Bradley Cooper Thought the Fake Baby in American Sniper Was Ridiculous Too

Bradley Cooper found the fake baby in American Sniper as funny as everyone else.

“I literally couldn’t believe it,” a nearly hysterical Cooper told Ellen DeGeneres on Monday’s The Ellen DeGeneres Show. “Like I couldn’t believe we were working with the plastic baby.”

The infamous scene, which went viral earlier this year as American Sniper broke box-office records, finds Cooper’s Navy SEAL Chris Kyle having a serious discussion with his wife (played by Sienna Miller) while holding the doll. At one point, Cooper uses his thumb to move the obviously fake baby’s arm in an attempt to give it some life.

“I was like, ‘This is nuts,’” Cooper said to DeGeneres, before discussing the thumb move and recalling how he joked to the crew that it would save the project $100,000 in computer-generated effects.

“Eat your heart out, Muppets,” Cooper added.

In a now-deleted tweet, American Sniper screenwriter Jason Hall wrote that director Clint Eastwood opted for the fake baby after the first child selected for the sequence became ill and a second baby failed to show up on set. Speaking on Monday, DeGeneres said Eastwood opted for the doll because real children are unpredictable.

Regardless of the reason, however, Cooper said he formed a bond with his inanimate counterpart.

“I have to say, I grew to be very fond of that [doll],” Cooper told DeGeneres on Monday. “I fell in love with that plastic thing.”

Watch Cooper discuss the fake baby above; video of the actual sequence in American Sniper can be found below.

This article originally appeared on EW.com