Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: Bradley Cooper Reveals How Personal Grief Influenced Rocket Raccoon Performance

Now seven months after its release, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is still ripping the hearts of movie-watchers to shreds. Featuring the origin of Rocket Raccoon, the film takes viewers on a heartbreaking journey throughout the character’s life. A lot of the character’s pain, according to his voice actor Bradley Cooper, is rooted in real-world personal grief.

“This last one, I’m not sure if you’ve watched it, but I actually cried like crazy. There’s a scene where he loses his friend and the sound Rocket makes is something I could only relate to, is the sound my own voice when my dad passed away,” Cooper said during a recent stop on The Howard Stern Show. “When we did it on the sound stage, I think everybody knew there was some deep truth to the sound that came out of my mouth and I think that’s why that moment in the movie is really like, ‘Holy shit.’”

Rocket has always been a personal favorite of James Gunn’s, and the filmmaker has said the character is the one of the bunch he identified with most.

“It was great because the shooting schedules were totally intermingled. Vol. 3 has a lot of the fun and the goofy stuff of Guardians, but it’s also incredibly emotional. It’s the end of the story for this group of Guardians, so there was a lot of emotion around it,” Gunn said of the film’s tone to Entertainment Weekly. “It was very serious a lot of the time. The actors were all pushing themselves a lot, especially Chris Pratt. It was heavy. So to be able to take a day off and go shoot this goofy, low-stakes comedy show where nothing was really too serious, that was really a relief, and it was a lot of fun. I really would look forward to those holiday special days on my schedule. It’s like, ‘Oh, it’s a holiday special day today. Let’s party.’”

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is now streaming Disney+ and available for purchase wherever movies are sold. Stay tuned to ComicBook.com for more updates on the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and James Gunn’s next big project as we learn it!