To make worse, to aggravate. Throwing gasoline onto the fire. Bringing up something you saw on the news. Kanye opening his mouth. Trying to cut corners. One-upping a story about painfulness. Holding a press conference after a loss.
AnimalsCatsThrough the ceilingCleanup on aisle fourWasn't my fault10.0 for the dismount?
Creativity is born of constraints. One of the best newspaper profiles of all time, Gay Talese's "Frank Sinatra Has A Cold," was the result of Sinatra dodging Talese for months. Bradley Cooper, the actor, writer, and director of "A Star Is Born," didn't dodge New York Times reporter Taffy Brodesser-Akner, but he wasn't really cooperative in their interview. The result? A fantastic profile that captures the interaction, the subject, the context, and offers cogent commentary on all of them:
I have a story to write, I told him. I’m not sure what to do. Coming back with a good story is my thing, I said. He saw I was dismayed, and again, I seemed nice, so he tried to explain it. “It’s wonderful that people want to ask me questions. I just find that no matter how much time we spend together, it’s only by spending time and doing something with somebody that you start to get to see how they work and how they interact with other people and who they are, you know? You couldn’t get to know me in this scenario just as much as I don’t know who you are.”
I told him I was going to see the movie again. He gave me his number and told me to call him if I had any questions about the movie or the songs in it. He was nice, too. He just didn’t want to be known the way I wanted to know him.
It was time to go. He took out his phone and asked me to shut off my tape recorder. He played me the “Midnight Special” video with Lady Gaga. In it, his voice is not yet as good as it would become, but he was reaching far down into his body for it. Later, Mr. Phillips told me that about two years ago, he was meeting with some Warner Bros. executives and Mr. Cooper walked into the office. He asked if anyone wanted to hear him and Lady Gaga sing, and he sat on the floor and played this very video to show them how excited he was to cast her. They watched him watch the video, the way I did, seeing that he had become an organ of his own movie — its heart and its skin.
We watched the whole five minutes of the video. His face was smiling and giddy while he saw it for the thousandth time.
You can read the whole thing at The New York Times.
ArticlesJournalismA Star Is BornNew York TimesBradley CooperBut does he have a cold?