Bradley Cooper Has a Chair Problem

In Variety's Directors on Directors series, the very serious auteur revealed to Spike Lee that he doesn't allow chairs on his film sets. Uh...

By Audra Heinrichs  |  December 15, 2023 | 4:59pm
Photo: MEGA/GC, Sean Gallup (Getty Images) Celebrities Bradley Cooper
Bradley Cooper Has a Chair Problem

What to a man is a chair? Well, if you ask Bradley Cooper: a big fucking problem.

In Variety’s Directors on Directors series, the very serious auteur sat down for a conversation with Spike Lee about method acting, Maestro, and other important director things. In it, Cooper revealed something, well, downright disturbing.

“When I direct, I don’t watch playback,” Cooper said of his habits on the films he helms. “There’s no chairs. I’ve always hated chairs on sets; your energy dips the minute you sit down in a chair.” Yeah…that’s kind of the point of relaxation…that thing everyone requires, or at least, should have a right to, in their daily lives and at their place of employment…

Cooper also noted that there’s no “video village” on his sets, meaning there isn’t an area where the director can view the playback of a scene on a series of monitors. Lee, shockingly, didn’t have much of a reaction to the chair policy. He was, however, perturbed about the absence of a video village.

“So if me and you do a film, there’s no video village?” Lee prompted, to which Bradley confidently confirmed: “When I ask you to come act in my movie, yeah.”

“No, I’m asking when I’m the director and you’re an actor,” Lee corrected to which Cooper replied: “I’ll do whatever you say. I’m your actor.” Bizarre of these two to swing their dicks immediately after Cooper confirmed he doesn’t believe in sitting down while on the clock but hey, that’s Hollywood, I guess? Speaking of swinging dicks, it’s worth noting that in 2020, Christopher Nolan, too, revealed he doesn’t use a chair on his films’ sets and his team was forced to clarify that he doesn’t ban them altogether.

Inevitably, the internet had quite the reaction to Cooper’s chair aversion.

“Hey, that Bradley Cooper thing about not having chairs on set? It’s hella ableist,” one person tweeted. “Maybe he wasn’t acting in He’s Just Not That Into You and being a dick just comes naturally to him….Let your employees have motherfucking chairs!” echoed another.

To be fair to Cooper, a quick perusal of behind-the-scenes shots of his directorial debut, A Star Is Born, clearly shows that seating was available on set. Lady Gaga, for example, is pictured here in a chair. It’s pretty damn likely that he was simply referring to his own preferences.

Whatever Coopsy Poopies wants to do to improve his performance at work is his business…but that doesn’t make it any less bizarre.

 
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