Christopher Meloni Crushes on Bradley Cooper and Daniel Day-Lewis

Ever since 2000, we've been crushing on Christopher Meloni. At the time, he was pulling double duty on TV: Fresh off his first season as Dr. Elliot Stabler on NBC's Law & Order: SVU, Meloni was also making headlines as Chris Keller, an equal-opportunity seducer on HBO's prison drama Oz. "He uses his penis as a weapon. Female, male, it's irrelevant. It's just a way of getting what he wants," Meloni said of Keller in Out's June 2000 issue.

This summer he's once again doubling up: Appearing in Netflix's Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, in which he reprises his role from the 2001 film as a deranged chef (pictured above), and playing the stepfather of the narrator of Diary of a Teenage Girl.

Meloni has never shied away from acknowledging his gay fans. In a recent interview with Backstage, he once again mentioned his past history, stating that working at a gay gym was quite an eye-opening experience:

"The worst job was being a waiter--and I had some really bad jobs, whether it was demolition or working at a gay gym. I love me my gays, but I hadn't been exposed to that as a young kid. But I hated being a waiter because I'm not good at people. The cornerstone of being a waiter is 'the customer is always right,' but I'm an actor who is being taught to challenge everything. There's action and reaction. And you have to deal with these people who are reasonable or not very nice. I lasted three weeks."

But we were excited to learn that Meloni has his own (acting) crushes as well:

"Bradley Cooper, because when he's on camera he's so strikingly good-looking. When I watch him, he's not using his looks--or he's using them in the context of his character. [And] from day one, it's been Daniel Day-Lewis. It's almost upsetting how good he is."

Nice one, Chris! But don't worry, we'll keep crushing on you for some time to come...

Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp debuts July 31 on Netflix. Watch a featurette below: