Bradley Cooper Stars in ‘Nightmare Alley’

By MAGNOLIA LAFLEUR | Reporter

Palisadian and Academy Award nominee Bradley Cooper is set to star in director Guillermo del Toro’s mystery noir film, “Nightmare Alley.”

Adapted from the 1946 eponymous novel by William Lindsay Gresham, “Nightmare Alley” tells the tale of Stanton Carlisle (Cooper), an enterprising, hapless carny with a knack for manipulating others. Carlisle’s luck and misfortune changes when he gets close to a soothsaying psychiatrist, played by Cate Blanchett.

The filming of “Nightmare Alley,” which takes place in the ’40s, was over the course of two and a half years. During a virtual Tribeca Talks conversation, Cooper explained what it was like to film during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It was a unique experience, going through the pandemic, taking six months off and revisiting it,” he said. “We not only became lifelong friends, but it was an artistic experience.”

Alongside Cooper, the film boasts an Oscar-riddled cast with Academy Award winners Blanchett and Rooney Mara, Academy Award nominees Richard Jenkins and Willem Dafoe, and Golden Globe winner Ron Pearlman.

Director del Toro, who won an Oscar four years ago for the film “The Shape of Water,” shared that he has a fascination for antagonist characters and often deals with occult rooted themes—so much so that he expressed he loves monsters the way others worship holy images.

“To me, the danger of what happens with the discourse in the movie is sort of populist emotionality,” he said to Deadline. “Whether it is spiritual or religious, or whatever type it is, when this type of charismatic figure emerges who can talk to people that are hungry for belief, that’s a really interesting thing to examine.

“I always say, ‘The most monstrous creatures in my movies are the humans.’ Well, OK, make a movie about one of them where you know that. That was the challenge that was interesting for me.”

The film is slated to be distributed in theaters in the United States on December 17 by Searchlight Pictures.