Bradley Cooper almost quit The Place Beyond the Pines after receiving changed script, director says

Director said Cooper sent voice note saying ‘I’m out’

The Place Beyond the Pines director and co-writer Derek Cianfrance has revealed that Bradley Cooper nearly bowed out of the production after receiving a rewritten script.

At the last minute before shooting the 2012 film, Cianfrance brought in screenwriter Darius Marder to rewrite “every word” of the film, which follows a motorcycle stunt rider Luke (Ryan Gosling) who turns to robbing banks to provide for his newborn son.

Luke’s actions cause his life to become intertwined with a rookie police officer named Avery (Cooper) who chases after him during a robbery.

Cianfrance said that when he sent the rewritten script to Cooper, the Maestro actor replied with a voice note saying “I’m out”.

“I had given [Marder] the script and he had a lot of notes for it, and I kind of agreed with a lot of what he was saying,” Cianfrance explained. “And so we rewrote every word from 10 weeks to six weeks.”

“I remember giving Bradley Cooper the copy of ‘The Place Beyond the Pines,’ the new script, and getting a voice message from him saying, ‘Bro, I just want to let you know I read the new draft and I’m out.’”

Bradley Cooper as Avery in ‘The Place Beyond the Pines’ (Studio Canal)

The director recalled that Cooper said it wasn’t the film he signed up for and wanted to bow out of shooting. But Cianfrance ended up travelling to Montreal in the early hours of the morning to convince Cooper to stay.

“I was like, ‘Can I come talk to you?’ So I went up to Montreal, and I had a long conversation with him from midnight to 3:30 in the morning where I got him back on.”

“It was only in the last five minutes [he was convinced]. I think he just got tired. He wanted to go to bed.”

The Independent has contacted Cooper’s representatives for comment.

‘The Place Beyond the Pines’ director, Derek Cianfrance (Getty Images)

Though Cooper has not spoken about his response to the rewrite, the actor has a history of being staunchly committed to the roles he signs on for.

He recently revealed that he spent six years learning to conduct for his role as American composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein for Netflix’s Oscar-nominated biopic Maestro.

In a scene that recreated Bernstein conducting the 1976 London Symphony Orchestra in Ely Cathedral – a landmark moment in the musician’s career – Cooper had to conduct a live orchestra for six and a half minutes.

“I was able to get the raw take where I just watched Leonard Bernstein [conduct] at Ely Cathedral with the London Symphony Orchestra in 1976. And so I had that to study,” Cooper said at a panel talk. “And Yannick Nézet-Séguin made videos with all the tempo changes, so I had all of the materials to just work on.”

“I was recorded live, I had to conduct [the London Symphony Orchestra]. And I spent six years learning how to conduct six minutes and 21 seconds of music,” Cooper said.