Bradley Cooper Shares Emotional Moment When Will Arnett Saved Him From Drug Addiction On SmartLess Podcast

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Bradley Cooper shared the moment Will Arnett helped save him from drug and alcohol abuse in the latest episode of the Smartless podcast.

Cooper sat down with Arnett, Sean Hayes, and Jason Bateman for Monday’s edition of the podcast, during which he told the hosts the moment he recognized he had a problem — roughly 28 minutes into the episode.

“I will say, coming up in like 1999, 2000, and the comedians that were really popular back then — mean humor was the thing,” Cooper said of the beginning of his career, adding that he met Arnett after working with their mutual friend and Arnett’s now-ex-wife Amy Poehler. 

Cooper went on to share that he spent a year trying to “access mean humor” due to his own insecurities and a desire to make it in comedy, adding that he was “really hurting people’s feelings.”

Growing increasingly emotional, Cooper asked Arnett if he remembered a dinner they attended together during the start of Cooper’s career.

“I remember being at the dinner thinking I was so funny, and I thought, these two guys who are my heroes thought that I was so funny,” Cooper recalled.

Arnett, however, did not find Cooper “so funny.”

“‘You were a real asshole,'” Cooper said Arnett told him after the dinner.

Cooper also remembered Arnett telling him that he had to take his dogs out to go to the bathroom, as it was 4 pm and they had not gone yet.

“That was like the first time I ever realized I had a problem with drugs and alcohol,” Cooper continued. “It was Will saying that to me. And I’ll just never forget it. I was like, ‘Oh the guy that I think is doing mean humor is telling me the truth about that.'”

Cooper went on to share that his conversation with Arnett “changed my entire life,” as it inspired him to drop mean-spirited humor.