Bradley Cooper recalls his stay at a Holiday Inn Express with 'American Sniper' director Clint Eastwood

NEW YORK, Dec. 24 (UPI) -- Bradley Cooper says working with director Clint Eastwood on American Sniper was a thrill that "never gets old."

The big-screen adaptation of the late Navy Seal Chris Kyle's autobiography American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History is to open in limited release Wednesday and nationwide Jan. 16.

"First of all, you're so excited to come on the set every day because Clint Eastwood is there. That never gets old. It's like the most exciting thing and we became friends with him and we would hang out with him a lot -- we would have dinner after and like hang out -- so it was amazing," Cooper said at a recent New York press conference, alongside Sienna Miller, who plays his wife in the celebrated drama.

"I love him to death and we had so many moments and we laughed a tremendous amount while making the movie, shockingly, actually, given the content. But I think that's probably why he gets so many great performances out of people because he makes them really feel at ease," the actor said of the Oscar-winning auteur. "He's just so curious. He's like a little kid."

To illustrate how down-to-earth the 84-year-old Eastwood really is, Cooper told a funny story of how he arrived in Texas to visit Kyle's family before production began on the film and ended up staying at a Holiday Inn Express with the screen icon.

"I'm waiting for his entourage and it's just him. ... He's got a little backpack. I've got a little backpack and we check in. 'Alright, see you tomorrow,'" Cooper said, perfectly imitating Eastwood's raspy, tough-guy voice. "Then it's like 8 a.m. and the motel phone rings and I pick it up and say, 'Hello?' and he's like, 'You up?' And I was like: 'Yeah, yeah, yeah. Clint?' 'You want to hang out and get some breakfast?' I was like, 'Yeah, OK, meet you in the lobby?' It was just so crazy."