Why Bradley Cooper Thought He Wouldn’t Get His Role in The Hangover

Another reason to doubt the project: Cooper also tried to call Phillips back, only to get bad news. “I remember checking in, and they said, ‘Yeah, budgetary problems; they’re going to need a name.'” But Phillips liked Cooper more than he thought; after finally getting a budget approved, at a lower number than he’d originally hoped, Phillips got back in touch with Cooper and offered him the role. As Cooper described it:

“I’m doing a play in Williamstown [Mass.], trying to figure out what the f*** I’m going to do with my life. And I’m sitting there in the apartment in between matinees, and I get a text [from Phillips]: ‘Are we going to f***ing do this?’ I was like: ‘I haven’t heard from you in f***ing four months! Are you serious?’ [Phillips was] like, ‘Yeah, we’re going to make ‘The Hangover.'”

“The Hangover” was a huge critical hit that also grossed $469 million at the box office. Not too shabby, considering it was made on a $35 million budget. The movie sparked two popular sequels, made it much easier for Todd Phillips to fund his future projects, and firmly cemented Bradley Cooper as a household name. From 2009 onward, Cooper has had no shortage of new projects to choose from, although he still wouldn’t mind going back to the “Hangover” franchise one last time.

“I would do probably Hangover 4 in an instant, yeah,” he told The New Yorker last year. “Just because I love Todd, I love Zach [Galifianakis], I love Ed [Helms] so much.”