The Oscars love a passion project and few movies in recent years fit that definition as well as American Sniper. Bradley Cooper had been trying to turn the life of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle into a movie even before Kyle was killed in 2013 at a Texas gun range. Now that the film has reached the big screen, Cooper said that he’s been surprised by its overwhelming success.

Cooper has been nominated for Best Actor for a third consecutive year thanks to Sniper, so he attended the Academy Awards luncheon for nominees on Monday. There, he told reports that he didn’t expect there to be a political discussion centered on the film.

“You never know when you make a movie if anybody's going to see it, so to have the audacity to think that it would cause any sort of effect at all would be pretty presumptuous,” he said, reports Reuters.

Since the film’s wide release last month, the movie has made almost $250 million, becoming the top-grossing war movie of all time. Its success and subject sparked partisan political debates and Cooper is happy to have started the discussion.

“Any discussion that sheds light to the plight of the soldiers and the men and women in the armed services, for that discussion to occur is fantastic,” Cooper added Monday.

Cooper is a producer on the film and would receive an Oscar if the film won Best Picture. After Kyle died in February 2013, he vowed to continue making the movie. He even pressed on after Steven Spielberg dropped out and Clint Eastwood quickly stepped in to direct.

In total, the film was nominated for six Oscars. The Academy Awards are set for Feb. 22.

image courtesy of INFphoto.com