Cooper at the 2013 Academy Awards

The 'Silver Linings Playbook' was unaffected by missing out an Oscar for Best Actor at last month's Academy Awards because watching his father, stoke broker Charles J. Cooper, lose his battle to lung cancer two years ago put his life in perspective.

He explained to British GQ magazine: "Death became very real. And very tangible. Because my father - someone who had been in my life for 36 years is just f***ing gone.

"I watched him dying and I was there by his bed watching him, breathing with him, and then I saw his last breath and he was gone. I experienced the whole thing. And that was a watershed moment that I was privileged to experience. And it changed everything. Nothing has ever been the same since."

Since his father's death, the 38-year-old actor has admitted he doesn't "sweat s***" like winning awards for his acting work and believes it's probably for the best that he didn't win an Oscar.

He said: "You know William Blake's 'Songs Of Innocence?' Well, right there, in that moment, the innocence was gone. Done. Never to return. The beauty is that I just don't sweat s**t anymore.

"I don't want to win an Oscar. It would change nothing. Nothing. The things in my life that aren't fulfilled would not be fulfilled. Career-wise, right now, it's better that I don't win one. I don't want to win. I don't."