Bradley Cooper thought he was 'going to die' when he was battling his drug addiction

Bradley Cooper thought he was 'going to die' when he was battling his drug addiction.

The Hangover star has opened up about his substance abuse and how his struggle with drugs and alcohol nearly killed him.

The 48-year-old sat down with British adventurer, Bear Grylls, in a recent episode of the National Geographic series, Running Wild With Bear Grylls: The Challenge, to discuss his 'wild years'.

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The pair were exploring the Wyoming Basin canyons when Grylls asked Cooper: "You definitely had some wild years?"

"In terms of alcohol and drugs, yeah, but nothing to do with fame," the Hollywood A-lister replied. “But I was lucky. I got sober at 29-years-old, and I’ve been sober for 19 years. Very lucky."

And this isn't the first time the 'A Star is Born' actor has got frank about his drug addiction issues in the past. He previously revealing he turned to substances after an injury to his Achilles tendon and 'got fired/quit' the action-packed series Alias back in 2003.

It was a year later, in 2004, when Cooper's life changed after his then-roommate, Arrested Development's Will Arnett, sat him down for an intervention.

After the chat, Cooper finally began his long path to recovery.

He did, however, relapse after his father passed away from lung cancer in January 2011, telling Grylls: "I definitely had a nihilistic attitude towards life after, just like I thought 'I’m going to die'.

"I don’t know, it wasn’t great for a little bit until I thought I have to embrace who I actually am and try to find a peace with that, and then it sort of evened out."

Netflix

Luckily, the actor managed to turn his life around and has since taken on a whole load of roles in critically-acclaimed flicks.

He added: "I’ve been very lucky with the roles I’ve had to play. It’s been a real blessing. I hope I get to keep doing it."

Cooper's latest project sees the star controversially play composer Leonard Bernstein in biopic, Maestro, and has even been aged up for the role.

The biopic centres around West Side Story Bernstein (Cooper) and his decades-long relationship with his wife, actress Felicia Montealegre Cohn Bernstein (Carey Mulligan).

Netflix’s official release describes the film as 'a love letter to life and art, ‘Maestro’ at its core is an emotionally epic portrayal of family and love'.

In the teaser trailer released, 48-year-old Cooper, who is of Irish-Italian descent, is seen wearing a noticeably larger prosthetic nose which has since sparked criticism online.