Bradley Cooper on American Sniper fake baby scene: ‘I couldn’t believe we were doing it’

"I was like, ‘this is nuts.'"

American Sniper, probably the only movie to earn a Best Picture Academy Award nomination that contains a scene in which a grown man waggles the arm of a fake baby, remains a source of amusement online, with the scene in question having now amassed almost three million views on YouTube.

During award season, the cast had to keep quiet about it, and treat director Clint Eastwood’s decision not to use CGI or, you know, a real baby, with the utmost respect.

But now they can afford to be a little more open about it, and a replay of the clip had Bradley Cooper in hysterics on Ellen this week.

After DeGeneres showed the actor his co-star Sienna Miller’s similar reaction to the scene and specifically Cooper wiggling the doll’s arm, he laughed: “I couldn’t believe it, like, I couldn’t believe that we were working with a plastic baby, I was like, ‘this is nuts’.

“I remember thinking - I made a joke I was like, as Chris [Kyle, his character], Ican’t even do it anymore but I was like ‘I’ma save y’all a hundred thousands dollars and just start doing this [with the arm]’ ‘coz you know you have to CGI the hand movements. I was like ‘watch this, eat your heart out Muppets’.”

Sienna Miller previously echoed his sentiments, saying: "It looked like something from Alien".

Ruining everyone’s fun, American Sniper screenwriter and executive producer Jason Hall previously explained that using a doll wasn’t the original plan.

"Hate to ruin the fun but real baby #1 showed up with a fever. Real baby #2 was no show,” he wrote in a since-deleted tweet.