Bradley Cooper Says He Felt His Dad's Last Breath Go 'Into Me'

A touching goodbye. Bradley Cooper is grateful for how he and his late father, Charles Cooper, got to spend their final moments together.

The 44-year-old actor sat down for an interview on Tuesday, February 5, in New York City and opened up about the last time he got to see his father before he passed away from lung cancer in 2011. “It was everything. It was the biggest gift he gave me,” the Oscar-nominated star said. “The second biggest gift — having me, brining me into this life, and then him allowing me to be witness to his passing was equally as huge. He was cradled [in my arms] and when he took his last breath, I honestly felt like it went into me and I’ve never seen anything the same since.”

Bradley continued, “I stopped sweating stuff that I was sweating before that. It changed the way I was as an actor by like, the next day, and I just started to live my life in a different way. I’d seen someone die before, but losing my father that way, it changed everything.”

While his dad has been gone more than five years now, the Silver Linings Playbook star still seems him while he sleeps. “I cherish them, I love when he’s in my dreams,” he said. “It’s funny, in the beginning, he was very sick in my dreams. And now in my dreams, he’s healthy. He was very sick in my dreams the first couple years, and now when he comes he’s like, 50 years old.”

The director and producer, who is now a father to a 22-month-old daughter named Lea De Seine with his girlfriend, Irina Shayk, admitted that his little girl reminds him of his dad. “[Having a family has] changed everything. Our daughter, she’s incredible. And I see my father in her quite often,” Bradley said. “I can’t believe I’m gonna admit this, but I had moments when … I was in the room with her, I would say, ‘Dad?’ There are some moments where she looks just like my father. I watch too many movies.”