If there is something you can’t deny Bradley Cooper He is a man full of charisma, and he demonstrated this yesterday when he captivated 10 thousand scholarship students who met in Mexico Siglo XXI and packed the National Auditorium, where the actor and producer, in addition to giving them some advice and sharing anecdotes, did not hesitate to praise the Mexican filmmaker. Guillermo Del Torowith whom he worked in 2021 in The alley of lost souls.

First of all, I love Guillermo, he’s amazing, he introduced me to a vision of how to make movies, the use of certain equipment that I had never seen before, particularly with a crane that he uses for very intimate scenes that I had never seen before and also aesthetic images from his imagination, but most of all I love being with him, he’s such a warm, welcoming person, very supportive of the industry, he helps people blossom in ways that I’ve never seen before and that maybe I never will, he’s a very special person and for me he will be my friend for life, I love him.

That role was very dark, not enjoyable, except for him. I learned a lot, also an important thing to comment, maybe we find ourselves in a situation where we think we made a mistake or that we shouldn’t have been there, however if you trust that you are going to learn something and I think that was what happened with this film, I didn’t know if I had made the right decision, but this experience was invaluable, it is part of my life story,” said Cooper almost at the beginning of his presentation.

The actor did not hesitate to use what he learned with Del Toro in the 2023 film, Maestroin which, in addition to bringing composer Leonard Bernstein to life, he also took on the task of directing.

The difficulty of that film (The alley of lost souls) really prepared me for Maestroand I know that if I hadn’t done that project I wouldn’t have been able to be brave enough to do this one. Somehow you have to fall into the mud, hit rock bottom, and that’s what happened to me.

He told me ‘you have to do this before you do that’, I thought he was joking, but no, he was absolutely right, this man is magical in some way, he’s like a magician,” she added.

The 12-time Oscar nominee also shared with the kids how he got started in acting, his fear of public speaking and how after seeing The Elephant Man, of David
Lynch decided to enter this world.

I loved stories, I dreamed, I said I wanted to be an actor and they laughed. I didn’t try to be an actor until after college because I was terrified of public speaking, but over time I got over it.

I can say personally that the film left its mark on me. The Elephant Manthat’s when I decided seriously that I wanted to be an actor. Which is funny because I was thinking of giving up, until before I did it. What happened yesterday?“I was going to throw in the towel,” he explained.

Cooper is convinced that for him acting is not a way to receive recognition, for him it is a form of expression, which is why he prefers that Philadelphia Eagles win a Super Bowl to him win an Oscar.

I’d rather the Eagles win a Super Bowl than me win an Oscar, of course. My job doesn’t depend on awards, theirs does, they work for that, to win the trophy. We’re going to have a great season and we’re playing right now in Brazil against the Green Bay Packers, I’m going to miss it, but that’s okay because I’m here with you. I hope you win, it’s going to be a great season, the Kansas Chiefs game against the Baltimore Ravens was wonderful.

It would be wonderful to win an Oscar, of course! It would be
unreal because I’ve always been there and I’ve never won one, I would go crazy, but I don’t know if they would invite me to the Oscars again or if I would be nominated again, I don’t know, but being nominated for me is wonderful, so who knows, but it would be incredible to win one,” he stressed.

He is also a producer of films such as Joker y A star is bornwhere he shared the stage with Lady Gaga, recommended that those attending Mexico Siglo XXI surround themselves with people who help them grow and stop giving importance to the comments of those who do not contribute to their stories and start writing their own.

“Do that, nobody gave me permission, I did what I had to do when there were a lot of people who didn’t support me or wanted me to do bad. Do that, write your own stories, don’t wait for someone else to write them for you,” said Cooper, who at the end of his talk did not hesitate to take a selfie with everyone present at the National Auditorium.

“IN MEXICO THERE IS NO HURRICANE THAT WILL STOP THEM”

At 55 years old, chef José Andrés shared two of his best-kept secrets with those attending Mexico Siglo XXI. Being a chef, he found that food is the best way to tell stories… because that’s where they simmer, and it’s those stories that have led him to become a man who knows that solidarity and risk-taking are the elements that can make things change and improve.

For me, cooking is not a job, it has always been a passion, there is nothing I like more than feeding people, many of them, in my restaurants, and also many of them when sometimes there are emergencies and we go. Feeding people is very nice,” shared the chef owner of Oyamel, in New York.

Since he was a child, his parents taught him to help those in need, those who might be in some kind of emergency, and that teaching led him to create World Central Kitchen in 2010, and brought him to Acapulco in 2023 to be able to help those affected by the port in cooperation with the local people.

Spanish-born chef José Andrés said that the best way to tell stories is through food.

In Acapulco, it was not World Central Kitchen that fed people, it was the cooks and the people who fed Acapulco. In Ukraine, it was the people who fed Ukraine. In the end, big problems have very simple solutions. A chef in Acapulco called Lalo Plascencia was there at the forefront… cooks, hoteliers, people like Carlos Slim, soldiers, people who gave everything without anyone having to know. In the end, that’s how problems are solved.

“I learned that I can stay on my couch thinking about what I want to do or I’ll just take a plane and show up and be by the side of whoever needs me. You start with one meal, but before you know it you can end up giving millions of them. What do we do? We create a family, we create a team. I learned that they are awesome and that in Mexico no hurricane is going to stop them,” he said.

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