(Photo credit: Peggy Sirota/GQ)

Bradley Cooper's career was almost over before it began.

The "American Hustle" star (and recent Golden Globe nominee) is receiving accolades for his work now but, in a new interview, he revealed that his struggle with drugs and alcoholism nearly cost him everything.

"If I continued it," he told GQ, "I was really going to sabotage my whole life."

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Cooper, 38, said a particularly low point came during his time on the show "Alias," from 2001 to 2003, when he was working only three days a week.

"And then for the second season, I got even more sidelined. I was like, 'Ugh.' And then next thing you know, I was like, 'I want to f****** kill myself,'" he said.

Ultimately, he asked to be written off the show. "[Creator] J.J. [Abrams] was like, 'OK.' He probably would've fired me, anyway."

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After getting sober, Cooper, who added that "the best thing I can do is embrace who I am," noticed a positive change in his work.

"I was doing these movies, and I got to meet Sandra Bullock and meet these people and work with them. And I'm sober, and I'm like, 'Oh, I'm actually myself.

"And I don't have to put on this air to be somebody else, and this person still wants to work with me?" he said. "I was rediscovering myself in this workplace, and it was wonderful."