Simply Abu Dhabi Magazine XVI

7 1 S I M P LY A B U DH A B I Suki Waterhouse Copyright: Featureflash Robert De Niro & Bradley Cooper Copyright: Featureflash I n his first decade as an actor, he drifted from one unremarkable supporting role to another. Then he lost his way in life and struggled to ease a lot of unacknowledged anger and admitted confusion. But Bradley Cooper decided to get his act together, and take responsibility for his life. Films like “TheHangover” and “Limitless” turned his career around, and an Oscar nomination for “Silver Linings Playbook” finally put him on the Hollywood A-List. His recent performance in last year's critically acclaimed film “American Hustle” merely confirmed his star power. Not a bad achievement for an actor who at one point thought his career had reached a dead end. "It's great to be able to feel that you've reached a place in life where you always wanted to be," Cooper says. "I've worked with (Robert) De Niro and David O. Russell twice and now I'mdoing a filmwith Clint Eastwood. You almost think that you're living out a dream and praying that you don't wake up, that's how good things have been going for me." Cooper's new film, “Serena,” is a Depression-era drama set in 1929 that sees him co-star opposite Jennifer Lawrence as a newlywed couple trying to launch a timber empire in the hills of North Carolina. Directed by Suzanne Bier, whose "Heaven" won the Oscar for best foreign film in 2011, the film reunites Cooper and Lawrence, having previously appeared together in David O. Russell's "Silver Linings Playbook" and last year's "American Hustle." The story revolves around the emotional crisis that results when Lawrence's title character discovers she is unable to bear children and takes her anger out on her husband's illegitimate son. In addition, Cooper can be heard voicing the character of Rocket Raccoon in "Guardians of the Galaxy," the sci-fi adventure film that co-stars his ex- girlfriend, Zoe Saldana, with whom he played in "The Words" together. The 39-year-old Cooper grew up in Philadelphia where his family lived next to a movie theatre that allowed young Bradley to develop an abiding passion for cinema and principally the foreign films his father (who died in 2011) loved to introduce to his son. Following his much-publicised break-up with Saldana, Cooper has been dating model Suki Waterhouse since March 2013. He previously enjoyed a two-year relationship with Renee Zellweger and was married for four months to Jennifer Esposito in 2006. He is fluent in French, having studied the language at university, and has takenmany trips to France in recent years. He andWaterhouse, 22, spent a week in Paris together in April. A great lover of literature, Cooper wrote his thesis on Vladimir Nabokov's literary classic, “Lolita.” He recently completed shooting "American Sniper," co-starring Sienna Miller, and directed by Clint Eastwood.

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