Not quite! Louis C.K. is famous for his humor and wit, but this time the joke is on him. A hilarious mash-up video of the comedian surfaced via Reddit on Wednesday, March 19, from his 2008 interview on Stephen Merchant‘s radio show “The Steve Show.” During the chat, he joked that inspiring actors who ask questions to stars like “Sean Penn” on Inside the Actors Studio never get famous. The problem with that logic? His then-unknown American Hustle costar Bradley Cooper did just that back in 1999.
“It always occurs to me, you know when an actor stands up in the audience and says, ‘I’m an actor, what can I do?’ and asks Sean Penn or whoever. ‘What can I do to reach your level, or whatever,'” the 46-year-old scoffed to Merchant at the time. “And you just want to say, ‘That’s it. You’ll never be famous. You’ll never be famous. There’s no way you asked Sean Penn a question and then you’re gonna be huge.'”
Guess again! After Louis C.K.’s interview, the Reddit video then segued into a flashback clip of a shaggy-haired Cooper, now 39, asking Penn a question back in the day.
“Hey Mr. Penn, my name is Bradley Cooper,” he said at the time, alongside his peers. “I’m a second year actor. My question is regarding Hurlyburly. What was it like to revisit a character Eddie after a 10-year hiatus? Did you have new discoveries, did you find that it was a different approach because you had already done this character before?”
And it wasn’t Cooper’s only time in the Q&A spotlight. That same year, the aspiring star similarly asked Robert De Niro a question from the audience. (The actors later starred together in 2011’s Limitless and played father and son in 2012’s Oscar-winning film Silver Linings Playbook.) In 2011, the multiple Oscar nominee officially proved Louis C.K. wrong when he switched roles and joined host James Lipton on stage as his guest.
Watch the hilarious mash-up video now!
