Go to On Demand on the cable box: Select Yes Man<\/em><\/strong>, the latest Jim Carrey<\/a> comedy. Hey, it\u2019s Bradley Cooper.<\/p>\n Figure out what to watch on DVD: Check out the rom-com He\u2019s Just Not That Into You<\/em><\/strong>. It stars Drew Barrymore<\/a>, Jennifer Connelly<\/a>, Jennifer Aniston, Scarlett Johansson, Ben Affleck and\u2026Bradley Cooper!\u00a0<\/p>\n Open Entertainment Weekly<\/em>: Says that Bradley Cooper will play Lt. Templeton \u201cFaceman\u201d Peck in the movie version of the TV series The A-Team<\/em><\/strong>. Grab the previous week\u2019s edition of the publication and see that Bradley Cooper is the likely candidate for the lead in the big screen adaptation of the classic comic-book crusader Green Lantern<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Whoa.<\/p>\n Look at the newspaper ads to find a movie opening this weekend to check out: Opening on Friday: The Hangover<\/em><\/strong>, starring, um, Bradley Cooper(!!)<\/p>\n Bradley Cooper is everywhere\u2014and here, sitting on a sofa in the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Philly, just miles from his hometown of Jenkintown, PA.<\/p>\n The night before, the ubiquitous Mr. Cooper did a Q and A after a screening of The Hangover<\/em><\/strong>, his hilarious new film in which he\u2019s sort of the lead.<\/p>\n Sort of because it\u2019s an ensemble work, but Bradley\u2019s character Phil, a teacher, is kind of the immoral compass of the this raunchy and often hilarious guy-com. Phil is joined by dentist Stu (The Office<\/em><\/strong>\u2019s Ed Helms<\/a>) and weird guy slacker Alan (Zach Galifianakis<\/a>) to partake in bachelor party debauchery in Las Vegas before the upcoming nuptials of pal Doug (Justin Bartha). After one night in Glitter Gulch, the guys wake up to find their suite at Caesar\u2019s completely dismantled, Stu missing a tooth and married, and Doug AWOL. Oh, yes, there\u2019s a tiger roaming around their room.<\/p>\n Post-screening, the 34-year-old Cooper fielded questions about the raucous film in front of family members and old teachers from his high school of Germantown Academy.<\/p>\n Because of The Hangover<\/em><\/strong>\u2019s flirting-near-NC-17 antics, someone in the audience asks Cooper if he\u2019s embarrassed by standing in front of close ones and old acquaintances while decidedly un-PC situations unspool onscreen.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, in my first film, Wet Hot American Summer<\/em><\/strong>, I was butt-f**ked by Michael Ian Black<\/a>, so this is no big deal,\u201d he jokes.<\/p>\n In the hotel room the next day, Cooper reflects on his busy career and the future. So many roles in a relatively short amount of time. What draws him to them?<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s always the director,\u201d says the Georgetown grad and Actor\u2019s Studio alum. \u201cAny career that I look up, the longevity of a career is based on who the filmmakers are that you worked with. If you look at any of the big guys, they\u2019ve worked with every great director.<\/p>\n \u201cTom Cruise<\/a> has worked with everybody. Even his failures have been with amazing filmmakers. In terms of comedy, until a year ago, I took anything just to work. I just wanted to work. I got very lucky.<\/p>\n \u201cBy the time that I got to (Hangover<\/em><\/strong> director) Todd Phillips, I knew that he was the reason to do the movie. This guy knows what he\u2019s talking about. I didn\u2019t know that about him before. I like Old School<\/em><\/strong>, but I didn\u2019t realize his background. He did this documentary, Hated<\/em><\/strong>, about (Murder Junkies lead singer) GG Allin, which is fantastic. He\u2019s a real filmmaker and a real cinephile. He really loves movies. He went to N.Y.U. and he\u2019s a great guy.\u201d<\/p>\n Phillips, Cooper says, is right in league with other filmmakers he\u2019s worked with like David Wain (Wet Hot American Summer<\/em><\/strong>) and David Dobkin (Wedding Crashers<\/em><\/strong>).<\/p>\n \u201cTodd is in the vein of all those guys,\u201d says Cooper, who was once married to actress Jennifer Esposito. \u201cThe difference with Todd and this movie, and (his films) Old School<\/em><\/strong> and Starsky And Hutch<\/em><\/strong> and Road Trip<\/em><\/strong>, is the evolution of him as a filmmaker. The Hangover<\/em><\/strong>, it\u2019s a much more cinematically-minded movie. It\u2019s also, at its core, not just a series of comedic scenes strung together, but actually it\u2019s a detective story, it\u2019s a mystery.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Cooper, the film\u2019s edgy tone comes from Phillips, who allowed improvisation which led to some of the darker bits of comedy in the movie. \u201cHe knew that it would fit the tone of the movie. It\u2019s Vegas in the daytime,\u201d states Cooper. \u201cIt\u2019s dark, it\u2019s a gritty movie. All those things we weren\u2019t aware of (after reading the script). Because of that, Todd edited the movie in six weeks. We did no reshoots. That\u2019s almost unheard of for a comedy.\u201d<\/p>\n Essential for The Hangover<\/em><\/strong> to work, according to Cooper, was the chemistry among the ensemble members.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you take one person out of that trio, the whole film changes, relates Cooper. \u201cIt could very well have fallen apart. I think that the fact that we\u2019re all in pretty much the same place in our career, we\u2019re all the same sort of visibility, that\u2019s a real asset. That no one is bigger than the others. We all wanted to work.\u201d<\/p>\n As for Wet Hot American Summer<\/em><\/strong>, a 2001 low-budget look at summer camp written by Wain and his Stella<\/em><\/strong> cohort Michael Showalter, Cooper admits he\u2019s amazed at how popular the movie has remained, especially after an extremely quick theatrical release.<\/p>\n \u201cDavid Wain was my first (director) with Wet Hot American Summer<\/em><\/strong>,\u201d recalls Cooper. \u201cI remember that it was shot in 2000 and released in 2001 in about four theaters. David Wain was so locked into everything. He would tell us \u2018Look, there\u2019s going to be a screening here at midnight.\u2019 We would go there and people would dress up as the characters. There\u2019s a scene, where Molly Shannon<\/a> is with the kids and she throws the crayons on the floor. The audience would pull crayons out of their pockets and throw them at the screen. It was like Rocky Horror Picture Show<\/em><\/strong>. He was a very hands-on director.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite a steady log of TV and film work, Cooper first drew attention with his regular role in the TV series Alias<\/em><\/strong>, playing spy Jennifer Garner<\/a>\u2019s reporter pal Will Tippin, and as his performance as the arrogant Sack, fianc\u00e9 to Rachel McAdams<\/a>\u2019 Claire, in the surprise smash Wedding Crashers<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter Alias<\/em><\/strong>, the TV show that I did, where I played the nicest guy in the universe, I didn\u2019t see anything\u2014at all. Producers (must\u2019ve) said, \u2018Bradley, he\u2019 s such a nice guy.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cI went into audition for Wedding Crashers<\/em><\/strong>. Dobkin didn\u2019t know anything about Alias<\/em><\/strong>. I just went in. Something clicked in the room. He said, \u2018That\u2019s it, you\u2019re the guy.\u2019 He took a chance with me. I remember he stopped anyone else from auditioning that day. To get the studio to approve someone to play the heavy in the movie that was the nice guy on Alias<\/em><\/strong>\u2026After that movie was a success, all of a sudden, people said, \u2018Isn\u2019t he an asshole?\u2019<\/p>\n Following the Wedding Crashers<\/em><\/strong> success, Cooper \u201cstayed away from a lot of asshole roles. Maybe, I didn\u2019t get far enough away from it.\u201d<\/p>\n Certainly, his choices seemed to have panned out, even after making such disappointing films as the underrated Clive Barker adaptation The Midnight Meat Train<\/em><\/strong> and The Rocker<\/em><\/strong> with Rainn Wilson<\/a>, and taking the lead in the short-lived TV series Kitchen Confidential<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n With the release of The Hangover<\/em><\/strong>, Cooper has other projects already in the can, including New York, I Love You<\/em><\/strong>, the anthology film follow-up to Paris Je Taime<\/em><\/strong>; Case 39<\/em><\/strong>, a thriller with Scarlett Johansson; and All About Steve<\/em><\/strong>, a romantic farce with Sandra Bullock<\/a>.<\/p>\n How about those rumors regarding Bradley Cooper in full mask as Green Lantern, or as a member of the A-Team?<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the invention of the Internet, I have no news to report,\u201d he says with a smile, then quickly fields the next question.<\/p>\n Cooper remains an advocate of great British performers like Ralph Richardson<\/a>, Peter Sellers<\/a>, and, especially Daniel Day-Lewis<\/a>. \u201cYou can\u2019t get any better\u201d than the latter name, Cooper claims.<\/p>\n![\"Cooper](\"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/bcooper1.jpg\" "\\"bcooper1\\"")
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