"American Sniper" director Clint Eastwood showed plenty of affection for Oscar-nominated star Bradley Cooper at Saturday's Producers Guild of America's nominees panel.
"It's the casting in a movie that puts you halfway home," he explained of the Iraq War drama, adding that Cooper made a major effort to bulk up by 40 pounds during pre-production.
"Bradley was constantly eating — 8,000 calories a day," Eastwood said, also noting that the actor subsequently slimmed down for his Broadway performance in "The Elephant Man."
Meanwhile, the controversy over the popular war continued Saturday as former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin blasted filmmaker Michael Moore for slamming the movie.
At the Iowa Freedom Summit Palin posed for a photo with Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer, who held up a sign that read, "F--- you Michael Moore." Palin told the Iowa audience that "what the poster said is what the rest of us are thinking."
Both were responding to a tweet in which Moore called snipers cowards: "My uncle killed by sniper in WW2. We were taught snipers were cowards. "
Moore has clarified his comments on his Facebook page and said his comment was in reference to snipers, but that he was not specifically commenting on the film "American Sniper."
But on Saturday, Moore invoked Jesus against the film, which has become a box office juggernaut and has garnered six Oscar nominations.
Eastwood said he and Cooper met with the family of Chris Kyle, the Navy SEAL portrayed by Cooper, in order to be able to depict the war's impact on the home front — which the director also did in his 2007 WWII film "Letters From Iwo Jima."
"The biggest antiwar statement is what it does to the families left behind," Eastwood said.
The event, held at the Saban Theater in Beverly Hills, attracted a crowd of more than 700 for a panel of producers from each of the 10 films nominated for the PGA's Darryl Zanuck Award.