"The 'Face' of Our Newest Action Star"

With last year’s The Hangover having become the most popular comedy of last year, Bradley Cooper has risen to become Hollywood’s new “man’s man” as well as “ladies’ man”. After beginning as a TV fixture on the series Sex In The City, Alias, and Nip/Tuck, Cooper gained success in roles in films like Wedding Crashers, Failure To Launch, Yes Man, and He’s Just Not That Into You.

Now the 35 year-old actor jumps into his first action role as Templeton “Face” Peck in the film version of the classic 1980′s TV series The A-Team. Bradley first shared what motivated him to do an adaptation of an iconic TV series as his next film.

“Well, there weren’t a plethora of action movies that were coming to me and I fought for this,” he says, “The reason I wanted to do it was Joe Carnahan and Liam Neeson were attached. I asked for a meeting with Joe and we met and we literally hit it off. We talked for like 2 ½ hours.”

“It felt like 5 minutes and he gave me the script,” Cooper continues, “He took me over to Jules [Daly], the producer, then you gave me the script. I texted him the next day and I said, ‘I gotta do the guy” and you were like, ‘Alright, bro, let’s do this.’ It was a testament to Joe fighting for me to get it because this was before Hangover came out or anything.”

We asked Bradley if he watched the original series as a child.

“I did, I did,” he replies, “Yes”.

With any good action hero, Cooper says there was plenty of training and round-the-clock dieting that needed to be done.

“There was a trainer, Conrad, who was training me for the movie and she came out to Vancouver,” Bradley says, “And they were providing the food regimen of 2,000 calories per day so it really didn’t matter where [I was], hell traveled with me, so it didn’t matter where

"The 'Face' of Our Newest Action Star"

I was.”

Bradley said the onscreen chemistry between he and co-stars Liam Neeson, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, and Sharlto Copley was instantaneous during shooting.

“It was easy,” Cooper claims, “Because when the four of us were together, we were either doing something where we couldn’t see each other because we were doing action or we were locked in the sardine can of a tank or a helicopter for 6 hours or 15 hours, so we benefited from the fact that we all got along. Everybody is so different, as the characters are, but really the four of us couldn’t be more different and that’s kind of wonderful.”

Cooper says that part of the cast’s bonding experience came from the experiencing each other’s trailers.
“[Sharlto Copley's] was right next to mine and it almost felt like it was lit,” he recalls, “There was amber light coming through. I could always smell someone was cooking. I was so jealous. Mine was like that fluorescent light and that weird Native American…Oh yeah, Liam had great barbecues.”

However, Cooper is quick to note that being an action hero didn’t come without taking a pretty good beating.

“There was one scene where we had just recovered the plates,” Bradley recalls, “And we were going to celebrate with General Morrison and the hummer blows up and we ran to that and I tore my hamstring that night. I found myself discovering new bruises every time I came home at night. Epsom salts were my savior on this movie. I still have a scar from the butt of the M4. I still have it from the training. Yeah. I got banged up on this movie.”

Despite the hardship that came with the territory, Bradley said he had a grand old time playing an A-Team character.

“I loved Face,” he says, “We created sort of a childlike enjoyment of what he did. He’s the first guy and last guy out and he’d die for his friends in a heartbeat. At

"The 'Face' of Our Newest Action Star"

my greatest, I’d be 1/8th of Face. I really loved him. I loved playing that guy.”

Finally came the $64,000 question of any film adaptation of a TV series, will there be a sequel?

“If it does well, we’ll do another one,” Cooper answers.