Bradley Cooper 'inspired by De Niro'

Actor Bradley Cooper has spoken about his admiration for his Limitless co-star Robert De Niro.

In an interview with the Boston Herald, he revealed that De Niro inspired him to take up acting and described working with him as "the icing on the cake".

"I never, when I first got the movie, thought that Van Loon would be played by Robert De Niro. My past with him, without him knowing it, goes back a long way just because he's the reason that I became an actor, pretty much," Cooper said.

"Raging Bull was the first thing that I saw him in, but I was so disconnected from it that all I could get was the emotional experience and not really what De Niro was doing."

Limitless is released in the UK later this month and is based on the 2001 novel Dark Fields by Alan Glynn.

Cooper shot to fame with his role in the 2009 film The Hangover, which grossed more than $277 million at the box office, making it the most successful R-rated comedy ever in the US.