Bradley Cooper's family movie

Bradley Cooper's parents moved in with him while he shot his new movie.

The 36-year-old actor shot much of 'Limitless' - in which he stars with Robert De Niro - in his home city of Philadelphia and got to spend more time than he had anticipated with his mother and father.

He said: "We got to shoot it in Philadelphia, which is where I'm from, which was a sort of an added bonus, Philly and New York.

"My parents lived with me. I had an apartment downtown, so my parents moved in with me. I don't know what happened, I think it's that Italian-Irish thing."

Bradley also spoke of how much he enjoyed working with De Niro because a meeting with the screen icon in his school days inspired him to become an actor.

He explained to Absolute Radio DJ Christian O'Connell: "My history with De Niro goes back way before he even knows about it, besides being the reason why I became an actor. He came to our school to speak to us, there's a show called 'Inside the Actors Studio' and Robert De Niro came and spoke, and I asked him a question.

"I was really nervous about the question, which was about 'Awakenings'. He's trying to go for a walk and he's talking to this medical panel, but his medicine's not working any more so he's starting to get these tics again, and he's trying to make up for it by rubbing his eyebrow. So I just asked him if he had seen anybody do that or was that something that just happened, and then he said 'No, I didn't see anybody do that, but that's a good question'.

"That was the moment, it was like a beam of light shot through my stomach"

The full interview with Bradley will be broadcast on Absolute Radio tomorrow (16.03.11).