No one wants an Oscar as badly as Bradley Cooper

Why did everyone turn on Bradley Cooper? vox.com/culture CULTURE   Every awards season produces a greater number of losers than winners. However, no one has garnered more attention for their losses this year than Bradley Cooper, as Vox senior correspondent Alex Abad-Santos writes in a piece about his latest Oscars campaign. Looking back on the season, it’s a bit laughable that Cooper’s self-directed Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro was ever deemed an awards frontrunner — despite [being labeled typical Oscar-bait](. Cooper’s promotion of Maestro has arguably been obnoxious and overly serious, given the quality of the film. But his efforts speak to the tightrope act of being an actor-turned-director, putting your lofty, auteurist ambitions on display while remaining likable to the public — not to mention making good work. It seems like Cooper may still be struggling in this capacity, but his journey has certainly been compelling to watch. —[Kyndall Cunningham](, culture writer No one wants an Oscar as badly as Bradley Cooper [a photo of Bradley Cooper close up on the red carpet, smiling.]( Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic Where were you when you realized that you knew too much about Bradley Cooper? Was it when he revealed he spent six years studying conducting to perform as Leonard Bernstein in his auteurist Netflix original film Maestro? Or perhaps it was the time [he cried in front of Bernstein’s surviving family](. Maybe it was when he said his dad walked around naked his whole childhood? Or when you learned that he reportedly “hates” chairs, and banned them on his set because they suck the energy out of the people who sit in them? The reason many of us know a lot about Cooper at this moment is that he’s in the home stretch of an Oscar campaign for Maestro, which he directed, co-wrote, and starred in. The film is up for seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Cooper. And an Oscar campaign means a lot of talking about the movie in the hope that what you say will sway voters to give said film awards. Cooper currently has zero Oscars, despite 12 total nominations, and the interviews he’s been giving indicate that he would very much like to change that goose egg. What’s perhaps strange to some is that [Bradley Cooper is a man who became famous for being cool and hot](, and for starring in movies — Wet Hot American Summer, Wedding Crashers, The Hangover, Guardians of the Galaxy — that aren’t Oscar stuff. When did the guy who voices a machine gun-toting space raccoon start caring about the interior life of Leonard Bernstein? When exactly did the bro in Wedding Crashers become a method actor? Why is a guy who is so good at being likable in some movies so unbelievably bad at being likable in real life? [Read the full story »](  [Learn more about RevenueStripe...]( Gen Z is officially old enough to feel old. Feel old yet? TikTok’s “how old do I look?” trend is exacerbating fears that people have had for generations. [Read the full story »]( The conspiracy theories about Kate Middleton’s disappearance, explained Until March 4, the princess hadn’t been seen in public since Christmas. [Read the full story »](   Support our work We aim to explain what we buy, why we buy it, and why it matters. Support our mission by making a gift today. [Give](   More good stuff to read today - [A month later, we still don’t know what killed Nex Benedict]( - [Alec {NAME}’s Rust, the on-set shooting, and the ongoing legal cases, explained]( - [Dune: Part Two explained, for someone who has no idea what Dune is]( - [An illustrated guide to IVF]( - [How to do your taxes, according to an accountant]( - [How Nvidia beat everyone else in the AI race]( - [Your guide to the 2024 Oscars](  [Learn more about RevenueStripe...](   [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [YouTube]( Manage your [email preferences]( or [unsubscribe](param=culture). If you value Vox’s unique explanatory journalism, support our work with a one-time or recurring [contribution](. View our [Privacy Policy]( and our [Terms of Service](. Vox Media, 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, Floor 12, Washington, DC 20036. Copyright © 2024. All rights reserved.