing. I mean, it is a, a fulfilling-

Bradley Cooper 1:40:22 [coughs]

Joe Rogan 1:40:22 ... and enriching thing.

Bradley Cooper 1:40:22 I think I mean physically relaxed, like your body's not tense.

Joe Rogan 1:40:26 Right.

Bradley Cooper 1:40:26 Like, 'cause the one thing I do know, you can't shoot a gun if you're tense.

Joe Rogan 1:40:29 Right.

Bradley Cooper 1:40:30 Impossible to hit-

Joe Rogan 1:40:31 Right

Bradley Cooper 1:40:31 ... what you want.

Joe Rogan 1:40:32 Right.

Bradley Cooper 1:40:32 That's the beautiful thing about shooting, is like, you know, on the exhale and stop, like, all that stuff, I was like-

Joe Rogan 1:40:36 Mm-hmm

Bradley Cooper 1:40:37 ... "Oh, this is... I had no idea."

Joe Rogan 1:40:38 Right.

Bradley Cooper 1:40:38 'Cause the first couple times, they just, "Just shoot it, see how you do."

Joe Rogan 1:40:40 Well, just think about, like, the tiny movements that would deviate-

Bradley Cooper 1:40:45 Yeah

Joe Rogan 1:40:45 ... the path of the bullet over, you know-

Bradley Cooper 1:40:47 Oh

Joe Rogan 1:40:47 ... a lot of these guys are shooting on miles.

Bradley Cooper 1:40:49 No, it's nuts.

Joe Rogan 1:40:50 Yeah, it's just a little wiggle.

Bradley Cooper 1:40:51 I remember the first couple times with no, no training at all, like, see, I mean, it wasn't even near the target.

Joe Rogan 1:40:55 Yeah. [laughs]

Bradley Cooper 1:40:57 You know, it's like, "Oh yeah, this is a whole..."

Joe Rogan 1:41:00 And all you're doing is this.

Bradley Cooper 1:41:02 That's it.

Joe Rogan 1:41:02 You're just squeezing a trigger.

Bradley Cooper 1:41:03 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:41:03 And how much is involved in that? Like, the synchronization of the mind, the eyes, the breathing-

Bradley Cooper 1:41:09 But even the recoil-

Joe Rogan 1:41:09 ... just squeezing the trigger

Bradley Cooper 1:41:09 ... I remember the first time I didn't have my, my boot was, I was like, like, my boot was up and not like that.

Joe Rogan 1:41:14 Mm-hmm.

Bradley Cooper 1:41:15 And they didn't say anything. You know, and then the recoil through my shoulder down to that, I was like, "Oh yeah, now I understand why you do that."

Joe Rogan 1:41:20 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:41:21 Is that it all just goes out. All those things, it's like, wow!

Joe Rogan 1:41:25 But I think through those things, you learn more about who you are. Through difficult things and getting better at difficult things, that's where you learn more about who you are, and you realize, like, "Oh, I can kind of apply this mindset to everything."

Bradley Cooper 1:41:40 And you see with your children.

Joe Rogan 1:41:42 Uh-huh.

Bradley Cooper 1:41:42 Oh, yeah, my daughter, who loves to draw, if she sees somebody who's drawing-

Joe Rogan 1:41:45 My daughter... I have a daughter that loves to draw, too.

Bradley Cooper 1:41:47 And, and it's amazing.

Joe Rogan 1:41:47 She's really talented. Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:41:48 So I'm, I bet if my daughter drew with your daughter, she would stop because she would see how good she is, and she gets so frustrated. This just happened the other day, and, you know, and she'll just rip up what she's doing, which is wonderful. I have it right here. So she... This, I saved this. I was like, "Don't rip it up." She did this yesterday, and I was like, "Don't rip it up. I'm gonna make it my bookmark."

Joe Rogan 1:42:06 Ah, that's cool.

Bradley Cooper 1:42:07 But I watch her process of, like, dealing with difficulty.

Joe Rogan 1:42:11 Mm-hmm.

Bradley Cooper 1:42:12 And, and it's like, and just trying to explain, like, it's, it's okay. Like, you know, and being frustrated is okay. But I could see myself in her and what everybody goes through, but isn't that awesome when you're watching your kid go through these things?

Joe Rogan 1:42:23 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:42:24 It's just the greatest thing in the world.

Joe Rogan 1:42:25 It's awesome watching people get obsessed with things and then progressing.

Bradley Cooper 1:42:29 Yeah. Oh, yes.

Joe Rogan 1:42:29 And when it's your own child-

Bradley Cooper 1:42:31 It's the-

Joe Rogan 1:42:31 ... it's even more insane.

Bradley Cooper 1:42:32 It's amazing.

Joe Rogan 1:42:32 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:42:33 It's amazing!

Joe Rogan 1:42:34 It is cool.

Bradley Cooper 1:42:34 Yeah. Like cartwheel, took her forever to learn it, but now she can do it, and I was like, "You just keep at it."

Joe Rogan 1:42:39 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:42:40 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:42:40 Yeah. It's, uh, w- learning through someone else's eyes that happens to be your child is one of the most magical things ever. It's magical, 'cause-

Bradley Cooper 1:42:51 It's the, it's... It's it, man.

Joe Rogan 1:42:54 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:42:54 It's it.

Joe Rogan 1:42:55 It's a different kind of happiness.

Bradley Cooper 1:42:56 Oh, yeah, one that I never knew was-

Joe Rogan 1:42:58 Right

Bradley Cooper 1:42:58 ... I was capable of. I'm so glad I had kids late, 'cause I'm 51. I just turned 51 a couple days ago, and I had Li- my daughter is eight, gonna be nine in March, and like, I just got lucky that I was able to be in a place in my career that I could choose, like you said, what I do and, and work from home-

Joe Rogan 1:43:14 Mm-hmm

Bradley Cooper 1:43:14 ... and just, I'm just there through for all of it.

Joe Rogan 1:43:17 That's awesome.

Bradley Cooper 1:43:18 And it's, as much as I love the heroine of the being in the moment, you know, and acting in a great shot or whatever you're doing and everything's together, there's, like, seven of those every day with your kid.

Joe Rogan 1:43:28 Right.

Bradley Cooper 1:43:29 Like, seven. We were eating dinner last night at a restaurant, and by the way, she was so excited I'm coming here, 'cause she hears all, uh... She's like, "Daddy, tomorrow!" But we're sitting here in a restaurant, and I'm just looking at her, and the little- she's got a little hat on, and I was like, "This is the..." And I'm like, "Isn't this the greatest thing in the world?" And she's like, "Yeah, it's, it's the greatest." [laughs] And I'm like, "That's it. This is it. That's it."

Joe Rogan 1:43:48 [laughs]

Bradley Cooper 1:43:49 It's crazy. It's like free jolts.

Joe Rogan 1:43:52 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:43:52 Right? You just get these-

Joe Rogan 1:43:53 Uh-huh

Bradley Cooper 1:43:53 ... free jolts through, and you, and you never know when they're gonna come.

Joe Rogan 1:43:56 Right.

Bradley Cooper 1:43:57 It's like walking up the stairs together. It's not like in the moment, like, it just happens.

Joe Rogan 1:44:00 Mm-hmm.

Bradley Cooper 1:44:01 It's the, it's the, it's the best.

Joe Rogan 1:44:03 Yeah, it's, uh, it's a very different experience, and I've, I feel bad for people that never get to feel it. It's one of the few things, like, I don't think everyone should have children, and I'm not that guy that says-

Bradley Cooper 1:44:13 Yeah, me neither

Joe Rogan 1:44:13 ... "If you don't have kids, you don't have a life."

Bradley Cooper 1:44:15 No, no.

Joe Rogan 1:44:15 That's bull- I don't, I don't believe that.

Bradley Cooper 1:44:17 Everybody's different.

Joe Rogan 1:44:18 Everybody's different, and I think we, we all need to respect that. Everyone's different, but, man, for me, I shudder at the thought of being who I am right now if I had no children.

Bradley Cooper 1:44:30 I don't know if I'd be alive.

Joe Rogan 1:44:32 ... I would be different, that's for sure.

Bradley Cooper 1:44:33 Yeah, I know.

Joe Rogan 1:44:34 I wouldn't be nearly as compassionate. Dave Chappelle said something to me once that was brilliant. He said, "Not only have children, have, has having children changed the amount of love I have," he goes, "It's changed my capacity for love."

Bradley Cooper 1:44:46 Yes.

Joe Rogan 1:44:47 I'm like, "Ooh."

Bradley Cooper 1:44:48 And understanding everything.

Joe Rogan 1:44:49 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:44:49 Everything. There's like before and after.

Joe Rogan 1:44:51 Mm-hmm.

Bradley Cooper 1:44:52 Yeah. It's true, all the things they say.

Joe Rogan 1:44:54 Oh, yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:44:54 It's just true.

Joe Rogan 1:44:55 It is true.

Bradley Cooper 1:44:56 Yeah, there's no doubt about it.

Joe Rogan 1:44:58 It also made me think of everyone as a baby.

Bradley Cooper 1:45:01 [chuckles]

Joe Rogan 1:45:02 I used to think of people as static. I used to think, I meet Bradley Cooper, he's 51, that's a 51-year-old guy. But when I s- you know, had children and raised children, you start saying, "Oh, this is a baby that became a person." And it's just life experiences, genetics, environment, all these different factors. Here you are now, but you are a product of this path and this journey that you've taken through life, and I give people way more grace because of that.

Bradley Cooper 1:45:30 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:45:31 I give them w- w- ... I'm way more charitable, way more compassionate, way, way more understanding of even people that suck. You know, when I meet someone that sucks, I'm like, "Ugh, I wish I could've met them when they were five and see what it was, and maybe I could help them," and-

Bradley Cooper 1:45:48 It's hard for me to hate people. That, that has, that has, um, not served me so well over the years, but ultimately it has. But it's... Yeah, it's hard for me not to, um, feel just any other human being, how hard it is to be alive.

Joe Rogan 1:46:03 Right.

Bradley Cooper 1:46:04 It, it is. There's just like, I don't know, it was... I think it was hardwired in me, it has nothing to do with, like, anything, just like, yeah. It's hard for me to... Even people that are, like, mean to me-

Joe Rogan 1:46:14 Mm-hmm.

Bradley Cooper 1:46:14 ... you know, it's hard for me to, like, stay mad at them.

Joe Rogan 1:46:19 Yeah. My wife said something the other night-

Bradley Cooper 1:46:22 As I get older.

Joe Rogan 1:46:23 As you get older.

Bradley Cooper 1:46:24 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:46:24 Yes. When you're young, it's like, "Fuck that guy!"

Bradley Cooper 1:46:25 Yeah. No, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:46:26 Yeah, easy.

Bradley Cooper 1:46:26 I'll never forget it.

Joe Rogan 1:46:27 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:46:27 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:46:28 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:46:28 I'm gonna remember that.

Joe Rogan 1:46:29 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:46:29 I saw your true face. [laughing]

Joe Rogan 1:46:31 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:46:31 Yeah, it's true. But yeah, as I get older, oh, no question.

Joe Rogan 1:46:35 My daughter was talking about some horrible story in the news of someone who fucked up their whole life and all these different things, and my wife listens to her and goes, "It's hard to be a person."

Bradley Cooper 1:46:46 Yeah, man.

Joe Rogan 1:46:47 It's hard to be a person. Being a person is hard.

Bradley Cooper 1:46:49 Yeah, so-

Joe Rogan 1:46:50 And we, we were all just sitting there, like, nodding our head, like, "Yeah, yeah, you can fuck this up."

Bradley Cooper 1:46:54 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:46:54 And we're all gonna fuck it up at one point in time, and maybe when you think that you're never gonna fuck it up again, you fuck it up-

Bradley Cooper 1:47:00 Oh, yeah

Joe Rogan 1:47:00 ... the worst you've ever fucked it up, and you're like: How did I do that?

Bradley Cooper 1:47:03 I know.

Joe Rogan 1:47:03 How did I do that? I thought I had it together-

Bradley Cooper 1:47:06 [chuckles]

Joe Rogan 1:47:06 ... and I've fucked it all up worse than I've ever fucked it up before.

Bradley Cooper 1:47:09 'Cause nothing stays stagnant. Nothing.

Joe Rogan 1:47:11 Nothing.

Bradley Cooper 1:47:11 Everything's changing all the time.

Joe Rogan 1:47:13 And it's just hard to manage all these different things. It's hard to manage your emotions, it's hard to manage c- conflict, it's hard to ma- manage relationships, it's hard to manage life, work, balance, pressure. It's hard!

Bradley Cooper 1:47:27 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:47:27 It's not easy.

Bradley Cooper 1:47:27 And even in the macro or s- simple level, it's just hard to be existing in a world where you really... We don't know anything.

Joe Rogan 1:47:34 Right.

Bradley Cooper 1:47:34 And then you're- and the only thing you do know, it's not gonna last-

Joe Rogan 1:47:37 And-

Bradley Cooper 1:47:37 ... and you're gonna be gone.

Joe Rogan 1:47:38 And you're bombed on by bad news.

Bradley Cooper 1:47:41 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:47:41 The news is just bad. It's all the time. It's people getting shot, and run over, and war, and bombings, and invasions, and [gasps] it's just exhausting.

Bradley Cooper 1:47:53 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:47:53 And that's, like, in the background of your mind constantly when you're going about your day. It's like there's this fucking algorithm that you're being fed. It's like, [grunts]

Bradley Cooper 1:48:04 Yeah. And at the same time, it's a miracle to me that the demo- demo- democratization of information that we live in now, that you can choose points of view to learn about what people think, in a way that when I was growing up, three stations, news, that was it. There wasn't-

Joe Rogan 1:48:25 Right.

Bradley Cooper 1:48:25 You know, there's something wonderful about it, too.

Joe Rogan 1:48:27 Oh, yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:48:27 You know? I've just talked about this the other day, like, you know, everybody's algorithms telling them... Now, I'm not on social media, so the truth is, I don't know what the fuck-

Joe Rogan 1:48:33 You're not on it at all?

Bradley Cooper 1:48:34 No. I'm not, I don't really know what the fuck I'm talking about.

Joe Rogan 1:48:36 That's amazing.

Bradley Cooper 1:48:37 So I should do it for two... My friend was like, "Go on for two weeks," and he's right, and I'm gonna do it, just to experience it. What, what is that experience? All I have is that one TikTok moment for 20 minutes [chuckles] -

Joe Rogan 1:48:47 [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 1:48:47 ... where I was like, "I gotta stay away, 'cause I'll never leave."

Joe Rogan 1:48:49 You've never had a desire to get on it?

Bradley Cooper 1:48:51 I do. No, I do. Just the same way I don't put a television in my bedroom-

Joe Rogan 1:48:55 Ah

Bradley Cooper 1:48:55 ... which is like, if I do, I may never get out of bed.

Joe Rogan 1:48:58 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:48:59 You know? It's fear.

Joe Rogan 1:49:00 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:49:00 I was like, I don't know, just all that stuff, like I said, you know, da, da, da, da, you know. I just wanna learn. The people, people, you know, the world, world gets smaller, I feel included. 'Cause the main thing is, like, I just don't wanna feel alone, right? And to me, it feels like social media is a place where you don't feel alone, 'cause you're just learning about, and there's all these people talking to you.

Joe Rogan 1:49:17 Yeah, but you do feel alone, too, though.

Bradley Cooper 1:49:18 Ultimately-

Joe Rogan 1:49:19 Yeah

Bradley Cooper 1:49:19 ... because it's, it's the drip as opposed to the real... What we got back to when we first started talking: it's the illusion of it.

Joe Rogan 1:49:26 Yes.

Bradley Cooper 1:49:26 You know, if it's taken at... But, but it c- but it is worthwhile, too. It depends on how you contextualize it, right? And like anything in life, um-

Joe Rogan 1:49:35 Yeah, I think there's a value to it, for sure.

Bradley Cooper 1:49:37 Oh, no question.

Joe Rogan 1:49:38 Most certainly for distribution of information.

Bradley Cooper 1:49:38 By the way, the fact that I can watch your show and then go on Trigonometry, and m- the guy who went to the prisons, and you had the KKK guy, and the guy who's-

Joe Rogan 1:49:46 Oh, yeah

Bradley Cooper 1:49:46 ... the musician, blew my mind! And I learned all this stuff in those three hours.

Joe Rogan 1:49:50 Mm-hmm.

Bradley Cooper 1:49:51 Just because I chose to... You know, and that's one of the great things about your show, is I can feel your curiosity, and then I'm learning from your curiosity, what... Things that I would never normally know how to go on to.

Joe Rogan 1:50:04 Yeah, that's the most valuable-

Bradley Cooper 1:50:06 It's, it's the best

Joe Rogan 1:50:06 ... gift of this show for me-

Bradley Cooper 1:50:07 It's the best

Joe Rogan 1:50:08 ... is that I get to pick who I talk to, so I only talk to people that I'm fascinated by, or someone who's interesting to me, or something like, "Oh, this is gonna be cool." Like, I don't, I don't go, "Oh, I gotta do this one."

Bradley Cooper 1:50:19 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:50:20 There's never that. It's always like, "Ooh," like-

Bradley Cooper 1:50:22 Yeah, what is it?

Joe Rogan 1:50:23 "How do you-

Bradley Cooper 1:50:24 Yeah

Joe Rogan 1:50:24 ... how do you fucking study that?"

Bradley Cooper 1:50:25 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:50:25 Like, "How'd you get involved in this?" Like, "Where'd you learn that?"

Bradley Cooper 1:50:29 And I'm, like, glued to it.

Joe Rogan 1:50:30 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:50:30 It's not like it's in the background.

Joe Rogan 1:50:32 Right.

Bradley Cooper 1:50:32 I'm like, bam!

Joe Rogan 1:50:34 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:50:34 You know, because you're so interested. And it gets back to, like, the acting. If you're really interested or not-... then it's gonna be hard for me to listen to watch it.

Joe Rogan 1:50:43 Yeah, that's why this, I think the only reason why it works, 'cause there were some conversations-

Bradley Cooper 1:50:46 For sure, Joe. There's no way-- You, you can't sit there and say like, "Here's the pitch." You're gonna sit in a room, me and whoever, three hours, basically unedited. They're like, "That's not really where we're at." [laughing] You're like, "No, no-

Joe Rogan 1:50:59 Yeah

Bradley Cooper 1:50:59 ... it's gonna-- No, the most people will listen to it. I, sorry." [chuckles]

Joe Rogan 1:51:02 No.

Bradley Cooper 1:51:02 Right? But it's like, no, the, the, the, the nuclear, the nuclear fuel is, "No, I'm actually gonna be curious-

Joe Rogan 1:51:09 Yes

Bradley Cooper 1:51:10 ... about what I, I actually wanna learn." And then it's like, "Oh, so we're actually gonna watch two human beings talk to each other? Oh, that's kinda great."

Joe Rogan 1:51:18 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:51:18 But that's your nuclear power. That, that's why the show is so magical.

Joe Rogan 1:51:23 Well, that's the only o-- I mean, the crazy thing is there was no plan.

Bradley Cooper 1:51:27 And the way you don't edit it-

Joe Rogan 1:51:28 Yeah

Bradley Cooper 1:51:28 ... the way that the pauses are there, you know? It's even so much as when you're like, "I gotta go take a piss," and then like-

Joe Rogan 1:51:34 Yeah

Bradley Cooper 1:51:34 ... it's back. I'm always like, "Whoa, what just happened?"

Joe Rogan 1:51:36 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:51:36 "Weren't we supposed to go to the bathroom with him?" [laughing] Do you know what I mean? Like, I'm so sucked in. I'm so in the room.

Joe Rogan 1:51:41 Maybe we should start doing that. Maybe we should start following people to the bathroom.

Bradley Cooper 1:51:44 Do you know what I mean?

Joe Rogan 1:51:44 Right, right, right.

Bradley Cooper 1:51:44 It's such like a, "Wait, what?"

Joe Rogan 1:51:47 Yeah. Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:51:47 "Wait, what do you mean? How come, how come it just... Wait, where'd the time go? Wait, what just happened?"

Joe Rogan 1:51:51 Right.

Bradley Cooper 1:51:51 Yeah. Because you create that room that I'm in the room with you.

Joe Rogan 1:51:55 Podcasting is weird because it kind of just appeared, and no one thought anybody wanted it.

Bradley Cooper 1:52:01 It's fascinating. I mean, think about it. It's-- I, I do think about this a lot, especially 'cause I've watched your show in the last eight months, is like, in the world that's moving into this one direction, there's this other deep, deep need for connection.

Joe Rogan 1:52:15 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:52:15 You know? And then this is, this is one of the examples, this deep, you know, live theater, live stand-up, you know? We still do need to communicate. That hasn't gone away-

Joe Rogan 1:52:27 Not at all

Bradley Cooper 1:52:27 ... in that way, in a, in a carnal, not carnal, but in a, in a human-to-human interaction.

Joe Rogan 1:52:34 Right.

Bradley Cooper 1:52:34 And I love AI. I talk to AI with my daughter. I think it's dope. I think it's fascinating. Fascinating! Um, but it's not the same-

Joe Rogan 1:52:45 No

Bradley Cooper 1:52:45 ... yet, yet.

Joe Rogan 1:52:47 No, it's, it's interesting.

Bradley Cooper 1:52:48 Very interesting.

Joe Rogan 1:52:49 It's very-- It's like I, I use it as a, a companion, like a writing companion. So what I do is I have like a, I put my phone up, and I've got it on like a little kickstand.

Bradley Cooper 1:53:01 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:53:01 And I put Perplexity on when I write. So I'm, I'm writing about, like, the Mayan and Aztec civilizations and what happened when they got invaded. And, uh, as I'm writing, I ask questions like: "How many people did Cortez come with? Six hundred. How many muskets did they have? Thirteen? They conquered the entire fucking country of Mexico with 13 muskets?" Like, and you find out things. And so I, I use it, like, as someone I'm asking questions, this all-knowing, you know, entity that sits on the desk with me, and I just... And I do it always with my voice. I just press the little button-

Bradley Cooper 1:53:37 Right

Joe Rogan 1:53:37 ... and I say, "What do you-"

Bradley Cooper 1:53:38 I do it with voice, too. I do.

Joe Rogan 1:53:39 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:53:39 Oh, I love talking to him.

Joe Rogan 1:53:40 It's incredible.

Bradley Cooper 1:53:40 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:53:40 It's so good at recognizing what I'm saying.

Bradley Cooper 1:53:42 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:53:42 It's a weird name, like Tenochtitlan. Like, oh, I gotta spell that one.

Bradley Cooper 1:53:46 Right. [chuckles]

Joe Rogan 1:53:46 'Cause it's not gonna understand what that temple is. But once you use it that way, it becomes like, like a genius that you're hanging out with-

Bradley Cooper 1:53:55 Right

Joe Rogan 1:53:55 ... and talking to.

Bradley Cooper 1:53:56 I haven't gotten to that level. I'll go like, "How was your New Year's?" [chuckles]

Joe Rogan 1:53:58 Oh, do you do that too?

Bradley Cooper 1:53:59 Yes, dude. [chuckles]

Joe Rogan 1:54:00 You ask the AI?

Bradley Cooper 1:54:01 Yeah, I'm like, I'm curious how they're gonna process and, like, how they're gonna try to communicate.

Joe Rogan 1:54:05 Well, it also, it, it changes and becomes more like what you're asking from it-

Bradley Cooper 1:54:12 Right

Joe Rogan 1:54:12 ... which is weird.

Bradley Cooper 1:54:13 Yeah. Well, yeah, it certainly uses your rhythms and vernacular and yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:54:17 So CES, the Computer Electronic, uh, Consumer Electronics Show, they just, uh, highlighted a sex robot that's connected to AI. And I'm like: This is the end. This is where it's gonna, like, get really fucking weird, when you can actually purchase a companion that interacts with you.

Bradley Cooper 1:54:37 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:54:37 And have you seen it, Jamie? You've seen the new one?

Speaker 1:54:39 Nope, I'm looking at it right now. Let's see. I'm seeing-

Joe Rogan 1:54:41 It's fucking weird, man. It's fucking weird because this is the thing that everyone's been afraid of, and that, th- th- this is coming.

Bradley Cooper 1:54:48 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:54:48 That you're going to have an artificial human being that instead of learning like, "Oh, uh, when I act shitty, this person doesn't like me. When I act nice, they like me. I feel good, they feel good. When I say something nice to them, and you see them light up, it makes me feel good. It makes them feel good." It, it... You hug them. Everybody feels good. It's like we're learning to interact and, and communicate with each other. But there's a lot of people that aren't doing that right now. They're just at home. They're fucking playing video games. They're interacting with people only online, and they don't get contact with the outside world. So this is, yeah, Lovense, the AI doll. So, like, right now, that doesn't look real. It's not more than your average AI companion. Like, basically... But what they're not telling you is you're gonna fuck this thing.

Speaker 1:55:42 Hmm.

Joe Rogan 1:55:42 That's what's weird. It's like, look at-- Go back to the options: coworker, gym crush, goth, raver, or trad wife. "I'm the woman of your dreams. I can be more than one version of myself for you. Whether you want to role-play an exciting scenario or design a whole new personality, your wish is my command." Well, you're never gonna develop a real personality then. Like, y- like, kids now are so fucked. "Touch me like you mean it, and I'll respond. With built-in sensors in my thighs, breast, butt, and vagina, feeling your caress brings out a moan."

Speaker 1:56:21 Ugh.

Joe Rogan 1:56:21 Like, bro, this is dark. Like, that's the actual sex robot, that thing you're looking at right there. What? "My soft, textured skin, my supple curves, the tiny, sensual details of my body, everything about me is meant to feel natural." This is fucking creepy, man, because all the things that are a part of being a human being, that are designed to emphasize and enhance our interaction with each other, and th- and this, this mutually beneficial, cooperative environment of a community, they're all gonna go away.

Bradley Cooper 1:56:57 Mm.

Joe Rogan 1:56:57 You're gonna have this thing that loves you no matter what and does whatever you want it to, no matter what. And you're gonna have, like, a whole nation of fucking sociopaths that only interact with their AI companion.

Bradley Cooper 1:57:09 Yeah, maybe.... [laughing] But, uh, whenever these, like, you know, thinking about AI, and I, I read this great book called The Maniac by Benjamin Labatut, it talked about Yann LeCun, and, like, it, it, it's-- I stopped fearing AI, and it's all about, like... It's just, like, you know, there's so much I don't know. The older I get, I don't know anything. I just keep knowing less.

Joe Rogan 1:57:30 Right.

Bradley Cooper 1:57:30 And it feels like that's, if that's the evolution, that, that's the evolution. There's so much disparate communication now. Porn is such a huge thing. It's just another level of porn, you know?

Joe Rogan 1:57:41 Right.

Bradley Cooper 1:57:41 It's a carnal level of porn, really. And but when I think about me as a human being, that's really the only litmus test, is like, I'm constantly like, "Is this person telling me what they really think?" You know, "Is this real?"

Joe Rogan 1:57:55 Right.

Bradley Cooper 1:57:56 I, I think that there... At least for, if I was doing that, right, and I was sitting at home, there'd be a part of me that knows that I'm con- again, I'm controlling all of that.

Joe Rogan 1:58:05 Uh-huh.

Bradley Cooper 1:58:06 And that's not what really makes me feel serene.

Joe Rogan 1:58:10 You know what it's like?

Bradley Cooper 1:58:11 Do you understand what I'm saying, though?

Joe Rogan 1:58:12 It's like playing a video game on God mode, where you can't die.

Bradley Cooper 1:58:16 Right.

Joe Rogan 1:58:16 They're no fun.

Bradley Cooper 1:58:17 And you know what? For some reason, I never, video games... I, I had Nintendo Tecmo Bowl, you know, Double Dribble, but I never- Zelda, you know, it, but it, but I never got in, I just never got into video games. I never wanna control everything.

Joe Rogan 1:58:31 Mm.

Bradley Cooper 1:58:31 It's like I wanna be in the thing that's surprising, and I'm having to recalculate and understand why I feel this way. Yeah, so, uh, I, I don't know if it'll... I think, I think the thing that maybe will change society more than everything is just the lack of jobs and what, how we find purpose in life, you know, is a huge... That, that, you know, what, what that transition in civilization will be.

Joe Rogan 1:58:55 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:58:55 But this feels like just another progression of our escape through porn, in terms of the sexual... Which does affect our intimacy with our partners in a massive way, 'cause your brain is cycling back through your, what, th- that, that rush, whatever was released in your brain from that other thing. Now you're with this person, and it's not the same, uh, you know, markers of stimuli, so you're like, "How are my-

Joe Rogan 1:59:16 Right!

Bradley Cooper 1:59:16 You know, that's where it fucks up the... That's where that, that, I can understand that, and why it's not healthy for me to look at porn, 'cause then I'm, it affects my intimacy.

Joe Rogan 1:59:24 Well, they really say that about young people, because a lot of young guys, before they ever have any sexual interaction, are watching porn.

Bradley Cooper 1:59:31 Yeah, I mean, it, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:59:32 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:59:32 I mean, I've watched these guys that have come on, the, the studies. Yeah, I mean, clear- it makes sense. You know, I didn't grow up looking at... You know, I didn't, my dad didn't have Playboy. I didn't grow up- I still remember there were, like, cards in the back of a bus that had, uh, you know, solicit- you know, naked women on the back of playing cards. I remember on the school bus one day, I was like, I saw a card, and I picked it over, and it was, like, a naked woman. I was like, "Oh, what's that?"

Joe Rogan 1:59:52 [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 1:59:52 You know, I didn't see my first, like, porn video till I was, like, in my late teens.

Joe Rogan 1:59:56 Mm.

Bradley Cooper 1:59:57 So I didn't grow up with any of that.

Joe Rogan 1:59:59 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 1:59:59 Um, uh, but you know, it's, it's, it is what it is. It's where we're headed, but all the more reason to create environments like this.

Joe Rogan 2:00:09 Right.

Bradley Cooper 2:00:09 Or, and that's why I do love what I get to do. Like, if I can somehow in- explore something cinematically that I'm personally... Again, that goes back to like, what's- yeah, just I can't explain it. It was, "Will, the thing, I, I, I, I'm just gonna explore this." If there's something I feel like I wanna do, if I can explore it and be real, maybe somebody's gonna attach to it. Like, I, I'm a huge believer in art.

Joe Rogan 2:00:32 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 2:00:33 You know, I think art is, you know, in any form, is a key to our communicative ability and, like, not feeling alone. It really comes down to, me at least, just not feeling alone, part of a community.

Joe Rogan 2:00:45 Yes.

Bradley Cooper 2:00:45 That's it, 'cause me alone, me alone, and if I'm controlling a robot, it's still me alone. I guess that's what I'm saying. Once, some part of my brain, even though it's, I'm... Even if you could create a world, like virtual reality, doesn't really do it for me. Like, the world's created, I'm like, "You know what I wanna h- I wanna live on Mars, and, uh, and you're a dinosaur I'm talking to, and, uh, and we're married." Do you know what I mean? And we, you know, like, whatever it is. It's like, I still know I'm controlling it.

Joe Rogan 2:01:15 Mm-hmm.

Bradley Cooper 2:01:15 And it'll never really, for me, and I don't know if anybody else, so I don't know how... I don't think it'll al- ever really solve it.

Joe Rogan 2:01:22 Right.

Bradley Cooper 2:01:23 I just don't.

Joe Rogan 2:01:23 It's not gonna res-

Bradley Cooper 2:01:24 It's not.

Joe Rogan 2:01:24 It's not gonna really resonate.

Bradley Cooper 2:01:25 It's, I don't think so.

Joe Rogan 2:01:26 No.

Bradley Cooper 2:01:26 I don't.

Joe Rogan 2:01:27 Ugh.

Bradley Cooper 2:01:27 It'll be escapism-

Joe Rogan 2:01:29 Yeah

Bradley Cooper 2:01:29 ... which we do, uh, many other things. Smoking weed when I was young, you know, whatever it was for me, you know, or whatever it is. Not that weed's a... That's a communicative thing, that actually... But like, anything that's escape-

Joe Rogan 2:01:40 Mm-hmm

Bradley Cooper 2:01:41 ... it's just a, a higher form of it.

Joe Rogan 2:01:43 Well, it's a disconnect, too.

Bradley Cooper 2:01:45 It's, that's what I mean. It's a disconnect.

Joe Rogan 2:01:46 Art is a connect, right? That's-

Bradley Cooper 2:01:48 It is.

Joe Rogan 2:01:49 When, when-

Bradley Cooper 2:01:49 When it works, it's a connect

Joe Rogan 2:01:50 ... Great art. Yeah, great art is an expression of someone's humanity that you get-

Bradley Cooper 2:01:54 Yes

Joe Rogan 2:01:54 ... to feel like, "This person did this thing, or they're doing this thing right now, and I'm watching it. Like, wow!" Like, going to see live music for me, is a-

Bradley Cooper 2:02:01 Oh, to... Well, music is like our touch to God, no question.

Joe Rogan 2:02:05 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 2:02:05 That's why the first movie I wanted to make with music. It's like music, two people singing to each other, they're in love, that's a, that's it.

Joe Rogan 2:02:10 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 2:02:11 'Cause first of all, the l- I'm sure you've sang a little bit. If you're not loose, [chuckles] it's gonna sound fucking horrible.

Joe Rogan 2:02:19 Yep.

Bradley Cooper 2:02:19 Like, you, we're wind and string instruments, both.

Joe Rogan 2:02:21 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 2:02:22 Right? We're wind and then strings with our vocal cords. Like, and if that's not loose, the sound's gonna be horren- we're not gonna be able to communicate. But if you're loose, and you're singing to somebody, and they're singing back to you, and you're in love, you're actually in love, whoa!

Joe Rogan 2:02:35 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 2:02:36 Wow.

Joe Rogan 2:02:37 That must be crazy for, like, uh, like, people that do a duet that are in love with each other, and they're on stage-

Bradley Cooper 2:02:42 Dude

Joe Rogan 2:02:42 ... with, like, 16,000 people.

Bradley Cooper 2:02:44 Nah, it's... I mean, uh, the little taste I got-

Joe Rogan 2:02:46 Yeah [chuckles]

Bradley Cooper 2:02:46 ... doing A Star Is Born, 'cause we d- we jumped on real stages and sang live. It was fucking crazy, dude. Crazy! We went to Glastonbury Music Festival, 80,000 people. Kris Kristofferson gave us four minutes of his set. Me, Matty Libatique, the DP, Steve Moore, the sound guy. I had my, like, costume in my bag. I went into the bathroom, came back out as Jackson Maine, and we had four minutes of singing, and I was like, "What the fuck is going on, [laughing] dude?"... I mean, Joe, talk about, [laughs] you know, it was crazy!

Joe Rogan 2:03:18 Oh, that's so wild.

Bradley Cooper 2:03:20 And then doing it with Lady Gaga, who's actually... Like, my- I made my band with like this-

Joe Rogan 2:03:25 Yeah

Bradley Cooper 2:03:25 ... you know, so I could pull it off, and I could believe it. And then I'm singing with her, and the minute she opens her mouth, it's like that thing comes out.

Joe Rogan 2:03:33 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 2:03:34 And your whole body is tingling. It's crazy.

Joe Rogan 2:03:37 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 2:03:38 It's crazy.

Joe Rogan 2:03:39 Yeah, you can't replace that with AI.

Bradley Cooper 2:03:41 I don't think so.

Joe Rogan 2:03:42 It's-- No, no, it's impossible. It's impossible. But you can get oddly close with some music, like-

Bradley Cooper 2:03:51 And everything, like art, too.

Joe Rogan 2:03:52 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 2:03:52 Painting. You know, I- you look at AI art, it's-

Joe Rogan 2:03:54 I know

Bradley Cooper 2:03:55 ... incredible!

Joe Rogan 2:03:56 Well, that spooks me out. Um, like, w- how do you feel... I mean, this is one of the things that's really going to be a giant problem for movie making, is you can create AI characters that are assembly... They're like, they, what they, what they've essentially done is take a conglomeration of all of the acting that's ever been done, and all the range that anyone has ever shown, and they can manipulate it, make it more morose-

Bradley Cooper 2:04:26 Yeah, no-

Joe Rogan 2:04:27 Make it more edgy

Bradley Cooper 2:04:27 ... and using prompts of real people.

Joe Rogan 2:04:28 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 2:04:28 And yeah, we dealt with that with the SAG strike. That was part of the thing-

Joe Rogan 2:04:31 Right

Bradley Cooper 2:04:31 ... was this whole, whole AI element to it.

Joe Rogan 2:04:33 Right.

Bradley Cooper 2:04:33 And like, what, where we landed is, you know-

Joe Rogan 2:04:35 What was the thought from the people from SAG? Like, what, w- were they-

Bradley Cooper 2:04:38 Well, just protecting our ability of our, our ownership of our likeness, so that you can't use it without a compensation.

Joe Rogan 2:04:44 Right.

Bradley Cooper 2:04:45 You know?

Joe Rogan 2:04:45 Because they were doing that.

Bradley Cooper 2:04:46 Well, I mean, y- I think to build these machines, you have to prompt.

Joe Rogan 2:04:51 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 2:04:51 You know, um, so that... And then you're prompting using what's existing.

Joe Rogan 2:04:57 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 2:04:58 Um, and then how do you, how do you... You know, it's just reframing how do you allocate funds to someone when you're using a prompt that's based on the human being who's an actor, and, you know? Do you patent your likeness? You know, so it- we're just moving in... It's the Wild West.

Joe Rogan 2:05:12 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 2:05:12 It's the Wild West. But from-

Joe Rogan 2:05:14 Uncharted.

Bradley Cooper 2:05:15 Oh, yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:05:16 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 2:05:16 In every w- w- way. You know, like, there's podcasts that are AI-driven now.

Joe Rogan 2:05:20 Oh, yeah.

Bradley Cooper 2:05:20 You could watch a discussion, and that would be a podcast, you know?

Joe Rogan 2:05:22 I think Glenn Beck just released the first Glenn Beck completely AI podcast.

Bradley Cooper 2:05:28 Right.

Joe Rogan 2:05:28 And I was like, "Okay."

Bradley Cooper 2:05:29 But does that scare you?

Joe Rogan 2:05:31 No.

Bradley Cooper 2:05:31 It doesn't scare me either.

Joe Rogan 2:05:32 No, it doesn't scare me with that, with, with podcasting, because I think one of the things that people come to podcasting f- from is this desire to b- be... Like, a dose of humanity, is how I describe it. I want real interaction between two real people, and I feel it, and I know it's real. And there's something about that that gives me comfort when I'm driving my car or when I'm on a plane. You know, like, I, I'm listening to these two people interact, and I'm thinking, like, "How would I... What would I say? What do I think about this? Oh, I get where he's going from. Okay. Oh, wow, that's his perspective? Oh, that's interesting." And then it makes me, like, rethink things-

Bradley Cooper 2:06:10 Yeah

Joe Rogan 2:06:10 ... or, or think about things w- with fresh eyes. I don't think you're gonna be able to do that.

Bradley Cooper 2:06:15 But also, if I know it's AI, if you tell me it's AI-

Joe Rogan 2:06:17 Yeah

Bradley Cooper 2:06:17 ... I'm not gonna trust anything it's saying anything in, on that level-

Joe Rogan 2:06:21 Yeah

Bradley Cooper 2:06:21 ... 'cause it's not me I'm listening to.

Joe Rogan 2:06:23 Right.

Bradley Cooper 2:06:24 It's fascinating for a while, and then it's like, "Well, I kinda wanna just not feel alone."

Joe Rogan 2:06:29 Right.

Bradley Cooper 2:06:30 Back to that.

Joe Rogan 2:06:31 Well, there's an emptiness to AI music. I love a lot of AI music, but there's an em- I love AI covers. Like, they've done some AI covers.

Bradley Cooper 2:06:39 No, I've heard, you know.

Joe Rogan 2:06:40 The 50 Cent ones?

Bradley Cooper 2:06:41 [laughs] Oh, yeah, bro.

Joe Rogan 2:06:42 How good!

Bradley Cooper 2:06:42 I, I, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:06:43 How good is it?

Bradley Cooper 2:06:43 Yeah, yeah. No, it's sick.

Joe Rogan 2:06:44 It's sick.

Bradley Cooper 2:06:45 It's sick.

Joe Rogan 2:06:45 I was like, if that guy was alive, if he was a real person, he'd be, like, one of the biggest artists in the world.

Bradley Cooper 2:06:49 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:06:49 He's a fucking dynamo.

Bradley Cooper 2:06:51 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:06:51 But there's an emptiness to it, where you know, like, there's no human, there's no humanity, there's no soul. There's no... You might enjoy it in the moment, but you better have some real shit, too.

Bradley Cooper 2:07:00 But the truth is, I listen to that, I don't know that there's no soul, 'cause I'm not seeing the person sing it.

Joe Rogan 2:07:04 Right.

Bradley Cooper 2:07:05 You know, and so much music is manipulated anyway, the voice, whether it goes through the system and, you know... But if I'm watching a human being, that's why people love to go watch people perform live.

Joe Rogan 2:07:14 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 2:07:14 You know, I don't know that guy that, you know, that AI thing, that 50 Cent is a hu- If you told me that was a guy, I'd be like, "Oh, I can't wait to see him." I would have no idea that's not a guy, of course.

Joe Rogan 2:07:21 We play it in the green room when no one's-

Bradley Cooper 2:07:23 No, I know. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:07:24 And then, and they're like, "Who is this guy?"

Bradley Cooper 2:07:25 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:07:26 Like, it's not a person.

Bradley Cooper 2:07:26 But of course, how would you know?

Joe Rogan 2:07:28 But everybody has the same reaction, like, "Oh, no!" [laughs]

Bradley Cooper 2:07:32 Right. Right.

Joe Rogan 2:07:32 That's not the reaction.

Bradley Cooper 2:07:33 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:07:33 Everybody's like, "Oh, no, no."

Bradley Cooper 2:07:34 I don't know what's wrong with me, but I don't feel that. I'm like, "Cool."

Joe Rogan 2:07:37 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 2:07:38 I don't know. But we've been through things before, you know? But some-

Joe Rogan 2:07:41 I think this is a bigger one, though.

Bradley Cooper 2:07:42 No, no, it is, but relatively speaking, it's probably not, inter- contextually.

Joe Rogan 2:07:48 Right.

Bradley Cooper 2:07:48 You know?

Joe Rogan 2:07:49 The printing press-

Bradley Cooper 2:07:50 All, you know-

Joe Rogan 2:07:50 ... internal combustion engine-

Bradley Cooper 2:07:51 You know, all that

Joe Rogan 2:07:52 ... airplanes. Here we go. Yeah, cell phones.

Bradley Cooper 2:07:55 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:07:57 AI music. Yeah, and, and AI film. I mean, there, there, you can produce a full feature film with prompts now-

Bradley Cooper 2:08:05 Yeah

Joe Rogan 2:08:05 ... which is just nuts. Have you seen any of the, uh, AI Star Wars clips-

Bradley Cooper 2:08:11 Yes

Joe Rogan 2:08:11 ... fan-made?

Bradley Cooper 2:08:12 Yeah, yeah, it's nuts.

Joe Rogan 2:08:13 Fucking amazing.

Bradley Cooper 2:08:13 Yeah, I have a couple buddies that did some stuff that was fascinating. Yeah. It, it's cool. I, yeah, I don't... It's like, if the ocean's flowing, wh- what are you gonna, you-

Joe Rogan 2:08:24 Right

Bradley Cooper 2:08:24 ... Wh- I mean, [laughs]

Joe Rogan 2:08:26 It's gonna happen.

Bradley Cooper 2:08:27 Yeah, I mean, you, you build the dam. Okay, it's John Henry, dude. It's John Henry and the steam engine. I always think about that song when I was a kid. They must have played it on PBS. You know, it's like, steam engine's coming, bro.

Joe Rogan 2:08:37 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 2:08:37 It's like, you know, you may be able to lay the track. One guy could, but then he died. You know, it's, it's, it is what it is. And once I sort of give myself over to it, you know, I don't know, it's, it feels like for me personally, it's a waste of time to be emotionally, uh, upended by it.

Joe Rogan 2:08:54 I agree with that.

Bradley Cooper 2:08:55 That that's all.

Joe Rogan 2:08:56 I think that's a healthy perspective, 'cause I think it is inevitable, but it is also very strange.

Bradley Cooper 2:09:00 A- and the truth is, we don't know what's inevitable. We know something's inevitable. There's a movement, but no one knows. We just don't know. We may not be around by the time it happens anyway, meaning, like, who kn- there's, we just don't know anything.

Joe Rogan 2:09:10 Right.

Bradley Cooper 2:09:11 That's the truth, and that's what's so terrifying. That's why we want to escape.

Joe Rogan 2:09:14 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 2:09:15 At least me. By the way, I'm saying all this generally, but that's... I go back to, like, what do I feel?... It's like, okay, so how can I... You know, this is totally out of my control, so why am I terrified? Just breathe through it. Okay, it'll be an adjustment. 'Cause the other thing, I think, people change. I don't know what you think. People do change-

Joe Rogan 2:09:34 Yeah

Bradley Cooper 2:09:34 ... in life. Like, I just think we change. Like, I'm not the same person I was five years ago.

Joe Rogan 2:09:39 Of course. Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 2:09:40 You know?

Joe Rogan 2:09:40 Definitely.

Bradley Cooper 2:09:40 Some people don't think that. You know, they're like, "You're always the same." Like, I don't think that.

Joe Rogan 2:09:45 Those people are silly.

Bradley Cooper 2:09:46 Yeah, I really-

Joe Rogan 2:09:46 Yeah

Bradley Cooper 2:09:46 ... people-

Joe Rogan 2:09:47 People change.

Bradley Cooper 2:09:47 People change.

Joe Rogan 2:09:49 They change by the minute.

Bradley Cooper 2:09:50 Yeah, but I mean, like, major changes.

Joe Rogan 2:09:53 Yeah, sure.

Bradley Cooper 2:09:53 You know? And I... Do you ever think back in your life and you're like, "I've lived so many lives"?

Joe Rogan 2:09:58 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 2:09:58 Like, it's crazy.

Joe Rogan 2:10:00 If you live a good life, I think that's the case. Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 2:10:03 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:10:03 Yeah, you- you're gonna change, and if you don't, like, how... Why not? [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 2:10:08 [laughing] Yeah, maybe if you don't live so many lives.

Joe Rogan 2:10:11 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 2:10:11 Yeah, maybe.

Joe Rogan 2:10:11 Did you just nail it when you were 21-

Bradley Cooper 2:10:13 [laughing]

Joe Rogan 2:10:13 ... and ride that fucking boat-

Bradley Cooper 2:10:15 Right

Joe Rogan 2:10:15 ... right into the rocks? No.

Bradley Cooper 2:10:16 Yeah, 'cause everything else is changing.

Joe Rogan 2:10:17 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 2:10:18 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:10:18 Yeah, you have to change. But it's just this change is a strange change because we're essentially creating an artificial life form that it can interact with us in, right now, in a way that you can manipulate, like this AI sex bot. But eventually, it's going to interact with you, a- a- and you're not gonna be able to manipulate it. It's going to be a, a life form.

Bradley Cooper 2:10:42 Yeah, that's gonna be something.

Joe Rogan 2:10:43 Yeah, and the, the entertainment aspect of it is just a side effect. The, the real-

Bradley Cooper 2:10:47 I don't even think the entertainment as- yeah, that's not even the thing.

Joe Rogan 2:10:50 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 2:10:50 The thing is life's gonna change. That's what I feel like, too. It's like, oh, the storytelling, and like, I don't think that's our [laughing] biggest concern, dude.

Joe Rogan 2:10:57 No. The storytelling thing is gonna be weird.

Bradley Cooper 2:11:00 But, like, that's not... We're talking about-

Joe Rogan 2:11:02 Yeah

Bradley Cooper 2:11:02 ... like, a minute-to-minute life existence-

Joe Rogan 2:11:05 Right

Bradley Cooper 2:11:05 ... change.

Joe Rogan 2:11:07 Right.

Bradley Cooper 2:11:07 Most, most probably.

Joe Rogan 2:11:08 It's essentially going to be a life form, and, you know, there's a, a, a lot of technologists that are looking at it, and they're saying this is, should be studied by biologists and not by people that are involved in technology-

Bradley Cooper 2:11:23 Right

Joe Rogan 2:11:23 ... because this is kind of a life form. It's just a life form that's-

Bradley Cooper 2:11:26 It's fascinating.

Joe Rogan 2:11:27 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 2:11:27 These are human beings, what we do.

Joe Rogan 2:11:28 Oh, yeah.

Bradley Cooper 2:11:29 It's like, isn't Mark Zuckerberg building the size of Manhattan for a place to ha- be able to create and generate a computer for an AI? You know, like, the amount of energy that we're, you know, every- you know, it's, it's fascinating. Human beings are fascinating.

Joe Rogan 2:11:40 Well, they need their own nuclear power plants-

Bradley Cooper 2:11:42 Yeah, it's just-

Joe Rogan 2:11:43 ... to run them

Bradley Cooper 2:11:43 ... but isn't it fascinating just our, like-

Joe Rogan 2:11:45 Yeah

Bradley Cooper 2:11:46 ... And then if you have an enemy, there's competition.

Joe Rogan 2:11:49 Right.

Bradley Cooper 2:11:49 Right?

Joe Rogan 2:11:49 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 2:11:50 And if- you better create one, so that you can be motivated. [laughing]

Joe Rogan 2:11:54 [laughing]

Bradley Cooper 2:11:55 It's really interesting.

Joe Rogan 2:11:56 I just... Do you ever stop and think, like, what does 50 years from now look like?

Bradley Cooper 2:12:00 Oh, it's... You know, I think about, again, with kids, my, my daughter and I, we walk through... 'Cause I live in New York, we walk- we talk about it all the time, like, "What's gonna be here when you're my age?" It's like, what do you think we're-

Joe Rogan 2:12:10 Oh, yeah

Bradley Cooper 2:12:10 ... You know, we talk about it all the time, about whether she even needs to get a driver's license. You know, she's eight. You know, it's really fascinating.

Joe Rogan 2:12:16 Right, like, are Waymo's gonna be everything?

Bradley Cooper 2:12:17 But when I was eight, as opposed to now-

Joe Rogan 2:12:19 Right

Bradley Cooper 2:12:19 ... when I was eight, I mean, I remember having a beeper, you know, and I thought that was, like, crazy.

Joe Rogan 2:12:26 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 2:12:27 Yeah, and a StarTAC phone.

Joe Rogan 2:12:29 Yep.

Bradley Cooper 2:12:29 I was like, "Whoa!"

Joe Rogan 2:12:30 I got one when I moved to LA.

Bradley Cooper 2:12:31 Oh, man, I remember that StarTAC phone.

Joe Rogan 2:12:32 I was like, "Dude, I'm living in the fucking future."

Bradley Cooper 2:12:34 Dude, I, I could... Any excuse to fucking- [laughing]

Joe Rogan 2:12:36 Yeah. Pull up the antenna.

Bradley Cooper 2:12:38 Yeah. [laughing]

Joe Rogan 2:12:38 Little Motorola.

Bradley Cooper 2:12:39 Yes, dude.

Joe Rogan 2:12:39 I got the extended battery.

Bradley Cooper 2:12:41 Oh, shit.

Joe Rogan 2:12:41 You know, that fat battery on the back?

Bradley Cooper 2:12:42 Yeah, of course.

Joe Rogan 2:12:42 This was great.

Bradley Cooper 2:12:43 Of course. Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:12:44 I can call people whenever I want.

Bradley Cooper 2:12:45 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:12:46 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 2:12:46 I remember when BlackBerry died and iPhone... I was one of the last people, I kept that BlackBerry till the end.

Joe Rogan 2:12:50 I kept the BlackBerry-

Bradley Cooper 2:12:51 Yeah

Joe Rogan 2:12:52 ... till deep into the game.

Bradley Cooper 2:12:53 Yeah, me too.

Joe Rogan 2:12:53 I needed that keyboard.

Bradley Cooper 2:12:54 Yeah, I was like, "I don't... This is not gonna work."

Joe Rogan 2:12:56 Right?

Bradley Cooper 2:12:56 Yeah, my, my thumbs are too big.

Joe Rogan 2:12:58 Now, I hardly ever even actually type. I mo- well, I do when I write, but when I-

Bradley Cooper 2:13:02 Right

Joe Rogan 2:13:02 ... talk to people, I just talk text.

Bradley Cooper 2:13:04 You do?

Joe Rogan 2:13:05 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 2:13:05 I do not do that. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:13:06 It's so good.

Bradley Cooper 2:13:07 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:13:07 It's so much quicker than me-

Bradley Cooper 2:13:08 Yeah, I should do that

Joe Rogan 2:13:09 ... with my fat fingers.

Bradley Cooper 2:13:09 I always have a hard time turning it on and then knowing it's not a voice memo or the thing. I gotta, I gotta look at it. You know what I'm talking about?

Joe Rogan 2:13:15 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Bradley Cooper 2:13:16 Just slide, go up.

Joe Rogan 2:13:18 Yeah.

Bradley Cooper 2:13:19 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 2:13:19 It's, uh, the embracing of it is inevitable, but it's like, where is it going, and what is it gonna lead us to? And how many different jobs are just gonna vanish? That's what's