DOMINIC COOPER X THE LATERALS
Dominic Cooper is Hollywood's greatest showman. He is the patriarch of Iron Man legacy, a man of great Sense and Sensibility and Mama Mia!, can he belt an Abba ballad. With such a longstanding and impressively varied career, it's great to see him step into center stage. Most evident is his illustrious work on Preacher, AMC's adaptation of comic book combatant Jesse Carter. A lesser actor might fall into a broadly careless portrayal of this onerous man, enduring a crisis of faith while being infused with extraordinary power. Throughout his character's journey to find God and understand his newfound gift, Dominic brings deliverance. As a profoundly trained actor, he functions from the truth of the character, something he intrinsically exhumes from within. He has an ability to keep us malleable throughout the undulations of the series, which is fascinating to watch. What we learn is that Jesse Carter is so much more than what he reveals. We discover this because Dominic is able to immerse us into this despotic world. Truly, it’s a tough act to follow.
This doesn't come as much of a surprise since Dominic is a progeny of theatre and the arts. Born and raised in Greenwich, London, his mother was an avid theater-goer and his great-grandfather was a film enthusiast who published The Kinematograph Weekly. He trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and the rest as we say, has been written in the stars. We can look forward to his latest series Spy City, set in 1961 Berlin shortly before the construction of the wall. Whatever he adds to his repository of work, we can be sure that he will bring a vigilant depth that we can only describe as brilliant. Dominic isn't one to choose the limelight, but he always seems to steal the show.
Tell us about growing up in London. Theatre seems to always have been part of your life, but what made you pursue it?
I was very fortunate in having a great drama department in the school that I went to. That was for me, something I clung onto. I played the M.C. in Cabaret and it got me really excited about the prospects of performance and theatre. At the end of my schooling, my teacher from the drama department got me contemplating about auditioning for drama school. I’m very fortunate I managed to get in. And that was kind of what it was. Doing that performance and playing the M.C., enjoying the process of it. That’s really what ignited the idea that it could all be a possibility.
What did your life look like before you became a famed actor? Did you have any interesting jobs you can share with us?
Yeah, I had this sort of clan somehow because my brother was the producer for quite a big advertising production company. I would go in and be an AD on sets in my spare time to earn money. I worked on a Jamiroqui video, traveling without moving while pushing the sets around. I found it so exciting to work in production and be on set, I watched really brilliant people create commercials and music videos. It moved me into becoming an assistant editor, which helped me fund drama school.
Tell us about a time you felt like you failed as an actor. If you could go back and share some knowledge that you've gained, what would it be?
Such a good question. This business is so up and down, I suppose you're constantly asking yourself and questioning - Did I respect it? Did I give as much as I could? Did I realize how fortunate I was at the time? Which is why I think people who've been thrown into immediate success end up behaving badly or doing things they probably shouldn't do. I don't judge, it’s just that only in retrospect can you look back and think, okay, maybe I didn’t put in enough. That's the one thing. It's not a regret, but I would definitely tell my younger self to always work harder. Not just in terms of time, but in terms of real preparation and not taking anything for granted.
Your range is truly exceptionally, from live-wire physicality to vocal performance and deft. What is your process in creating a character?
I work a lot on instinct. When things are not quite working or when things don’t come your way, you should never get frustrated or annoyed. Things can really stick with you and you can inhabit certain things. That’s what’s really fun about it, I think. There are things that I haven’t managed to do and I think it’s the things that that you’re closer to or managed to observe in your own life. Success unfortunately breeds in a way, a form of laziness or acceptance. As an actor, you need to be constantly looking and investigating. I suppose in childhood and adolescence, you observe all these wonderful things and people in the world. It’s the memory of those observations that field and inform your ability to jump into characters. It’s like you can say, “I know that kind of person. I feel that from the writing and who that person is.”
Although you've starred in an extensive list of films and television, most people recognize you from the Mama Mia! films. What do you like most and least about musicals?
I’m going to admit that they are not something that I would have jumped to watch. I had to come to light and I appreciate them much more now, actually. I love what I learned from doing Mama Mia, which came from how it impacted the audience and fans. People just love musicals, I appreciate the form of escapism that they offer. Also, music in a film is paramount. What it manages to inform and how it evokes emotion can actually be more difficult. So that in running in parallel with acting and dance. If you have all those elements it can be extraordinarily moving.
You've worked in a variety of genres from theatre to action-adventure. Is there a specific role or category you are eager to take on?
The one thing I think I probably would have guessed that I would have shone in more than anything was comedy, and that's what I've done the least of. That’s an area I thought I would have done more of but haven’t.
We have no doubt we’ll be seeing you in more comedies in the future. But we must say, you are fantastic on Preacher. Jesse Custer is incredibly complex, as most individuals with powers are. What is it about this character that you most connect with?
Well actually, that character I found very difficult because he’s probably the least close to anything that I've recognized growing up. He is more removed from anyone that I’ve sort of observed. So, it was a real process of both unearthing and discovering who he is. It’s been an incredible journey, constantly trying to work on who he is. The creators were doing so also, we all kind of were. It’s constantly changing, as the first season is a very different show from the last.
If you could, would you take on Jesse Carter's powers in real life?
Funnily enough, Jesse’s ability to deal with his power sort of reveals what it can do to people. Jesse has the power to make people do what he asks of them. Most are not capable of using power, whatever it is, whether it’s financial power or power in a family or society. People don’t often use it to the best of its potential. Whether I would take it, I don’t know. When you choose power, you immediately go to what you can gain from it and what are you able to achieve. I suppose power comes from the ability to navigate your way through life and complex situations with different people and finding common ground rather than making people obey you.
Having starred in a number of graphic novel features, Comic Con must be such an adventure. Tell us what that experience is like for you.
At Comic-Con it's never really seen in the right light when you are involved in it. It would be very interesting to go there, and someone just going there and being able to sort of experience it for what it is. When you were there with a show, you're carted around from room to room doing interviews. It's a wonderful experience and I’m very privileged to be part of it. You're not really as immersed in the wonder and the joy, if that makes sense.
What can we look forward to seeing you in next?
I'm currently filming this spy thriller, which is written by a wonderful novelist called William Boyd. It’s set in the early sixties in Berlin before the wall goes up, when there's a lot of mistrust between the countries of Berlin, England, France, the U.S., and Russia. They’re sort of working out the Earth’s going on and how to stabilize the country after the war. I’m really enjoying it and learning about the history. What’s so revealing is the sort of repetition of mistakes that we’re making and, as we speak, it’s picking up again in Europe. The building of this wall that goes up in the middle of Berlin and what it means, we’re constantly trying to separate humans and push them apart. It’s imposing behavioral patterns upon people, restrictions and where people can go. It’s just incredibly how relevant it is and I feel very proud to be making something which the world needs. We forget very quickly about our recent past, as well as the mistakes we make again and again. It's not our fault, but we have to try our hardest to remind ourselves of the damage that can cause and the power we have to keep fighting for what we believe in.
We cannot wait to watch. Speaking of the past, we heard that you shared a house with James Corden while working on The History Boys. What was that experience like for you looking back?
It was fun, but it was a time of big changes in our lives. We were in the show together and it was wonderful. Our lives were quite simple then, we’d been traveling around the world together having this incredible experience. There was all of this coincidence, we found a place to live together and we became very good friends. We had one another, we laughed constantly, but it was also quite a big and dramatic change in our lives. As a result of it, we still to this day laugh an awful lot about that period. That’s a really comforting, grounding and wonderful thing to have as a friend. We can just pick up the phone and talk very freely about the things that we say grateful for and have managed to achieve. It’s nice to have a companion who you could discuss things with freely.
Thanks so much for chatting with us. Before you go, we have one more question. If you were invited along for some Carpool Karaoke, what would be your go-to song?
Carpool Karaoke, I think I'd have to do… Tear Us Apart by INXS.
Brilliant.