Bradley Cooper Gained 40 Pounds For His Role In 'American Sniper,' Talks About The 'Life-Changing Experience'

Actor Bradley Cooper gained 40 pounds (or approximately 18 kgs) of weight to play the role of sniper Chris Kyle in his hugely successful film "American Sniper." Cooper consumed huge amount of calories a day and ate every hour, various websites say. The actor also worked out four hours a day to bulk up his body like Kyle. Cooper underwent the rigorous routine because he did not want to take help of various growth hormones to build his body and wanted to attain the results naturally.

"He was eating about every 55 minutes or something like that, and I want to say it was about 8,000 calories a day," writer-producer Jason Hall is quoted as saying by People. The actor worked out with his trainer dedicatedly for the role and even took help of a voice-coach to acquire the accent of Kyle. The actor also watched the real-life footage of Kyle and took help from his friend and Navy SEAL sniper Kevin Lacz to learn "pointing a rifle."

Cooper's hard work paid off as he has been nominated in the category of Best Actor for the upcoming Academy Awards. The movie has also been nominated in six categories for the Academy, including the Best Picture category. Kyle became the most lethal sniper in American military history with 255 kills in the span of over six years. Pentagon officially confirmed 160 kills of Kyle. An officially confirmed kill means there was a witness to it when Kyle killed someone. However, Kyle lost his life when he was 38.

On Feb. 13, 2013, Kyle and his friend Chad Littlefield took former Marine Eddie Ray Routh to a shooting range in Texas. Routh, who was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, shot and killed both of them. Kyle is survived by wife Taya Kyle and two kids. For Cooper, the role was a "life-changing experience," as he never experienced anything like that before in his life. Cooper watched a lot of home videos of Kyle for "hours and hours" to know him better for the role.

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