Here’s something you don’t see every day. While director David O. Russell and stars Robert DeNiro and Bradley Cooper spoke to Katie Couric about their film Silver Linings Playbook, the veteran actor broke down on camera.

“Did you feel a greater responsibility about doing a film that David had so much personally invested in?” Couric asked, following up on a question posed to Russell.

“Of course, I uhm – I understand,” DeNiro replied, before being unable to get out any more words. After he paused for a moment, he tried to continue. “I don’t like to get emotional, but I know exactly what he goes through.”

Russell’s deep connection to the script, which he said he had re-written around 25 times, came from the fact that his own son suffers from bipolar disorder as well as OCD. Those issues are what plagues Cooper’s character Pat.

“There’s nothing harder in life than when you can’t, can’t figure out what to do,” Russell said about dealing with a character like Pat. “You try everything, and you must never stop. Your heart just has to keep growing.”

Silver Linings Playbook has been nominated in virtually all award competitions this season. Jennifer Lawrence has had particularly good luck with her noms; she won the Golden Globe for Best Actress and most recently she won the same category at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

What strikes us about this interview is the fact that these people have spoken about the film many times over the past year, so for them to still be so emotionally invested in the story means something.