Bradley Cooper has opened up about the death of his father, Charles.
The “Silver Linings Playbook” actor told GQ that he was “privileged” to be by his dad’s side as he passed away in 2011.
“Death became very real,” Cooper said to the men’s magazine. “And very tangible. Because my father – someone who had been in my life for 36 years is just [bleeping] gone. I watched him dying, and I was there by his bed watching him, breathing with him, and then I saw his last breath, and he was gone.”
Cooper continued, “I experienced the whole thing. And that was a watershed moment that I was privileged to experience. And it changed everything. Nothing has been the same since.”
The Oscar-nominated star credited his father for changing his life. “My father gave me two gifts – having me and dying with me. I used to be the kid that got the shakes if I had to talk in public; now, I just don’t get nervous about stuff.”
He concluded, “I can’t control everything. I watched my father die, and I realized that is the way we are all going to die. For me, it was a switch from knowing something intellectually to knowing it by tangibly experiencing it. It rewired my neurological system. It almost did the opposite of motivating me.”
Cooper’s full interview is in the April issue of GQ, out this week.