Bradley Cooper Ate 8K Calories a Day to Play Sniper

American Sniper won the box office this weekend, bringing in $90.2 million in three days—a feat that broke January records, USA Today reports. Meanwhile, the Chris Kyle biopic is making headlines in other ways:

• In order to put on the 40 pounds he needed to play Kyle, Bradley Cooper ate an insane amount per day, Australia's News Network reports. "He was eating about every 55 minutes or something like that, and I want to say it was about 8,000 calories a day," writer-producer Jason Hall tells People. Plus, "I think he was working out four hours a day for several months."

• Not everyone is impressed with the film: "American Sniper kind of reminds me of the movie that's showing in the third act of Inglourious Basterds," tweeted Seth Rogen yesterday, referring to a fake Nazi propaganda movie featured in the Quentin Tarantino flick. Others have similarly criticized the movie for glorifying war, Sky News reports. Interestingly, Rogen's The Interview was recently criticized for trying to make assassination funny, and that critic compared the controversial comedy to American Sniper.
• Kyle's widow, Taya, talks to People about how much she and the couple's two kids miss the former Navy SEAL, who was murdered in 2013. "I was madly in love with him and still am," says Taya, who is portrayed in the movie by Sienna Miller. The movie was already in the works when Kyle died, and Taya recalls a time director Clint Eastwood took her aside, "a little choked up," and told her, "I just want you to know that your story has my heart." She has her own memoir coming out May 5.

Click to read some of American Sniper's rave reviews, or read about the movie's "real star": a plastic baby. (More Chris Kyle stories.)