Chris Cooper

"Impossible to Forget"

When it comes to consistency, actor Chris Cooper has delivered for giving the most intense performances in the last 25 years of Hollywood film. This runs the gamut from his film debut in Matewan to Lone Star to A Time To Kill to American Beauty to The Bourne Identity to Adaptation (which garnered him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar) to Seabiscuit to Jarhead to Syriana to Breach.

Now Chris Cooper brings his trademark intensity to his latest role as troubled father Neil Craig in the romantic drama Remember Me. The 58 year-old first discussed what motivated him to the film.

"It's just always initially a good script and interesting character," Cooper says, "The additional nicety is that it's shot in New York. I just know that the films that I looked it as a young kid, if New York was in them, there was just something extra. It's a character in itself, I guess."

"Good writing and what dawned on me about this script was, and I was surprised that nothing came to mind so quickly as an old film love story and working class family and very wealthy family and the conflicts in-between," he continues, "And I was surprised that nothing more recent came to mind in any other story like that."

Co-starring with Cooper is Twilight heartthrob Robert Pattinson, who plays the love interest of his character Neil's daughter Ally, played by Emilie de Ravin. He had this to say regarding his experience working with Pattinson.

"I liked slapping that kid around"¦a lot," Chris jokes, "No, it was good. It was enjoyable. It was real good working with him. We were very careful about that. I know people are making a real big deal about that scene. We were very careful and safety conscious and all that business and it worked out really well."

However, while Robert Pattinson became a virtual overnight sensation with his role in the Twilight films, Chris says that it gave him

Chris Cooper

"Impossible to Forget"

no preconceived notions about his co-star's level of acting commitment.

"Not for me," Cooper states, "That's up to him how he comes across. I'm going in with an open mind and to work with another colleague. I don't mean this as harsh as this sounds, but in one respect, I know what he's up against. At his age back in my career, I couldn't handle what he's up against. But at the same time, that's his business. We have a job to do and that shouldn't influence the work."

Pattinson is not the first major young Hollywood star that Cooper has acted alongside. He has worked with actor Jake Gyllenhaal on both October Sky and Jarhead and has worked with Tobey Maguire. The actor compares his previous experiences to that of his current one with Pattinson.

"It's just about the same," Chris claims, "He's learning the ropes, but the good thing, like a lot of those other guys, like Jake and Tobey, Robert, I think, is making good choice and I think he'll probably expand more so than just being an actor. I just have this feeling. But if he can handle this phenomenal fan base, if he can get that under his belt and deal with it and continue to make the good choices, I think that he'll do really well."

We wondered if Chris has learned just as much from his young co-stars as they have from him.

"Yeah, yeah," he answers, "Probably not what you expect, but that some of the young actors have to realize that time is money in filmmaking. The budgets are getting tighter and tighter and there's a theory among some actors that, 'Well, I don't want to know my lines completely, because when I'm on camera, I want to struggle for the words so it makes me look more real.' Well, that doesn't always work and the actor is so unfamiliar with the lines that he kills a good take and

Chris Cooper

"Impossible to Forget"

he kills other people's work."

"That's the whole idea of coming prepared to do your day's work and I've had to instill or stress that on a couple of young actors because it's real irritating when that happens," Cooper adds, "They're big boys and I'm not going to soft-pedal when they're interfering in my career. That's a time when I'll confront and I can't be soft about it. Oddly enough, I'd say, down the road, they appreciate it. Because if they don't and they continue in this business, somebody else is going to confront them or they are going to get fired."

Cooper says he also applies this same no-nonsense to how he works with directors.

"I don't really throw my weight around as far as what I want in a scene," he says, "My big selling point is if it's not in the script, I'm not going to take the job. Because I don't care how good of an actor you are, if it's not in the script, you can't make the script better, no matter how good a person's acting is, so that's kind of first and foremost, that it's got to be in the script before I take the job. I don't trust this idea that, well, down the road, we'll do some rewrites and we'll patch it up. I won't bite on that."

"The key that's often said is 90% of a director's work is casting," Chris continues, "More often than not, your director is casting you because he believes you're the guy that can pull this character off. So what I've experienced is pretty much, it's your given free reign to create this character, unless you're way off track, and then, of course, the director's got to step and say, I was thinking in this direction."

Chris has made much of his career from playing characters that are often rather unlikable. In Remember Me, Neil Craig is often violent and abusive. However, he has his

Chris Cooper

"Impossible to Forget"

own take about how the audience perceives him through his characters.

"They can dislike me," he states, "I don't work that way. It's the idea of, there's a build in that scene and he strikes. What do you see? What does the viewer see after he strikes her?"

"Do you believe it?" Cooper adds, "Do you not? I have to sell that and I have to sell my reaction of what I've done to her. If there's remorse, if there is not, the viewer decides. And then, if you get five viewers, you get five different interpretations."

We wondered if the role will leave a lasting impression on Cooper.

"Well, yeah," he says, "I've had issues in my life where I wish I had the strength to react like Craig did. And there are life experiences that have happened to me and my family that I can apply to that character, but I had the rage, but I restrained from acting on it and here I'm able to reenact the rage and I can apply it to this character that I've had in my life. So that's how I try and work."

Chris's performance as Craig has been compared to that of his role as Sam Deeds in Lone Star. We asked him if such comparisons were fair.

"I remember, when those reviews came out, something that struck me very well was, that was a period when [Arnold] Schwarzenegger and all these he-man strong guys were doing their films," Cooper replies, "In theater, we always talked about the everyman. Critics saw Sam Deeds as kind of that flawed everyman, a little more universal type of character. So maybe that's it. I played universal type guys."

It's also been compared to his Oscar-winning performance as John LaRoche in Adaptation. We asked him if he could compare those two experiences.

"I don't know if I can compare it, but with this guy being a cop," Cooper says, "And when I lived here, I lived on

Chris Cooper

"Impossible to Forget"

48th and 8th and I saw things that nobody should see in the seventies. And I realized that these patrolmen or these officers or whatever you want to call them, deal with the scum of the Earth everyday and what they have to see, I don't see a bright future for Craig."

"After he's dealt with 9/11, as anybody that lives in Manhattan, thinks of it every day," he continues, "So he's got that to deal with and he continues to be a cop. So I don't see a bright, happy future with him. He's got a lot to deal with and no happy endings, everything tied up with a pink ribbon in this film."

With the film's subject of 9/11 brought up, it was asked of Cooper whether New York in particular will strongly react to the film being tied to the World Trade Center terrorist attacks that took place.

"That's hard to say," Chris answers, "I've already gotten word that one woman in the HFP (Hollywood Foreign Press) got a very strong reaction who saw the screening that kind of surprised her and didn't expect it. But I can't tell you who's going to be more affected by it, but I think folks in New York and the boroughs around here will, I wouldn't be surprised if they are more affected than other folks around the country. Can't say."

"Yeah, it's only a movie, but, apparently, this person she had to leave the theatre, she was so struck by it," he adds, "At the same time, I hope it was handled"¦when I saw the screening, I didn't know how it was going to be handled. And for me, it went beyond my expectations of handling it tastefully. So we're not the first and we're not going to be the last screenplay that is going to deal with this subject. And there maybe controversy to come that we're using it as a device. I don't know how we

Chris Cooper

"Impossible to Forget"

are going to deny that, but from now on, that date and that situation, that incident, is going to be used time and time again and I hope tastefully."

Finally, Chris shared with us the films he has planned for down the road.

"I just finished, I was in the Phillippines and it was the fifth time I've worked with John Sales on a film called Baryo," he reveals, "It's done. I just got back from the Philippines less than a week ago and finished it."

"I just played a terribly curmudgeon, mean old, Ulysses S. Grant character and working on just these young soldiers who are occupying the Philippines and they're a little lackluster and they're irritating the hell out of me and they're not doing their job, so it was great," Cooper continues, "It was fun. And so, I'm ready for a little vacation."

One particular future film that was brought up for discussion is the drama film Company Men, which has completed filming, but yet to be released in the U.S.

"I wish I knew more about that end of the business," Chris says of the film, "But I do know, which tells me something, foreign distribution got picked up rather quickly, so I don't know what's going on with the business here, it's crazy."