Heath Ledger tragedy led to Bradley Cooper's big break

Heath Ledger's death gave Bradley Cooper his big break - and the chance to work with his idol Robert De Niro.

In a recent SAG Conversations interview, the A Star is Born director explained he auditioned for the lead in the film that became Limitless, but lost the role to Ledger, who passed away before shooting.

"Neil Burger had this movie called Dark Fields and I auditioned for it long time ago and thought was incredible," Cooper explained. "Heath Ledger was going to do it but then he passed away and they changed it to Limitless. They took a chance and cast me and that really was an opportunity that I was really excited about.

"It was also the first time I worked with Robert De Niro."

Cooper actually pitched Limitless to De Niro and reveals that meeting set him on the path to make his directorial debut with A Star is Born.

"I tried to get him to do this movie and combine two characters," Bradley told The Hollywood Reporter recently. "That was the first time I tried to cast a movie, even though I wasn’t the director, and I went to see him in his hotel room.

"I was pitching him the whole thing and then he wound up saying yes, which blew my mind because he was my hero. After that movie, he said he thought I should direct."

Cooper has a long history with De Niro - he famously asked the movie veteran a question when De Niro was a guest on TV talk show Inside the Actors Studio and Bradley was a student.

"I actually asked Robert De Niro a question about the tick he uses in Awakenings," Cooper recalled. "He doesn't talk much but he did say, 'That's a good question', and I cherished that for years. I even asked the school for a tape of that because they didn't put it in the show. They only gave me a copy of it where you see the whole theatre. But I have a VHS of it that I would watch sometimes."