Bradley Cooper came close to wrapping up his acting career in 2020.

In an interview with Mahershala Ali for Variety’s Actors on Actors series, the 47-year-old revealed he changed his mind after being offered a role in Licorice Pizza.

“The reason that I didn’t give up acting is Paul Thomas Anderson. When he called me to maybe be in his movie, Mahershala, I mean really, I think I’d open up a door in his movie. I’d do anything,” Cooper admitted.

The film, which recently hit theatres, was the Oscar nominee’s first time shooting since the Covid-19 pandemic began. Anderson began filming in August 2020, and the actor said the studio was “praying” he did not contract the virus.

“We broke from Nightmare Alley, I was able to grow a beard and Searchlight was praying that I didn’t get Covid, because we had to go back and continue Nightmare Alley, but I was like, ‘There’s no way I’m not doing it,'” he continued. “That was the first movie back from Covid. And (character) Jon Peters was the beginning of the movie, so I started with everybody else, which was wonderful, rather than coming in when everybody’s already downriver.”

Cooper added that the director used their three and a half weeks together to teach him new skills on set.

“I spent three and a half weeks with Paul. I watched all the camera tests. He was teaching me all about lenses, things I never knew. He’s incredible,” he concluded.

– Cover Media