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This is the rock star that Bradley Cooper based his ‘A Star Is Born’ character on

Bradley Cooper visited the musician for inspiration

This is the rock star that Bradley Cooper based his ‘A Star Is Born’ character on
Tom Victor
28 September 2018

Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut, A Star is Born, has already got plenty of people talking.

The musical drama, a remake of William A. Wellman’s award-winning 1937 film (which was also remade in 1976 starring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson) stars Cooper as musician Jackson Maine as well as Lady Gaga, Sam Elliot and Dave Chapelle, among others.

A trailer for the film, along with some interesting write-ups, built intrigue around the film, but also brought a few questions from filmgoers.

One of those, however, has now been answered: namely. Who did Cooper base his main character on?

Cooper took the role very seriously – after all, you only get one chance to make a directorial debut, and he wanted to get it right – and this meant spending a lot of time around the man who informed the lead character: Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder.

“I went up to Seattle and spent four or five days with him and I asked him 9,000 questions,” Cooper told Yahoo.

“And he gave me minor, little things that only musicians know about what to do, just aesthetically and the inner workings.”

He revealed Vedder initially had his doubts about Cooper embarking on the remake, but was ultimately “wonderful” in his support for the star of The Hangover.

A Star is Born, which had its London premiere this week, and will have a full cinematic release on 5 October.

Cooper, who is also currently attached to Todd Phillips’ Joker film as producer, will hope to add to his three Best Actor or Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominations with the film, quite possibly with the addition of a Best Director nomination.

The actor was previously nominated for Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle and American Sniper, but missed out on all three occasions.

He lost out to Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln), Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club) and Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) on those occasions – could it be fourth time lucky?