Actor Chris Cooper talks to The Inside Reel about approach, intent and training in regards to his role in the new drama film: “The History Of Sound” from MUBI.
00:00There was a moment when I realized that I had probably never been as happy as I was
00:18when collecting songs.
00:20I am silver and...
00:25Emotion in song.
00:27I want all of it.
00:30She says that I can't be your bride.
00:44You know, the brilliance always in a lot of your performances is how much you can say with sometimes no dialogue,
00:53but also with a lot of dialogue.
00:54Can you talk about the balance of energy between looking at details, but also conferring that?
01:00Is it an instinct thing at this point?
01:02I think this goes way back to actor training and the people that I worked with.
01:17I worked with a great coach in New York here, Wynn Hanman, who kind of tore me apart and put me back together as far as an actor.
01:28And I learned so much from him.
01:32One outstanding thing he said concerning scene work with an actor, so simple, but so hard.
01:40You do your homework, put your character together, but there's the moment when the camera rolls, and that's where it's important to come across.
01:53And so much of, I'm trying to answer your question, so much has to do with concentration, staying with your character, developing your character, concentration on the other actor.
02:12Because they can give you the greatest gift, unbeknownst to you, you can prepare your scenes and prepare them, but be concentrated and relaxed enough.
02:28That when that when that other actor gives you something different or unexpected, you can react to it and come back with something interesting.
02:41It's a gift, and I don't think we talk about it that much in film work.
02:49My father said it was a gift from God, how I could see music.
02:58I thought everyone could see sound.
03:01I crossed the Rocky Mountain, I walked for miles and miles.
03:09Lionel Worthing.
03:10David White.
03:11I crossed the Rocky Mountain.
03:19Don't sing love songs.
03:23You'll wake my mother.
03:26She's sleeping here right by my side.
03:30Well, because with this, obviously, it's also, you have to, the work with this, what did you have to do with Lionel?
03:39You have the book, you have these internal monologues that he has, but how do you have to do your homework on something like this,
03:47where it is a little more limited screen time, but you have to put so much into it, and it comes across so beautifully.
03:53I always maintain, I have three things to work with as an actor, and that is research.
04:01If it's a period piece, what's happening?
04:03We're dealing with 1916 in this film.
04:07What do we got?
04:08Spanish flu, World War I.
04:11What was happening then?
04:13What was happening in Boston politically, religiously, socially?
04:18I want to investigate all of that.
04:21It's nothing more than a security blanket for me to wrap around Lionel, that he knows this period.
04:30Then what do you have?
04:32Your life experience as an actor, what can you bring to Lionel?
04:37What has paralleled this story within your life, and what can you bring to it?
04:44Um, and then what else do you have but your imagination, and how can you incorporate that?
04:55And so that's where I work from.
04:59If I have what you had, I'd leave.
05:01I'd go far away, flee.
05:03In her right hand, a silver dagger.
05:07She says that I can't be your bride.
05:13Don't die.
05:17I'll sing a love song.
05:21Put your hand on your throat.
05:23Now hum.
05:25You feel something?
05:28And my last question, you know, because there's such a logic, there's a logic in the musicality.
05:34Notes are, music is math, but yet there's also an emotion.
05:38Can you talk about the balance between logic and emotion in a character?
05:42You know, is there a certain yin and yang that has to function?
05:46Oh boy, that's, that's an involved question.
05:50And I, I, I, I, I, I don't know how to answer that.
05:56Um, I, uh, every, every job, every character, every role requires something different, you know?
06:05And that's why, and that's what keeps this job, this, this livelihood interesting to me.
06:11Um, I am kind of happy that I've been given this stamp of being a character actor.
06:20And whatever that means, fine.
06:23But I don't like to repeat myself.
06:25I think that would be pretty boring.
06:27I got vibration.
06:30The sound is invisible.
06:33But it can be physical.
06:35It can touch something.
06:37It can make an impression.
06:38I guess I feel like I'm at the end of something.
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