You know that feeling when you're watching a movie and someone just... takes over? That’s exactly what happened when Bradley Cooper stormed onto the screen in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2021 masterpiece, Licorice Pizza.
Honestly, he’s only in the movie for about eight minutes. Maybe ten if you count the screaming in the background. But those few minutes are so chaotic, so high-voltage, that they basically hijacked the entire awards season conversation that year. People weren't talking about the lead actors; they were talking about the guy in the white jumpsuit threatening to murder a teenager over a waterbed.
It was weird. It was dangerous. And it was actually based on a real guy who is, if anything, even stranger than the movie version.
The Real Jon Peters: More Than Just a Character
To understand why the Bradley Cooper Licorice Pizza performance worked, you have to understand the man he was playing: Jon Peters.
In the 1970s, Jon Peters was a legendary Hollywood figure. He started as a hairdresser—the "Barber to the Stars"—before transitioning into a powerhouse producer. He was famously the boyfriend of Barbra Streisand (or "Bar-bra Strei-sand," as Cooper’s character aggressively corrects people in the film).
Peters is the guy who eventually produced the 1989 Batman and spent years trying to get a Superman movie made where Superman fought a giant spider. No, really. Kevin Smith has a famous story about Peters insisting that the Man of Steel couldn't fly and needed to fight a "Thanagarian Snaggle Beast."
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When Paul Thomas Anderson approached the real Jon Peters for permission to put him in the movie, Peters had one condition. He didn't care if he looked like a lunatic. He just wanted his favorite pickup line included: "Do you like peanut butter sandwiches?"
How Bradley Cooper Became the "Monster"
Bradley Cooper didn't just play Jon Peters; he channeled a specific brand of 1970s "aggro" energy. He’s a whirlwind of chest hair, medallions, and pure, unadulterated menace.
The filming process was apparently just as intense as the performance. Cooper has talked about how the role "demanded that we be naked—emotionally and soulfully." He spent six hours filming one day basically in the buff or close to it, which he described as "pretty heavy."
The Improvisation Factor
A lot of what makes that sequence so twitchy and unpredictable is the improv. While Anderson’s scripts are usually tight, the "Jon Peters section" was a playground. The film’s editor, Andy Jurgensen, noted that they had to mark the footage with locators because so much of the dialogue was being invented on the fly.
If you watch the scene where Gary (Cooper Hoffman) and Alana (Alana Haim) deliver the waterbed, watch Cooper’s eyes. He’s not just playing a character; he’s playing a guy who is actively losing his mind because of a gas crisis and a leaky mattress.
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The Connection to A Star Is Born
There is a weird, meta-layer to the Bradley Cooper Licorice Pizza casting that most casual viewers missed.
In 2018, Bradley Cooper directed and starred in A Star Is Born.
In 1976, the original remake of A Star Is Born was produced by... Jon Peters.
Cooper actually had to get Peters’ permission to make his 2018 version because Peters held "grandfathered" rights to the material. Peters actually deferred his million-dollar producer fee so Cooper could get the movie made on a budget. So, when Cooper plays him a few years later as a gasoline-huffing madman, it’s a bizarrely full-circle moment of Hollywood irony.
Why the Performance Works
It’s easy to play "crazy." It’s hard to play "Hollywood crazy."
Cooper captures the specific insecurity of a man who has made it to the top but still feels like he has to fight everyone in the room to stay there. He’s threatening to burn down Gary’s house, but he’s also deeply concerned about the "lines" on his face and whether his hair looks right.
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- The Physicality: The way he walks is predatory.
- The Voice: It’s a raspy, high-pitched bark that sounds like a dog that hasn't slept in three days.
- The Wardrobe: That white outfit is iconic. It shouldn't be scary, yet it somehow feels like a uniform for a cult leader.
The "truck scene" that follows—where Alana has to drive a massive moving truck backward down a winding hill because they ran out of gas—is arguably the best sequence in the movie. But it wouldn't have the same stakes if the person they were running away from didn't feel like a legitimate threat to their lives.
What You Should Do Next
If you’ve only seen the clips on YouTube, you’re missing the context of how this cameo fits into the film's larger themes of 1970s disillusionment.
Watch the full sequence: Rent or stream Licorice Pizza and pay attention to the shift in tone when Cooper arrives. The movie goes from a sweet, nostalgic romance to a high-stakes thriller in about thirty seconds.
Listen to Kevin Smith's Jon Peters story: Search for "Kevin Smith An Evening with Kevin Smith Jon Peters." It provides the essential backstory for why the "giant spider" and the "tough guy from the streets" tropes in the movie are actually based on real-life anecdotes.
Check out the 1976 A Star Is Born: If you want to see the "work" of the real Jon Peters, watch the version with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson. You’ll see the DNA of the man Cooper was parodying.
Honestly, the Bradley Cooper Licorice Pizza performance is a masterclass in how to make a massive impact with very little screen time. It’s loud, it’s gross, and it’s perfectly captures a very specific, very weird moment in California history.
Actionable Takeaways
- Study the Cameo: If you're an actor or writer, analyze how Cooper uses "threat" to change the pacing of a scene.
- Fact-Check the History: Realize that the "gas crisis" shown in the film was a real event that drove people to the kind of madness Cooper portrays.
- Appreciate the Craft: Notice how the camera stays close on Cooper's face to emphasize his unpredictability.