Brad Pitt is putting his football differences with Bradley Cooper aside to praise the writer/director/producer/star’s sophomore directorial effort, “Maestro.” Pitt, who is good pals with Cooper, joked that their friendship is still intact despite their differing NFL fandoms (Pitt roots for the Kansas City Chiefs, while Cooper is a die-hard Philadelphia Eagles lover.)
During the “New Heights” with Jason and Travis Kelce podcast (in the below video), Pitt admitted that he couldn’t help but throw some shade at Cooper when celebrating “Maestro” in 2024. Pitt also praised the Leonard Bernstein biopic for being one of the best films of the 2020s; Pitt implied that an Academy Award for Cooper is even long overdue. “Maestro” was nominated for seven Oscars including Best Picture, Best Actress for Carey Mulligan, and Best Actor for Cooper.
“I have a confession: I’m friends with Bradley Cooper,” Pitt said. “He was getting an award for ‘Maestro,’ [which] is still probably one of the best movies of this decade. And I was giving him this award and he’s been nominated like 18 times for the Oscars. And I closed with, at the Santa Barbara Film Awards, ‘Listen, he’s been nominated the 19,000th time. You know, if he doesn’t get it, it’s OK. He’s used to it. He’s a Philadelphia Eagles fan.’” To be clear, Cooper has actually received 12 Oscar nominations in his career.
As for the Eagles winning the Super Bowl against the Chiefs earlier in 2025, Pitt said, “I think he was happy this year. He gracefully let me hurt.”
Cooper infamously said that he would prefer the Eagles taking home the Super Bowl trophy to getting an Oscar, anyway. Cooper will next appear in, direct, produce, and serve as B camera operator for meta Hollywood comedy “Is This Thing On?” He said during ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show” that filmmaking itself is “very similar to team sports,” saying, “It’s all about creating a culture. It’s all about just the shot you’re in and not thinking about just the end of the movie. It’s very, very similar to football in particular, you know, if one of the 11 messes up, the whole thing’s screwing up and people don’t see that from the outside, but if you’re in it, you know that very well. Same thing in a movie set.”
During the “New Heights” podcast, Pitt echoed Cooper’s sentiments. Pitt, who is promoting his racing film “F1,” deemed sports films to be the “greatest” genre.
“I look back at Gene Hackman and ‘Hoosiers’ and Redford and ‘The Natural,’” he said. “It’s an amazing metaphor for a lifetime. […] I feel like we really got it right in ‘Moneyball’ in a lovely, beautiful way to add to that lexicon, and I think this one [‘F1’] does that too on a really big level.” Pitt added that “F1” also has a “spiritual ending” which he is “really proud of.” Check out the full interview here.