Bradley Cooper talks about his flourishing career, from the gay wedding in Wet Hot American Summer to this spring's Failure to Launch.

By Christopher Cappielllo

In an industry that tends to pigeonhole an actor as a specific type, Bradley Cooper has proven to be an uncommonly versatile performer in a remarkably short time. The unassuming, articulate Georgetown grad made his film debut as Ben, the sweet, gay camp counselor, in 2001's outrageous comedy, Wet Hot American Summer. Last summer millions of moviegoers loved to hate him as the polar-opposite -- Rachel McAdams' preppy psycho fiancé, Zack, in Wedding Crashers. This spring he plays Demo, Matthew McConaughey's adventuresome buddy, in the romantic comedy, Failure to Launch.

"Demo is definitely closer to Ben!" Cooper says, with an easy laugh, when asked where his new role falls on a spectrum between Ben and Zack. "He's a good guy. He's a great guy," he adds, with emphasis. We first see Demo with Tripp (McConaughey) and Ace (Justin Bartha) at a yoga class. "I'm a ramblin' man," Demo says about himself, "I'm a seeker of truth." Like Tripp and Ace, however, the 30-something free spirit still lives with his parents. "He lives with his parents to help finance his trips around the world," Cooper offers about Demo. "He's kind of this nomadic guy, constantly learning about other cultures. He sees something, he's fascinated by it, and then he sees something else and is fascinated by that."

"Paula (Sarah Jessica Parker) makes her living helping parents get their grown-up sons out of the house. She's a 'professional interventionist'; she dates them and gets them to fall in love with her and move out of the house," Cooper explains. Tripp's parents (Kathy Bates and Terry Bradshaw, in a hilarious, butt-baring performance, hire Paula to work her magic with Tripp, but things go awry when she develops real feelings for her latest client.

Cooper had worked with Parker before, in a Sex and the City gig that was his first job after getting his MFA from New York's New School. So what is it like working with Miss Parker? "Oh, are you kidding? You better be prepared because she knows her stuff and she is ready. She's been doing this since she was born!" he says, with a warm laugh. "She's the ultimate professional. And she's also the loveliest person."

In order for Failure to Launch to work, audiences must not feel that hiring someone like Paula is the most duplicitous thing a parent could do. Enter Kathy Bates, master actor and irresistible mom. "I think she's phenomenal," Cooper gushes. "I had two very short scenes with her and I'm afraid I was horrendous in them because I found myself just sort of watching her. Then I realized, 'Oh, I have to respond!' I just found her mesmerizing. She takes her work so seriously but does it with total ease. She's a real treasure, a real pro."

Failure to Launch is just the latest step in a steep, upward career trajectory for the handsome star with the cool blue eyes and chiseled body who only finished grad school in 2001. It started with that kooky summer camp comedy, Wet Hot American Summer, shot just after graduation. "That was my first job and I made lifelong friends," he explains with residual awe at his good fortune. "Amy Poehler has been a great friend since, and of course Janeane," he says, as in Garofalo, who presides over the film's bucolic, lakeside gay wedding between Cooper and costar Michael Ian Black. "It was great that within this camp, '80s, heterosexually-charged comedy, you have this gay couple with this wonderful purity in their relationship throughout the film," Cooper recalls. "And then they actually get married!"

Amid the wild comedy in Wet Hot is an unexpectedly intense love scene between Cooper and Black. "It was so smart the way they shot that scene," he recalls, "They just did it so seriously." Clever editing and close-ups allow the audience to imagine the two counselors in the tool shed with little more than their 1981 tube socks on. It is a surprising scene. "It took my parents by surprise!" Cooper adds, punctuating his comment with another easy laugh.

Another early gig for Cooper was his stint on Alias, playing the reporter Will Tippin, a friend to Jennifer Garner's Sydney, who unknowingly sticks his nose in CIA business. Any chance his character emerges from the Witness Protection Program in the series' final episodes this spring? "Yes, I'm going back in a couple weeks to do the hundredth episode," Cooper reveals. "Will is being resurrected to join Sydney for one more adventure."

That won't be the handsome Philadelphia native's only adventure with a gorgeous leading lady this spring. He makes his Broadway debut opposite Julia Roberts in Three Days of Rain by acclaimed playwright Richard Greenberg (Take Me Out). The three-actor cast also includes Cooper's Wet Hot costar Paul Rudd. "It's a dream for an actor," he says about the play's structure, in which the actors play contemporary characters in the first act and their parents in flashback in the second. The high profile production is directed by Broadway whiz Joe Mantello (Love! Valour! Compassion!, Wicked) and begins previews this spring.

With all this high-profile work, is there any time for a personal life? "I am not single," Cooper says simply when asked, offering no elaboration on who the lucky lady might be. So life is good for this young, handsome, intelligent and trained actor. With upcoming turns on film, television and the Broadway stage, it seems his career is enjoying anything but a failure to launch.