Bradley Cooper is setting the record straight after fresh plastic surgery rumors made the rounds online, insisting he’s never had any work done. The 51-year-old says the speculation has even followed him offline, with strangers stopping him in public to comment on his appearance and bring up what they’ve read online.
Speaking on the Smartless podcast with Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett, The Hangover star said, “Some people came up to me the last couple weeks. They're like, 'Oh, you look good!’” Will chimed in with his own frustration about the chatter, adding, “It made me mad because people say that all the time, and I’m like it’s such a hilarious thing. Everybody thinks that they know. You know you read that bulls*** stuff.”
The A Star Is Born actor, who has been dating Gigi Hadid since 2023, addressed the plastic surgery rumours after Will was asked to reveal something people don’t know about Bradley. Will said, “I said, ‘Well, there's a lot’."
"And then I was gonna say, because we keep reading it, ‘everybody thinks that Bradley's had plastic surgery.’” He continued, “Everybody keeps saying that. I'm like, ‘What people don't know is that he hasn't.’ Of course, he hasn’t!”
Although Bradley has not been under the knife, the actor has altered his appearance for roles throughout his movie career, including with prosthetics and extensive makeup. In 2023’s Maestro, Bradley, who portrayed composer Leonard Bernstein in the movie, had to undergo a full makeup process to transform into the character.
Speaking at the New York Film Festival, Maestro’s makeup artist Kazu Hiro explained, “The last stage, he had covered pretty much everywhere, the bodysuit and arms. That took over 5 hours.”
Hiro added, “The last stage, the whole time, our call time was 1 in the morning,” before describing how Cooper wanted the work completed before the rest of the crew arrived, saying, “The other thing was he wanted makeup to be finished before the crew call, so he would appear as Lenny to set up the shoot and everything. That also kind of made our call time two hours earlier than normal, so that was quite tough.”
Hiro said the time Bradley spent in the makeup chair varied as the team filmed scenes from across Bernstein's life, with the transformation evolving as the character aged. He noted, “[We had to] keep adding because as he gets older, we had to add more elements. The younger stage was the nose and lips, the chin, and a wig. After the third stage, he started having cheek and neck [additions].”