Bradley Cooper and Emma Stone talk shop as they describe working on their films Maestro and Poor Things for Variety’s Actors on Actors

Hollywood megastars Bradley Cooper and Emma Stone had a meeting where they joined forces Variety's actors on actors.

The duo chatted as they discussed their critically acclaimed new films, with Cooper playing legendary composer Leonard Bernstein in the Netflix biopic Maestro and Emma starring in the dark comedy Poor Things.

Bradley, 48, and Emma, ​​35, praised each other's work in the films while chatting about the making of the films, with Cooper briefly talking about using prosthetics to embody Bernstein.

Stone, who watched a segment of Maestro with her mother at Cooper's home, said enthusiastically about the film, “My mother and I were an absolute wreck halfway through the movie, and so impressed with what you did, what Carey was doing. , your direction. That conducting scene, which gave me goosebumps – how long did that last?'

Cooper revealed that the scene lasted six minutes and was finished after he prayed to 'Lenny' for support.

“I screwed up the whole first day. As soon as I got behind the pace it was over. So I woke up in the morning, walked into the church and it was empty. We are not supposed to film there that day.

'I thought: I have to try it again. I brought everyone back in and I said a prayer to Lenny in front of everyone, like, “Thank you for this opportunity. We'll do it again.” That's what the movie says. It was one take.”

Cooper directs, stars and co-writes the script for Maestro – a responsibility he ultimately found liberating.

'I knew if Maestro messed up it was all on me. I was beholden to no one else. There was a freedom in that, but also a huge burden,” he explained.

'But that's why these kinds of things feel very different to me. I will carry it with me for the rest of my life. It has changed who I am as an artist. And when I watch your performance in that film, there isn't a version that I think doesn't apply the same to you.

Cooper then discussed using prosthetics to film Maestro: “Even though I'm not physically naked, I was completely naked when I put this prosthetic on and was him and the way he was talking. I would direct the movie that way just because it was easier. But I felt so vulnerable,” he explained.

Bradley then asked Emma if she had experienced the same “level of surrender” as filming Poor Things.

“Watching your performance, you had to give yourself permission, which I had to do, to just jump off the cliff every day, in terms of surrendering to – I don't know – people laughing at us on set, like I'm honest. Did you feel like there was a level of surrender that you had to have?'

Poor Things, which reunites Stone with The Favorite director Yorgos Lanthimos, is a fantastical black comedy in which the actress plays a young child whose brain is implanted into the body of an adult woman by a deformed scientist (played by Willem Dafoe). .

Stone said she too had to let go of her inhibitions to film Poor Things – before revealing her director had the same attitude as Bradley about the outcome of their film.

'I did. But to your point: Yorgos constantly says that the end product is his. There is a captain of the ship that I completely trust and have so much admiration and enormous respect for. In those circumstances people laughed at me, he laughed at me.'

She also described the bare-bones crew they had when filming nude scenes.

“He'd say, 'That one was crazy.' But that was for the best, because there are no eggshells. We can fight, we can laugh, all that is completely free. And when it came to legitimate nudity, we had a very small team.

'Robbie Ryan, our cameraman, looks at me as if I were a table or a lamp. It was amazing. He just said, “Whatever.” '