He’s known for playing a man who just killed off a few brain-cells through heavy drinking, but in reality The Hangover star Bradley Cooper really did try to smash his own head in.

Unlike in the movie, Bradley hasn’t touched a drop for eight years because at 29-years-old he realized things had got a bit out of hand.

He told The Hollywood Reporter, “I was at a party and deliberately bashed my head on the concrete floor — like, ‘Hey, look how tough I am!’ And I came up, and blood dripped down. And then I did it again. I spent the night at St. Vincent’s Hospital with a sock of ice, waiting for them to stitch me up.”

Always concerned about what people thought of him and living in his head, the actor realized he wasn’t going to live up to his potential and was actually going to ruin his life.

And now with no drink or drugs anymore, he says, “Being sober helps a great deal”

No kidding, The Hangover movies are a billion-dollar franchise with number three in the making. With Limitless and The Words under his belt, we’d say he’s making all the right moves to fill that potential.