Bradley Cooper has admitted he is “embarrassed” about being snubbed for the Oscar for Best Director.
The actor failed to make the shortlist for his directorial debut on A Star Is Born, in which he also takes the male lead, when the nominations were revealed last month.
Bradley said he “felt like he hadn’t done his job” upon finding out he’d been snubbed, despite the film picking up a slew of other nominations.
Speaking at Oprah Winfrey’s SuperSoul Conversations, he confessed: “I was embarrassed. I was at a coffee shop in New York City and looked down at my phone and Nicole [Caruso, his publicist] has told me congratulations and said what we had been nominated for.
“They didn’t even give me the bad news.
“I was embarrassed because I felt I hadn’t done my job,” he added.
A Star Is Born is nominated for seven Oscars, including leading actor and actress awards for Bradley and co-star Lady Gaga, as well as Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay nods.
Despite missing out on a Best Director nomination, Lady Gaga has hailed him as such in the wake of the snub.
Speaking to the LA Times, she recently said: “At the end of the day, he knows that he’s the best director in my eyes, and in all of our eyes as his cast.
“I know that he’s so happy that we’ve all been nominated and that the film was recognised and we all feel really, really beyond elated for the recognition.”
The pair are set to come together at the Oscars to perform the stand-out track from A Star Is Born, Shallow, which has also been nominated for Best Original Song.
However, Bradley admitted he is nervous about taking to the stage, joking he has a “death wish” for agreeing to the live gig.
“It’s terrifying, absolutely. I was like, ‘Why? I must have some sort of death wish’,” he said.
It won’t be the first time Bradley has performed the track with Gaga though, as he recently joined her on stage during a show in Las Vegas, but he insisted he was equally as nervous for that duet too.
He said: “That was terrifying. I just had to like, Zen out and just pray that I wouldn’t ruin her show. Because, think about it, she just crushed it or two hours ... and I thought, ‘Please let me just be on pitch.’”
