“I always wondered what it’s like to be around someone who’s method,” Joe Rogan confessed during a recent episode of his podcast. That simple admission opened the door to one of the most revealing conversations about acting he’s ever had. Bradley Cooper didn’t just answer the question—he took Rogan deep into the world of becoming Chris Kyle for American Sniper.

Cooper’s reply was not merely theoretical but practical. The actor underwent one of the most extreme method performances in Hollywood at the time. Not only was he 50 pounds heavier, but he also lived in character for months. What he conveyed to Rogan is the great and terrible price of immersion into another’s personality.

The Christian Bale lesson that changed everything

Cooper learned the secret from Christian Bale on the set of American Hustle, and it changed everything. “I didn’t understand this stay in the character all the time,” Cooper admitted on Joe Rogan Experience #2435, “You hear these stories, but you don’t know what the real is. Like, how does that work? You see a cell phone. Do you like to lose your mind?”

He had overthought the entire process, imagining some complex system that required breaking from reality. But watching Bale simply maintain his New York accent throughout the entire shoot—even on weekends, even in casual conversation—revealed the truth. “I was like, oh, it’s that simple,” Cooper said. “Like, it’s not some big thing. Like, once you get the voice, that is weird.”

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For Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper, that meant speaking as Chris Kyle every single day on set, at dinner, everywhere. “I would be in that voice of Chris for the whole movie,” he explained. The technique wasn’t about theatrics. It was about making the performance so natural that acting disappeared entirely.

“To me, it’s like you use your own experience plus your imagination,” he explained when Rogan pressed him on the definition. It’s not about rigid rules or dramatic isolation; it’s about whatever works to make you believe you’re that person.

And when Cooper eventually finished his work on American Sniper, it wasn’t the memories of acting or shooting that were his recollections. They were just memories of Chris Kyle. This is how you can tell the technique was successful. The demarcation between the performer and the role was so blurred that even Cooper himself was unable to discern where his character ended and he began.

Bradley Cooper and Joe Rogan discuss the fake baby fiasco that nearly derailed the film

Joe Rogan further explored the making of American Sniper, and in return, Cooper narrated one of the strangest stories from Hollywood. The notorious scene with the dummy baby, the one that turned into a meme, the one that was the most talked-about among the audience, had a very straightforward reason. And in a way, it added humor to the whole matter.

The scene was supposed to feature real babies. “We had three sets of twins,” Cooper explained. But Clint Eastwood’s legendary pace on set doesn’t wait for crying infants. “Clint likes to shoot fast, which I love,” Cooper said. “And they were crying, and they weren’t ready. And he was like, you know what? Let’s just, let’s put the doll in.” Cooper went along with it, even joking on set that he’d save the production money. “I was like, I’ll just save you $35,000 because I moved his hand with my thumb,” he recalled.

He thought visual effects would fix it in post-production. They all thought that. But when they screened the footage in Vancouver, Cooper sat behind Eastwood waiting for someone—anyone—to raise concerns. “I just see the back of his head, and I’m waiting for everybody to raise their hand. Like, we got to spend more money and make the kid real.” He finally spoke up for himself. “Clint, I just think that it’s clear, you know, that that’s not a baby. Can we at least just find out what the cost would be?”

The response was pure Eastwood. “I remember he was like, ‘I think we move on.’ And that was it, dude.” Cooper knew immediately it would haunt them. “I was like, ‘Bro, this is going to come back to haunt us.”

A producer dismissed his concerns, saying he was “too close to the movie.” But Cooper was right—audiences spotted the rubber baby instantly, and it became one of the film’s most talked-about moments.