Brad Pitthas a famous friend to thank in his journey to getting sober.

The actor firstopened up about getting soberin 2017 and has since been vocal about how going toAlcoholics Anonymoushelped him on his path.

It turns out someone else inspired his sobriety journey as well: fellow actorBradley Cooper, who presented Pitt, 55, with the award for best supporting actor forOnce Upon a Time … in Hollywoodat the National Board of Review Annual Awards Gala in New York City on Wednesday night.

“Bradley just put his daughter to bed and rushed over here to do this,” Pitt said at the beginning of his speech of Cooper’s2-year-old daughter Lea De Seine. “He’s a sweetheart. I got sober because of this guy and every day has been happier ever since.”

Brad Pitt (left) and Bradley Cooper at The National Board of Review Annual Awards Gala in New York City on Jan. 8.Kevin Mazur/Getty

Bradley Cooper and Brad Pitt

In September, theAd Astrastar told theNew York Times,“I removed my drinking privilege,” and started going to a male Alcoholics Anonymous because he’d “taken things as far as I could take it.”

“You had all these men sitting around being open and honest in a way I have never heard,” Pitt, whopicked up a Golden Globeon Sunday for hisOnce Upon a Time…performance, told theTimesof going to AA. “It was this safe space where there was little judgment, and therefore little judgment of yourself.”

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Pitt toldGQin 2017 he gave up alcohol because “[I] don’t want to live that way anymore.”

“I just ran it to the ground,” Pitt said. “I had to step away for a minute. And truthfully I could drink a Russian under the table with his own vodka. I was a professional. I was good.”

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty

Brad Pitt

While Pitt frequently discussed his sobriety in recent years, especially while promotingOnce Upon a Time …andAd Astrain 2019, Cooper has kept his choice relatively private. But in 2015, the seven-time Oscar nominee told Barbara Walters he stopped drinking in his late twenties, calling the lifestyle change “beautiful.”

“I would never be sitting here with you, no way, no chance,” Cooper told Walters, 90, onABC Newsin December 2015. “Because I wouldn’t have been able to have access to myself or other people or even take in other people if I hadn’t changed my life, no way. And I never would’ve been able to have relationships that I do. I never would have been able to take care of my father the way I did when I was sick. So many things.”

source: people.com