It’s a new world for Bradley Cooper. The 43-year-old actor and newly minted director opened up to Rachel Martin on NPR’s “Morning Edition” this week, sharing how becoming a dad to his daughter, Lea, with Irina Shark, has changed him. “Well, I’ve been opened up to a world of children’s music, that’s for sure,” he joked. Bradley spent the past four years working on “A Star Is Born” with Lady Gaga and says there’s a connection between the film and his family. “I spent about 15 years going from movie to movie to movie,” he said. “And then I hit 39 and I stopped and I said, ‘What do I really want to do?’ I want to tell Joseph Merrick’s story in [the Broadway revival] The Elephant Man. So I did that for a year. Then this story came to me, A Star Is Born, and then I spent the next four years doing that … So I guess having a child, and having a family of my own — which is a miracle and something I’ve always dreamt of — has opened me up even more, I guess, to the day, and to be present.” Bradley also said he and his co-star. Lady Gaga, shared a connection that inspires his parenting. “Here’s the other thing that connected [Gaga] and myself right away, is that we were very, very loved as children,” he said. “And when I meet people that have had that similar upbringing, I can just see it in them. And that’s the thing I want my daughter to have — I just always want her to feel loved.”
