Originally appeared on E! Online
Bradley Cooper‘s little girl is ready to hustle in Hollywood.
The “Silver Linings Playbook” star revealed how his and ex Irina Shayk‘s 8-year-old daughter Lea has played an active role in his movie-making process.
“She’s part of it,” Cooper exclusively told E! News at the “Is This Thing On?” world premiere on the closing night of the 2025 New York Film Festival Oct. 10. “I was making ‘A Star is Born’ when she was born and then ‘Maestro,’ she’s in.”
With his latest movie—in which he stars alongside Will Arnett and Laura Dern—being filmed in New York City, he was able to balance his career and home life pretty easily. As he explained, “I don’t work that much and each project takes years.”
Along with remaining present in both parts of his life, it also meant that Cooper’s daughter was able to tag along to the set.
“There’s nothing weird about it,” the 50-year-old explained. “It’s just a part of what we do, and it’s kind of a nice thing. She cares so much about it.”
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And she may even be ready to get her own producing credit on one of Cooper’s future projects.
“Kids, they say exactly what they think, and she has a big opinion about everything,” he teased. “I love it and I care what she thinks. Even with casting, we’ll look at casting auditions together.”
For Cooper—who is currently dating Gigi Hadid—welcoming his daughter into the world had been a stabilizing force in his life.
“Honestly, I’m not sure I’d be alive if I weren’t a dad—I don’t know,” he shared while discussing his sobriety journey on the “Armchair Expert with Dax Shepherd” podcast in 2024. “I just needed someone to say, ‘We’re gonna drop this massive anchor,’ and I’m like, ‘Why? We’re speeding. We just got an upgrade on the boat and I know where the wind is coming in.'”
“And they’re like, ‘No, there’s a tsunami coming and you need an anchor and we’re gonna drop it,'” he continued. “‘This is going to dictate everything you do from now on. Your DNA is going to tell you there’s something more important than you.'”
The “American Sniper” actor now looks to his daughter as his North Star.
“I want her to have as much foundation as she can—I think about how my relationship with my daughter impacts her growth and the journey she’s gonna be on,” he explained. “The least amount of damage I can do to my daughter—please let me work on myself.”
