Bradley Cooper: COVID-19 pandemic made Nightmare Alley a 'unique experience'

Bradley Cooper has described making ‘Nightmare Alley’ as a “unique experience”.

The 46-year-old actor is starring in Guillermo del Toro’s psychological thriller and explained that the delays caused by the coronavirus crisis made it unlike any other film in his career.

Speaking at the Tribeca Film Festival, Bradley said: “We have been making ‘Nightmare Alley’ for the last two and a half years.

“It was a unique experience, going through the pandemic, taking six months off and revisiting it. We not only become lifelong friends, but it was an artistic experience.”

The movie follows the manipulative Stan Carlisle (Cooper) as he hooks up with the dangerous female psychiatrist Dr. Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett) and Guillermo “never imagined” that the film would delve so deep.

The 56-year-old director said: “We started talking script and then this started mirroring our thoughts about life and the way we viewed the world. We entered strange, darker times that led to ‘Nightmare Alley’ for me, and (changed the) way I view the world.”

Del Toro also revealed that he and ‘The Hangover’ star “connected” as storytellers as they worked on the film, which is set to be released later this year, and suggested it has irreversibly changed his approach to directing.

The ‘Hellboy’ filmmaker said: “A director is an actor and an actor is a director. There is no separation of the craft … that took a while for me to get used to. I normally create and guide these little Faberge eggs of movies, obviously detailed.

“All of a sudden we were on adventure. I will never shoot a movie the same way.”

Bradley also revealed that he was responsible for the second half of the movie being filmed prior to the opening half.

He said: “We shot the second half before the first half.

“We didn’t want to do it that way. Things happened to us, with sets and other actors’ availability and water, the snow and all that. I was the cause. I had moved to New York and said, ‘I can’t do it right now. Let me get settled.’”