Bradley Cooper‘s daughter, Lea De Seine, may already be following in his Oscar-worthy footsteps.
Cooper, 49, was a proud dad while chatting with Entertainment Tonight at the 2024 National Board of Review Gala in New York City on Thursday, January 11, raving over Lea’s cameo in Maestro, which he directed.
“She was in the movie. Yeah, she was great,” he gushed. “She was really awesome.”
When asked whether he would consider bringing the 6-year-old along to the 96th annual Academy Awards in March, Cooper weighed the option. “I mean, let’s see what happens,” he said.
Cooper has been known to bring his mother, Gloria Campano, as his plus-one to awards shows. Earlier this month, she glistened on the Golden Globes red carpet with her son, who was nominated for Best Director and Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama. (Cooper lost to Oppenheimer‘s Christopher Nolan and Cillian Murphy, respectively.)
Cooper plays composer Leonard Bernstein in the biographical drama alongside Carey Mulligan, Matt Bomer, Michael Urie and more. After losing its four Golden Globes nominations — Mulligan was nominated for her performance and the film was up for Best Motion Picture – Drama, along with Cooper’s individual nods — Maestro was recognized when the 2024 Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations were announced on Wednesday, January 10. Cooper and Mulligan are up for trophies in the lead actor and actress categories.
The film has received Oscar buzz since its September 2023 release. Cooper revealed at a November 2023 screening that he spent six years learning how to conduct for one of the movie’s most crucial moments.
“That scene I was so worried about because we did it live,” he said, referring to his recreation of Bernstein conducting the London Symphony Orchestra at the Ely Cathedral in 1976. “That was the London Symphony Orchestra. I was recorded live. I had to conduct them. And I spent six years learning how to conduct six minutes and 21 seconds of music.”
While Maestro was one of Cooper’s biggest passion projects, his dedication to his family didn’t waver. He shares his daughter with ex Irina Shayk, whom he dated from 2015 to 2019.
Cooper proved being a dad comes first when he paused a December 2023 press conference after receiving a call from Lea’s school nurse. “Can I just leave the room for a second to call them back and you can keep going?” he asked after checking his phone, per the Daily Mail. “Is that all right?”
When he returned, Cooper explained that he had to go to his daughter’s school. “I have to apply something that they won’t allow … I have to do it, so it’s, like, a 10-minute walk,” he said.
Shayk, 38, and Cooper have been candid through the years about maintaining a healthy family dynamic post-split. In March 2021, Shayk explained why she doesn’t believe in the idea of “coparenting.”
“When I’m with my daughter, I’m 100 percent a mother, and when she’s with her dad, he’s 100 percent her dad,” she said. “Coparenting is parenting.”
