They step out of their limousines, trussed up in all their finery and are immediately bathed in the glow of shouting fans and clicking cameras. It appears the epitome of Hollywood glamour, from the outside at least. But how does it actually feel to be at the centre of this spotlight of adulation? We asked ‘Burnt’ co-stars and red carpet regulars Sienna Miller and Bradley Cooper to describe it…
“It’s a really intense experience,” admits Sienna, who’s tasted the downside of such media frenzy, as she described for Lord Leveson. “I tend to zone out a little bit.
“You get out of the car, and it’s ‘you’re going to do this interview and then this, and this’ and you’re ferried around.
“I go into a sort of auto-pilot, because it’s so intense. It’s the flash [of cameras]. You just do it and switch off. It’s like playing a role for me, someone else who is in this environment.
Sienna Miller and Bradley Cooper share very different perceptions of the red carpet experience
Bradley Cooper’s in a slightly different position from Sienna. His position on the heavyweight A-list was later coming, and arguably harder earnt after years of pretty boy walk-on parts. He’s also based in New York, and escaped much of the unwelcome attention his ‘Burnt’ co-star has endured. So it’s perhaps unsurprising that he seems to enjoy his moment in the flashbulbs a bit more…
“I don’t feel like it’s even on me, actually, because it’s based on jobs that I’ve done and movies that I’ve been part of,” he says, managing to sound authentically humble about this special treatment.
“What do I think about? I think about, when you take a photograph with somebody, it’s one individual person and you connect with that person and the next one. You just take everything one person at a time.
“It’s not lost on me how lucky I am.”
“It’s wonderful that people come out to support your films,” Sienna is quick to add, “but it is intimidating.”
The pair star in John Wells’ drama ‘Burnt’, which follows Bradley’s maniacal chef in search of his third Michelin star in a London kitchen, where Sienna plays his equally tireless sidekick.
The tale is inspired by tales of talented but tyrannical chefs on both sides of the Atlantic, as famous for their tantrums as for their tortillas.
“I don’t think it’s a question of whether something’s justifiable or not,” says Bradley of this kind of behaviour. “It’s what happens and it’s looking at why those things are happening. There’s been a movement in what types of behaviour is permissible. I don’t believe kitchens are actually run like that any more.”
'Burnt' is in UK cinemas from Friday 6 November. Trailer below...