This has definitely been a banner year for American Hustle actor Bradley Cooper, who will now grace the cover of GQ in January. In his exclusive cover interview, he discussed Alias, addiction, and wanting to kill himself... all heavy topics, indeed.

The 38-year-old actor's new movie American Hustle goes wide in theaters this week and his performance is getting raves from top critics. "Cooper, a hoot in hair rollers, summons the ferrety fury of Al Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon, ups the IQ and applies the razor's edge of satire to Richie's big dreams," Time's Richard Corliss said.

According to the interview with GQ's Zach Baron, in 2001, the Pennsylvania native landed a supporting role on Alias, playing journalist Will Tippin, best friend to Jennifer Garner's Sydney Bristow. However, the once promising trajectory of the role didn't keep its promise and it "nearly ended Cooper's career before it began," Baron wrote. "I would only work three days a week. And then for the second season, I got even more sidelined. I was like, 'Ugh.' And then next thing you know, I was like, 'I want to ... kill myself,'" the Georgetown University graduate said. That's when he asked writer J.J. Abrams to write him off the show, despite having no other jobs lined up. "J.J. was like, 'OK.' He probably would've fired me anyway," Cooper said.

In 2006, he married Blue Bloods actress Jennifer Esposito. The two divorced after four months -- sore subject alert -- and Cooper has since referred to the marriage as "just something that happened." Cooper said that "if I continued it, I was really going to sabotage my whole life." He was 29. That's when he started to take any work he could get and be glad that he was employed. He was in Nip/Tuck, Yes Man, He's Just Not That Into You, Kitchen Confidential, The Midnight Meat Train, and, in 2009, he appeared in his career-making film, The Hangover (another sore subject), and All About Steve with Oscar nominee (and later winner) Sandra Bullock. It should be noted that the latter film earned them a Golden Raspberry for worst couple.

"I was doing these movies, and I got to meet Sandra Bullock and meet these people and work with them. And I'm sober, and I'm like, 'Oh, I'm actually myself. And I don't have to put on this air to be somebody else, and this person still wants to work with me? Oh, what the ... is that about?' I was rediscovering myself in this workplace, and it was wonderful. Now, in the back of my head, or in a place of my heart of, like, creativity, did I feel utterly fulfilled? Absolutely not. But I was grateful and happy to be working, and filling that void in smaller moments."

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