Bradley Cooper's 'Secret' Cloverfield Role Explained

The best film cameos are unexpected or unobtrusive, but since the latter seems impossible for everyone not named Joseph Gordon Levitt (he's got a gentleman's agreement with Rian Johnson to appear in all of the director's films in typically blink-and-you'll-miss-it roles), unexpected gets the job done nicely.

That adjective perfectly describes Bradley Cooper's role in "10 Cloverfield Lane." For those who don't recall seeing Cooper in Paramount Pictures' sci-fi horror thriller, that's because he never physically shows up. Only his voice is heard, and even that's brief as Cooper portrays Ben, Michelle's (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) ex-fiancé, who pleads with her to come back home at the start of the film.

According to director J.J. Abrams, he landed the Oscar-nominated actor for the cameo because of a friendship that began when the two worked together on ABC's "Alias." In 2016, Abrams told Entertainment Tonight, "When we were working on ['10 Cloverfield Lane'], I wanted ... to make sure we had a voice [for Ben] that we loved. We were just talking about who would be that great voice and so I asked, 'What if it was Bradley?' I texted Bradley and I asked him if he was interested in doing this, and he as the sweetheart he is texted back and said, 'You know whatever you want.'"

Despite transitioning from supporting roles to leading roles in the late 2000s with a string of successful films including "The Hangover" and "The A-Team," Bradley Cooper still loves a good cameo, and "10 Cloverfield Lane" is just the tip of the iceberg. In 2015, Cooper briefly appeared in four episodes of "Limitless," the follow-up TV series to his 2011 film of the same name.

But while the argument can be made that his involvement was necessary to connect those two projects, there's less justification and more delight surrounding his cameo in Paramount Pictures' "Dungeons and Dragons." The 2023 fantasy adventure film sees Cooper transform into Marlamin, a halfling with a golden heart and a fondness for women twice his size. According to co-director Jon Francis Daley, he landed the A-lister in much the same way that J. J. Abrams did: by working well with him on a prior project.

"I did a show [in 2005] called "Kitchen Confidential" with Bradley that only lasted 13 episodes. We had so much fun on that show because the stakes were so low," Daley told Variety. "[For 'Dungeons and Dragons,] I sent him a letter saying like, 'It'd be fun to play again.' He had just seen the film. He called it a triumph ... and he was like, 'I'm on board. Sign me up.'" The moral of the story? Work with Bradley Cooper, become his friend, and he just might cameo in your future projects.