“Shit, I’ve been around, dude,” cracked Bradley Cooper on Thursday night after he watched a montage of his 25 years of screen work with a capacity crowd inside Santa Barbara’s historic 2000-seat Arlington Theatre en route to collecting the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s Outstanding Performer of the Year Award.
The 49-year-old — who is currently Oscar-nominated for producing, co-writing and acting in Maestro , a film that he also directed for Netflix about the complicated marriage of Leonard Bernstein , played by Cooper, and Felicia Montealegre Bernstein , played by Carey Mulligan — was feted by Mulligan and, in a surprise appearance, by his friend Brad Pitt . Pitt declared, “For me, Maestro is a masterwork,” adding, “Yes, it takes great actors, but it also takes great construction. And I’m telling you, not since [ Robert ] Redford have I seen anyone do it so well.”