Bradley Cooper makes an Oscar-worthy directorial debut with 'A Star is Born'

The first time I really noticed Bradley Cooper was in 2005, when he played a spiteful, bullying preppy in Wedding Crashers. He brought out everything despicable in a pretty-boy, comedically noxious villain. This guy has a future on the screen, I thought at the time.

What I did not think: This guy will someday make a hit movie that will pile up multiple Oscar nominations. But that's exactly what he's done with A Star is Born, a fresh, smart, hugely entertaining take on the most durable of show biz tales. (This is the fourth version of the film).

After three nominations as an actor, Cooper, 43, is poised to establish himself as a star director his first time out of the gate. Which is kind of how he dreamed it when he was growing up, a movie-mad youth in Philadelphia.

"I always knew I wanted to direct movies since I was a kid," Cooper says during a recent interview in Dallas. "But I never had the guts to do it."

Cooper, casual in a polo shirt and jeans, is quick to credit the directors he's worked with for giving him the confidence and teaching him the chops necessary to helm a Hollywood feature. On the top of that list: David O. Russell, who directed Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle; and Clint Eastwood (American Sniper, the upcoming The Mule). Cooper picked their brains and watched them closely. He took notes. He gleaned the best of what seasoned filmmakers had to offer.

"I learned how collaborative they were, number one," he says. "The people I've met at the top of their game, the ego goes down, where it's less visible. They're just more confident and comfortable. They're also childlike in their love for what they do, and that's a very warm thing."

When we meet Jackson Maine, the rock star Cooper plays in A Star is Born, he has passed the point of being childlike or passionate. He's a raging alcoholic whose damaged hearing is getting worse with every show. Jackson's older brother (Sam Elliott) puts him to bed at night after he passes out. His mother died at childbirth; his dad was a mean drunk. He's trying to outrun his demons, one bottle, one concert at a time.

Desperate for his next drink, he stumbles into a drag bar in time to see Ally (a revelatory Lady Gaga) perform a knockout version of "La Vie en Rose." He's immediately smitten, and grows even more so when he discovers Ally is a natural songwriter. Soon she's performing with him at massive venues, becoming a YouTube sensation, and taking off like a comet that Jackson, awed, jealous and in love, can't hope to follow.

Cooper makes it clear that he didn't grow up dreaming of making his own version of A Star is Born. (The stars of the previous Stars, if you're keeping score at home: Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, 1937; Judy Garland and James Mason, 1954; Barbara Streisand and Kris Kristofferson, 1976). Cooper's favorite is the 1954 version, largely because "George Cukor just directed the [expletive] out of it."

But Cooper was drawn to early versions of this particular screenplay, not previous versions of the movie. He ticks off the themes that pulled him in: "Childhood trauma. Family. What happens when one aspect of your personality is adorned by people and you find yourself not cultivating the rest of your life."

Every version of the film deals with the toxic byproducts of fame, and the difficulty of living an actual life in the spotlight. Ally's rise feels very of the moment. Her dad (Andrew Dice Clay) marvels as the YouTube clip of her breakout performance gains one view after another. She gets packaged and homogenized for the pop world by an ambitious young manager (Rafi Gavron). We know she has made it when she performs on Saturday Night Live (introduced by Alec Baldwin, no less). "That's the only show I could think of that would work," Cooper says. "It makes you say, 'I get it. She's arrived at another plateau.'"

It would seem Cooper has as well. A Star is Born has won early raves on the festival circuit. It is very much his movie: He directed, produced, and co-wrote the screenplay; he stars and wrote some of the songs. He's slated to direct and star in the Leonard Bernstein project Bernstein, whose producers include a couple guys named Spielberg and Scorsese.

Cooper's star wasn't just born with his latest movie. But it sure appears to be rising fast.