Seriously speaking

Hollwyood star Bradley Cooper says veteran actor Robert De Niro motivated him to take the idea of directing a film seriously.

Cooper, who made his directorial debut with critically-acclaimed A Star Is Born, says De Niro urged him to turn director during their time on Limitless. “I tried to get him to do this movie, Limitless, and combine two characters. That was the first time I tried to cast a movie, even though I wasn’t the director, and I went to see him in his hotel room.

“I was pitching him the whole thing and then he wound up saying yes, which blew my mind because he was my hero. After that movie, he said he thought I should direct,” Cooper said. —PTI