Good advice on the menu
Co-stars share some of their secrets of success
In Burnt, Bradley Cooper plays a hotheaded chef determined to earn his third Michelin star, aided by an accomplished sous chef (and sauce wizard) portrayed by Sienna Miller.
In real life, Cooper and Miller are coming off a dynamic year in their careers, launched by recordsetting hit American Sniper ($350 million at the box office) and the PTSD drama’s subsequent trip to the Oscars.
So what’s their secret ingredient to a savvy career in showbiz? USA TODAY goes truffle hunting for advice with the friendly stars.
1CHOOSE YOUR “WORK HUSBANDS” AND “WORK WIVES” WISELY Between Sniper and Burnt, Cooper and Miller basically embarked on a year of acting camp together. “We really did,” he says. “It was like one non-stop thing. I begged (Sienna) to do Burnt. I knew I had to do it, but her deal didn’t really close until after Sniper. But she was game for talking about it.”
2HIT THE STAGE Cooper and Miller both braved the stage in the past year. Cooper brought his Broadway revival of
The Elephant Man to London and earned raves, and Miller took over for Emma Stone as Sally Bowles in Broadway’s Cabaret.
“Every time I see someone I care about on stage, I’m like ‘Oh, God, please, please, please (let it go well).’ But the second I saw him, I completely forgot who I was looking at,” she says of Cooper’s disfigured character, played without prosthetics.
“It’s a testament to him, but you can’t believe that’s the guy who played Chris Kyle.”
3DIVERSIFY Miller has boosted her résumé with smaller roles in critical hits such as Foxcatcher and Sniper, and Ben Affleck’s upcoming Prohibition drama, Live By Night (2017), is waiting in the wings.
“As a woman, you have to start being really careful and clever about the choices you make if you want to have longevity,” says Miller, adding that she now has “a much clearer sense of the kind of stuff I want to do and there’s relief in that.”
Cooper continues to expand his portfolio as an executive producer (and occasional guest star) on CBS’ new drama Limitless, based on his hit 2011 film.
“I have big dreams. I always have. So I’m always sort of looking on to the next thing,” says Cooper, who will take on A Star is
Born for his directorial debut, whenever it happens.
Despite reports that Beyoncé has been approached to play the role Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand made famous, there’s “no update” on the project, he says.
4DEMAND YOUR WORTH Jennifer Lawrence just made headlines writing an essay for Lena Dunham’s Lenny newsletter about earning less on American
Hustle than her male co-stars. Cooper, who starred with Lawrence in Hustle, calls her platform and influence “monumental.”
“Amy Adams was the one who really got shafted because she worked every day on ( American
Hustle) and got paid less than anybody,” he adds.
Miller recently revealed that she walked away from a Broadway gig after finding out she wouldn’t be paid “within 100 miles” of what her male co-star was being offered.
“At that point, you can either swallow it and do the passion project, or you can say, ‘I’m going to walk in there feeling insecure and undermined and then I’m going to have to try and be creative?’ ” she says.
“I feel like I’ve had that many, many times in my life, and I couldn’t figure out why I didn’t feel good in the ( job), and it’s because people aren’t valuing you or respecting you in the way you deserve to be respected. And I’m pretty sure that if it was two men (negotiating), that wouldn’t have happened.”
Miller has a 3-year-old daughter, Marlowe, with former fiancé Tom Sturridge. “I hope by the time she’s at an age where she is earning money that the world will be different,” she says. “There are a lot of women who are fighting for that change.”
5ADJUST YOUR EXPECTATIONS
Sniper was supposed to come out Christmas 2015, but with Oscar in its sights, the Iraq War drama was rushed into theaters ahead of last year’s awards season. This year finds Cooper back-to-back in theaters with David O. Russell’s
Joy, starring Lawrence as a matriarch who founds a business dynasty, in theaters Christmas Day.
It’s Cooper’s third film with Russell, who directed him in Sil
ver Linings Playbook and American Hustle. Cooper is one of few who has seen Joy. “I love it,” he says. “It’s pretty incredible.”