Bradley Cooper Dug Deep to Film a Six-Hour Nude Scene in His New Movie: ‘You Have to Do It’

Bradley Cooper has met and overcome several challenges in his craft as an actor. The eight-time Oscar nominee starred in and made his directorial debut with the 2018 iteration of A Star Is Born, and even sang live during the 2019 Academy Awards telecast. But in his new film Nightmare Alley — directed by Oscar winner Guillermo del Toro and starring a who’s who of past Oscar winners and nominees — Cooper spent roughly six hours naked just for one scene, and opened up about how intense that exposure felt.

Related story These Actors Have All Spoken Out About Being Pressured to Get Naked for a Role

The actor described how the project “demanded that we be naked — emotionally and soulfully and even physically for me, which actually was a big deal. I still remember that day, just to be naked in front of the crew for six hours, and it was Toni Collette’s first day…It was pretty heavy,” he revealed in his interview with KCRW’s The Business.

In a recent interview with Stephen Colbert, Bradley Cooper admitted he faced a fatherhood shortcoming on Christmas day last year. https://t.co/HzOWYBkCDY

— SheKnows (@SheKnows) January 12, 2022

Cooper also recalled sitting down to read the material, saying of his character, Stanton Carlisle, in the scene, “He’s a pickled punk in that bathtub and it’s [the] story. You have to do it.” The actor’s attitude and commitment to his craft really can’t be diminished. And, quite frankly, it’s really refreshing to hear an actor’s perspective on the weightiness of being exposed on camera and amongst their colleagues when a number of women have discussed the process for so many years.

Such actresses as Nicole Kidman have been completely frank about their approach to going partially or fully nude depending on what was required for a scene. Others have been even more honest about the pressure they faced from production to go nude on camera. Cooper’s comments really highlight that, even for a respected longtime professional such as he, the pressure and self-consciousness of being naked on set and potentially on camera never lets up. Hopefully, even more artists feel more empowered to share their varied experiences on the subject in the future.

Before you go, click here to see which other stars got naked on camera.