Celebrity

Bradley Cooper took Carey Mulligan to the emergency room the day they met

The "Maestro" director also recalled his experience taking Brooke Shields to the hospital too.

Published on January 26, 2024 05:32PM EST

Bradley Cooper's Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro sees the legendary composer dutifully care for his wife, Felicia Montealegre, when she falls ill. As it turns out, Cooper's first meeting with his costar Carey Mulligan eerily foreshadowed their dynamic in the film.

On Friday's episode of The Graham Norton Show, the two actors recalled how their first encounter ended with one of them in the hospital. "She was doing a play in the West Village of Manhattan, and I went to the first preview, which is sacrilege," said Cooper, who directed Maestro and plays Bernstein. "It was a one-woman show, and she came out and the key light was on her, and she looked just like Felicia, who's Lenny's wife… so I went to meet her backstage."

"It's a 90-minute monologue, and maybe half an hour before the end, I got hit on the head [by a piece of the set] quite badly, but I carried on because no one saw it," Mulligan added. "It was in a blackout… and then it finished, and I got off stage, and I just couldn't stop crying. I thought I was really a goner."

Carey Mulligan and Bradley Cooper.
VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images

She continued: "I was sobbing on the floor, and the director was trying to calm me down. And then someone came in and said, 'Sorry, so sorry. Bradley Cooper's just [arrived].' And he came in and looked me in the eye and was like, 'You're not all right!' And it was like, get in the car, went to the emergency room. The nurse was delighted."

"She was not okay at all," Cooper remembered. "And so we went to the emergency room, and we were there. And that was our introduction to each other."

"It got me a job, so totally worth it," Mulligan joked.

But as fellow guest star Bryce Dallas Howard pointed out, Mulligan isn't the only star Cooper has accompanied to the hospital. "Did you bring Brooke Shields to the hospital as well?" she asked, to which he responded, "I did!"

“We’re neighbors in New York and it was lunchtime — this is crazy — and I remember I had just put, like, sausages on the grill, and my friend came in and he said, 'They're calling for you. Brooke Shields is at a restaurant across the way and she just had a fall,'" he explained.

Cooper arrived at the scene to find that "there were firetrucks and everything." He continued, "Luckily, because I live across the street from the police precinct, they recognized me and I was able to go in. And then we went into the ambulance, and we’re trying to figure out the hospital to get to, and it was crazy.”

He noted that Shields woke up when the pair were in the ambulance. "It was like, what the fuhh—" Cooper said, stopping himself just before cursing. "Yeah, it was crazy."

Maestro was nominated for seven Academy Awards earlier this week, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Cooper, and Best Actress for Mulligan. Cooper's three noms (for Best Picture, Actor, and Original Screenplay) make him a 12-time Oscar nominee.

Cooper and Mulligan's Graham Norton appearance will air on BBC America and AMC+ on Feb. 6. Watch a preview clip above. Maestro is now streaming on Netflix and playing in select theaters.

Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.

Related content: