Bradley Cooper’s Best Director Oscars Snub Made Him Feel ‘Embarrassed’

Bradley Cooper can admit he was a little upset when he heard about his Oscars snub. The actor appeared on Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations From Times Square with Oprah Winfrey, where he opened up about his lack of a Best Director nomination for A Star Is Born. While Cooper took the news gracefully, he felt like he “didn’t do his part” properly.

The 44-year-old director and leading man shared that he was in a coffee shop with a friend when he learned about his nominations, according to Entertainment Tonight. Cooper’s publicist, Nicole, texted him to say he had received nominations for Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture.

“They said congratulations on these other things, but they didn’t tell me the bad news,” Cooper explained. “I went, ‘Oh wow,’ and…I actually felt embarrassed that I didn’t do my part.”

Winfrey agreed that she would probably feel the same way.

Cooper’s directorial debut with A Star is Born led him to receive nominations for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures and Outstanding Directorial Achievement of a First-Time Feature Film Director at the Directors Guild Awards. In addition, he was nominated for Best Director at the Golden Globes and won the Best Director award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival.

Despite these achievements, Cooper admitted that his Oscars snub felt like a great loss.

“The truth is you feel like a loser when people treat you like it afterward,” Cooper said. “The award show ends…they avoid you a little bit…then they do say, ‘It was a good movie.’ Thanks, thanks.”

Many fans and fellow stars felt Cooper’s snub was unjust, especially his A Star is Born co-star, Lady Gaga. She told the Los Angeles Times in January that Cooper is still the best director to her and the rest of the film’s cast and crew, despite what the Academy has to say.

“I know that he’s so happy that we’ve all been nominated and that the film was recognized and we all feel really, really beyond elated for the recognition,” Gaga said.

Gaga and Cooper are set to perform “Shallow,” one of the film’s critically-acclaimed songs, at the 2019 Oscars. The stars sang together many times on-screen and even during one of Gaga’s Las Vegas residency shows this year, but Cooper is still nervous to perform alongside his counterpart. As the Inquisitr previously reported, Cooper said he will probably be “terrified” when he gets on stage.

Watch the 91st annual Oscars on Sunday, February 24 at 8 p.m. EST live on ABC.