Of all the naysayers who spat at the idea of another remake of A Star Is Born, it turns out Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder was one of the most vocal. In an interview with Yahoo! Entertainment, Bradley Cooper, a star who was born, explained that his performance in the movie is inspired by Vedder, who “thought it was crazy I was going to do this movie. He was like, ‘What? Bro, don’t do that.’”
But Cooper did do that. And now he’s in a potential Oscar-winning film that’s gotten rave reviews. To prepare for the role, Cooper says he flew to Vedder and interrogated him nicely about what it’s like to be a musician. I guess if you’re as charming as Bradley Cooper has been this press cycle, maybe all it takes is a flash of those baby blues to have ’90s rock gods reveal all their secrets to you. Or maybe he’s just a chill music nerd who relishes in praise. Cooper explains:
“I went up to Seattle and spent four or five days with him and I asked him 9,000 questions. And he gave me minor, little things that only musicians know about what to do, just aesthetically and the inner workings…He was wonderful.”
What Cooper doesn’t say exactly is that Vedder changed his tune and is now totally on board with the movie. And what if Eddie was roaring to go day one? Would Cooper have abandoned the project out of ease? The world will never know.