Bradley Cooper got to where he is now because to his dreams. Since boyhood, has wanted to direct. After envisioning the opening scene for A Star Is Born, he presented the film to Warner Bros. But he had no idea the procedure would be so difficult.

For a long time, Bradley Cooper has had a story to tell about stardom, addiction, and his relationship with his father.

Bradley Cooper has always wanted to be a filmmaker since he was a child. When he was around 12, he watched The Elephant Man, but instead of concentrating on the performers or their personalities, he concentrated on filmmaker David Lynch’s vision. Cooper’s passion in directing never faded, even though he went on to have a phenomenally successful acting career, starring in films like Silver Linings Playbook and American Sniper.

Clint Eastwood recommended they return the iconic Hollywood property in 2013, just before filming American Sniper, the worldwide blockbuster that garnered Cooper his third acting Oscar nod following Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle. Cooper dreamt of how he would start the picture that night after Eastwood cooled on the notion, and brought his vision and his desire to appear alongside Lady Gaga to the studio.

Cooper adds, “My curiosity [in directing] seems to be a bit different than many other actors. I would always spend all my time, as much as I could, in editing rooms and shadowing directors and asking crew members questions and learning about lenses and so on.”

When he was offered the opportunity to direct his debut picture, a remake of A Star Is Born, the stars aligned.

Cooper understood he wanted to create a movie about adult relationships from the start. He went for A Star Is Born, a famous picture that was first released in 1937 and has since been recreated in 1954 and 1976. It’s about a failed love affair between a leading man and a brilliant female actress whose career he helps start.

The basic structure of the story is still there in Cooper’s film. While his personal problems emerge, a renowned musician falls for an ordinary girl with a wonderful voice and turns her become a celebrity. The 1976 film starring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson is the most well-known adaptation.

Cooper was captivated by the people, but he wanted more from the story. Cooper believes that his version of the film portrays the famous characters in a more nuanced light.

“They just didn’t see at first,” says the actor/filmmaker, who saw Gaga perform “La Vie En Rose” in real life — mirroring how their characters first saw each other in the film — and wanted her to play Ally, a brilliant ingénue who falls in love with his Jackson Maine, an alcoholic rock star who champions her talent as they fall in love. Cooper recalls, “I saw her sing that song and I was completely blown away in a way that I knew that Jackson would need to be blown away,” says Cooper. “Then I went to see her and she was so present and warm and interested and curious and charismatic. I thought, ‘This is it. This is the coupling.’ Luckily, she was obliging.”

Cooper had starred in Warner Bros.’ billion-dollar Hangover series and American Sniper, but the studio had concerns. “It was a long process to get that coupling greenlit by Warner Bros but in retrospect I’m glad it wasn’t easy,” he says. “No part of this movie was easy. First of all, it’s a guy who’s never made a movie making a fourth version of A Star Is Born and a singer who’s never made a film.”

It’s not just a story with personal relevance for Cooper; it’s also made more difficult by the fact that Cooper is playing a musician, Jackson Maine, opposing Lady Gaga’s character Ally.

“That’s the beautiful journey,” he says. “They stopped being these mythical figures. You get to explore the full human being.”

Proof of idea was requested by studio brass. They wanted Cooper, a three-time Oscar nominee, and Gaga, one of her generation’s most unique singer-songwriters, to perform a screen test. Cooper tells Screen International, “At first, I didn’t want to do it.” “But then I really embraced it and took it as an opportunity to direct. I’d never directed, so I wrote 10 pages and we shot it at her house. Janusz Kaminski [who had been director of photography on the music video for Gaga’s Alejandro] was kind enough to shoot it with me, and we presented that in a theatre for Warner Bros to greenlight the movie.”