Over 24 years, James Lipton – who has died aged 93 – interviewed hundreds of high-profile stars for Inside the Actors Studio.
Paul Newman, Meryl Streep, Robert De Niro and Barbra Streisand are just some of the many stars who sat down with Lipton at the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts at Pace University’s New York City campus.
Lipton’s favourite, though, was someone that may surprise you.
When asked by Larry King in 2017 which of all the actors he’s interviewed was his personal highlight, he didn’t name a legendary star like Paul Newman, Lauren Bacall or Jack Lemmon. Instead, he chose Bradley Cooper.
The heartwarming reason he selected Cooper was because the Oscar-nominated actor, who went on to star in and direct a remake of A Star is Born in 2018, was a student of the Actors Studio programme – and was personally accepted by Lipton.
During Cooper’s appearance on the show, the pair got emotional after reflecting on the success he had achieved after completing the programme.
“The night that one of my students has achieved so much that he or she comes back and sits down in that chair next to me will be the night I’ve waited for since we started this thing 23 years, and it turned out to be Bradley Cooper,” Lipton said.
“I auditioned him,” he continued. ”If I had turned him down, he would’ve gone on to a different career.”
Recalling inviting him onto the programme, Lipton continued: “I went down to the stage and I said to him, ‘If we accept you, you’re ready for three years with us?’ And he started to cry and said yes, and he cried again when he came on the show, as everybody knows. Wept bitterly.”
In 1999, Cooper appeared on Inside the Actors Studio as an audience member who asked Sean Penn a question.
