--- title: Bradley Cooper Wrote an Article About Friends With Benefits description: Before Bradley Cooper got his big break as an actor, he apparently had dreams of becoming a journalist. Here's one of his articles. canonical: https://time.com/5115438/bradley-cooper-friends-with-benefits-article/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-01-23T22:25:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:05:54.577Z og:title: Young Bradley Cooper Wrote an Article About Dating a Friend og:description: The story is definitely one for the books og:url: https://time.com/5115438/bradley-cooper-friends-with-benefits-article/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3fa11432a074122c/6988f93fe76ad25f86630ba8/bradley-cooper-intern.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Bradley-Cooper-American-Cinematheque-Awards og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Young Bradley Cooper Wrote an Article About Dating a Friend twitter:description: The story is definitely one for the books twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3fa11432a074122c/6988f93fe76ad25f86630ba8/bradley-cooper-intern.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Young Bradley Cooper Wrote an Article About Friends With Benefits and It's Really Something > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ## Video: Bradley Cooper on the Films that Shaped His Childhood [Watch (HLS stream): Bradley Cooper on the Films that Shaped His Childhood](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/sxLupXWQ.m3u8) (2:20)  _Published 2015-04-16. “Ultimately you want to tell a story so that it can help heal and make people feel that they’re not alone,” says Cooper, who has been nominated for an Oscar three times._  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jan 23, 2018 10:25 PM UTC  Bradley Cooper attends the 30th annual American Cinematheque Awards gala at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on October 14, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California. Bradley Cooper attends the 30th annual American Cinematheque Awards gala at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on October 14, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California. Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Jan 23, 2018 10:25 PM UTC Before [Bradley Cooper](http://motto.time.com/4732379/bradley-cooper-irina-shayk-baby/) got his big break as an actor, he apparently had dreams of becoming a [journalist](http://time.com/5100337/reuters-journalists-press-freedom-myanmar/). And one of the subjects he was interested in reporting on? [Friends with benefits](http://motto.time.com/4754452/best-friends-resilience-study/). Thanks to a [clip](https://twitter.com/tommyrowan/status/955806753299582976) shared by [_Philadelphia Daily News_](http://www.philly.com)writer [Tommy Rowan](https://twitter.com/tommyrowan), we now know that Cooper spent some of his final high school days penning articles about his own personal love life for the newspaper. In a May 1993 piece titled, “When best friends cross the line,” an 18-year-old Cooper spins a long tale about how he took his relationship with longtime BFF Deborah Landes to the next level during their senior year. “Can best friends who are of the opposite sex hook up with each other without destroying their friendship? In my case, yes . . . so far,” Cooper cryptically begins. From there, the story abounds with twists and turns, including the revelation that Landes was previously dating one of their other friends. “There has always been an underlying attraction between the two of us; however, it was never confronted until this year,” Cooper explains. “Before, we could never fathom the idea of being more than just friends, especially because she was involved in a relationship with a friend of mine. After they broke up, things began to change.” We hope we can expect more of this from Bradley in the future. Read the full article below. > [](https://twitter.com/tommyrowan/status/955806753299582976) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5115438/bradley-cooper-friends-with-benefits-article/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5115438/bradley-cooper-friends-with-benefits-article/"},"headline":"Young Bradley Cooper Wrote an Article About Friends With Benefits and It's Really Something","datePublished":"2018-01-23T22:25:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:05:54.577Z","description":"The story is definitely one for the books","url":"https://time.com/5115438/bradley-cooper-friends-with-benefits-article/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities","bradley cooper"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3fa11432a074122c/6988f93fe76ad25f86630ba8/bradley-cooper-intern.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3fa11432a074122c/6988f93fe76ad25f86630ba8/bradley-cooper-intern.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Bradley-Cooper-American-Cinematheque-Awards","caption":"Bradley Cooper attends the 30th annual American Cinematheque Awards gala at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on October 14, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California.","creditText":"Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5115438/bradley-cooper-friends-with-benefits-article/","name":"Young Bradley Cooper Wrote an Article About Friends With Benefits and It's Really Something"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Bradley Cooper on the Films that Shaped His Childhood","description":"“Ultimately you want to tell a story so that it can help heal and make people feel that they’re not alone,” says Cooper, who has been nominated for an Oscar three times.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/sxLupXWQ/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-04-16T01:25:56.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/sxLupXWQ.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5115438/bradley-cooper-friends-with-benefits-article/","duration":"PT2M20S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5115438/bradley-cooper-friends-with-benefits-article/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```