Brad Pitt presented  Bradley Cooper the award for outstanding performer of the year for Maestro at 2024 Santa Barbara Film Festival  on Thursday.

The Fight Club actor openheartedly gushed over his mate, while presenting him the honour for his performance as Leonard Bernstein in the biopic, Maestro, which he also directed and co-wrote.

During his honorary speech for Bradley, Pitt jokingly highlighted the fact that both actors have a "couple of things in common," including "being a movie superstar and also a name."

The Babylon actor also recalled how he noticed there was something special in Cooper when Pitt saw his film, The Hangover.

"You'll see the more irreverent that Alan [Zach Galifianakis] gets, the more that Phil [Cooper] is enjoying that irreverence. It's subtle," he said.

Pitt continued, "It's often to the side of the frame, but it's there and it's interesting, and I know this sounds strange, but I was watching that and I know no one else would have brought that to the to the table. And it was something fresh. I knew this guy was going to be around."

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The Once Upon A Time in Hollywood actor during his speech also hailed  Cooper's 2018 directorial debut, A Star Is Born, in which he also played the lead role.

Pitt said, "[It's] a film that's been made a few times, it's been made really well, so the bar is so high, and yet he's able to bring in his performance where he's able to play drunk when he breaks down and still keep an eye on the crew to see the time when to know that he's got the tape and you can move on."

He added, "To do that really, really well is nothing short of perfect." 

Brad Pitt also admitted, "Now I'm not gonna say I know for certain what's at the heart of Bradley's brilliance, but I am going to take a stab at it." 

While highlighting one of Bradley Cooper's one of prominent trait Pitt added, "What I think it is is his voracious love for this little thing we call the human experience and all its struggles and joys and messiness. My man's in it, he doesn't run from any evidence and I think it's that that he infused into each frame that he puts up on the screen."

Pitt concluded his speech with the hopes for Cooper's potential Oscar win at the upcoming 96th Academy Awards, where Maestro is nominated in seven categories.