The guest
Bradley Cooper: Oscar-nominated actor and director (American Sniper, A Star Is Born, Maestro) who directed the new standup-world film Is This Thing On?. A New York-trained method actor from the Actors Studio.
What this episode covers
Joe Rogan and Bradley Cooper open on the dopamine drip of short-form content versus the deeper human need for real connection, then dig into Cooper's new film Is This Thing On? and the craft and culture of standup comedy. Cooper recounts how watching The Elephant Man at age 11 set his life path, and details the extreme preparation behind playing real people, especially gaining 50+ pounds and learning sniping to become Chris Kyle in American Sniper. The conversation explores method acting, the loneliness of moving to LA, and how having children expanded his capacity for love and compassion. The back half turns philosophical on AI, sex robots, telepathic communication, the collapse of jobs and purpose, and whether technological progress is really progress. They close on the enduring value of art, books, and live human-to-human connection.
Recommended on this episode
ProductRecommended
Creatine
(generic supplement)
“creatine is incredible”
“I started taking creatine like two and a half months ago. creatine is incredible. It's incredible for your brain as well”— Bradley Cooper
MediaRecommended
The Beast in Me
Netflix
“Holy [ __ ] dude”
“Have you watched The Beast in Me on Netflix? Oh dude. Holy [ __ ] dude. and that guy Matthew Reese”— Joe Rogan
MediaRecommended
Fleishman Is in Trouble
FX
“it's really good”
“Fleshman is in trouble. it's on FX. it's really good. There's a scene where she's basically having a mental breakdown”— Joe Rogan
MediaRecommended
Hamnet
Chloe Zhao
“her performance in that movie is so She's so good”
“I just saw this movie Hamnit. So Jesse Buckley in this movie, her performance in that movie is so She's so good, dude”— Bradley Cooper
MediaRecommended
Homeland
Showtime
“it's great. It's really good”
“She was great in [ __ ] Homeland, too. Oh, it's great. It's really good. She just locks in”— Joe Rogan
BookRecommended
Guns Up
Johnnie Clark
“an incredible book”
“his father came and talked about this book Guns Up which is an incredible book about machine gunner in Vietnam”— Bradley Cooper
MediaRecommended
Avatar
James Cameron
“I [ __ ] love those movies”
“I love Avatar. I love you know and I love sci-fi stuff... I loved one and two. I [ __ ] love those movies”— Bradley Cooper
BookRecommended
The MANIAC
Benjamin Labatut
“this great book”
“I read this great book called the maniac by Benjamin Lebatude who talked about Yan Newman”— Bradley Cooper
BookRecommendedISBN verified
Empire of the Summer Moon
S.C. Gwynne
“this incredible book”
“it's documented in the book Empire of the Summer Moon. this incredible book that all talks about the conquering of Texas”— Joe Rogan
The guest's own work
MediaBy the guest
Is This Thing On?
Bradley Cooper (director)
“I watched your movie um Is This Thing On? And it's good. It's really good, man. It's one of the best representations of someone attempting to do standup”— Bradley Cooper
MediaBy the guest
American Sniper
Clint Eastwood
“Did you ever see American Sniper? There's that scene where he goes to the hospital and there's all the guys that have been wounded”— Bradley Cooper
MediaBy the guest
Burnt
John Wells
“I did a movie with him years ago called Burnt about a chef and we had never met”— Bradley Cooper
MediaBy the guest
Maestro
Bradley Cooper (director)
“in Maestro, I got to go with the London Symphony Orchestra. Each person since they were four have been doing this”— Bradley Cooper
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
MediaReferenced
Kill Tony
Tony Hinchcliffe
“I think that's one of the reasons why Kill Tony is so popular. You get to see that raw reality of someone who has never done standup before”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
The Elephant Man
David Lynch
“I remember being 11 and watching The Elephant Man and knowing at that moment that oh, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life”— Bradley Cooper
BookReferencedISBN verified
American Sniper
Chris Kyle
“he wrote that book which is how I came across and then gave it to Clint”— Bradley Cooper
MediaReferenced
Raging Bull
Martin Scorsese
“a great actor doing like Dairo when he played Jake Lamada, Raging Bull, of course. like that. he became a different person”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
American Hustle
David O. Russell
“I learned from Christian Bale in American Hustle like he just stayed in because I didn't understand this stay in the character all the time”— Bradley Cooper
MediaReferenced
Training Day
Antoine Fuqua
“him and Denzel in Training Day. There's a few scenes where you're like, okay, this is really in the car. Hawk's so good in that movie”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
The Thin Red Line
Terrence Malick
“Thin Red Line destroyed me. Terrence Malik movie and Apocalypse Now I was like obsessed with”— Bradley Cooper
MediaReferenced
Apocalypse Now
Francis Ford Coppola
“Thin Red Line destroyed me. Terrence Malik movie and Apocalypse Now I was like obsessed with”— Bradley Cooper
MediaReferenced
Apocalypto
Mel Gibson
“Remember the end of the Mel Gibson movie? Apocalyptto. Yeah. he finally escapes and he gets to the beach and then the boats are coming”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Dances with Wolves
Kevin Costner
“how many people wanted to be a Native American and live with the Native Americans because they saw Kevin Cosner do it”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Stand By Me
Rob Reiner
“there was a movie theater across my backyard... Loved it. Watch Standby Me a hundred times”— Bradley Cooper
MediaReferenced
Taxi Driver
Martin Scorsese
“all of a sudden I can watch Taxi Driver 14 times and The Elephant Man and Popey and Apocalypse Now and Raging Bull”— Bradley Cooper
MediaReferenced
Inside the Actors Studio
James Lipton
“They did that show inside the actor studio. Do you remember that on TV... so all these incredible people would come on”— Bradley Cooper
Big reveals from this episode
- Cooper says he stumbled into acting by 'dumb luck', no aspirations, got a development deal off MTV and landed News Radio in only his second-ever audition.
- To play Chris Kyle he ate 6,000 calories a day and bulked from 185 to 238 pounds, all naturally because cancer runs in his family.
- Watching The Elephant Man on HBO at age 11 was the single moment he knew acting was what he wanted for the rest of his life.
- Clint Eastwood would mock Cooper in his Chris Kyle accent at dinner, deliberately taking the piss to keep him loose.
- On American Sniper, Eastwood overruled everyone and kept the obviously-fake rubber baby in the final cut.
- Cooper only discovered podcasts about eight months ago and now listens nightly; the JRE was his entry point.
- Cooper relays that Elon Musk told him people will be able to communicate with no words, wordless telepathic communication.
- Both Cooper and Rogan admit they take creatine and Zyn, joking they can't tell which is doing the work.
Worth remembering
- The standup scenes in Is This Thing On? used real Comedy Cellar staff and unscripted real audiences, with no added laughter in the mix.
- Shane Gillis gave the film's lead four minutes of his own set, and the actor first went up at the Mothership in Austin.
- Rogan invokes Dunbar's number, humans can only really keep about 1,500 recognizable people in their heads.
- Chris Rock's classic 'I love black people but I hate...' bit reportedly bombed for a full year before he cracked it.
- 'Avatar depression' became a recognized phenomenon, fans got depressed they couldn't live on Pandora as the Na'vi.
- Hernan Cortes conquered Mexico with roughly 600 men and 13 muskets, aided by steel armor and horses.
- Cynthia Ann Parker was kidnapped by the Comanche at nine, married a chief, and her son Quanah Parker became the last Comanche chief.
- Cooper praises Andy Serkis's seamless live transition into the Gollum voice while narrating the Lord of the Rings audiobook.
- Cooper credits Ari Shafir with bringing LA's supportive comedy culture to a previously cutthroat New York scene.
- For Maestro, Cooper trained with the London Symphony Orchestra; for A Star Is Born he sang live at Glastonbury to 80,000 people.
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