{"id":22066,"date":"2013-08-09T12:37:12","date_gmt":"2013-08-09T12:37:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/?p=22066"},"modified":"2013-08-09T12:37:12","modified_gmt":"2013-08-09T12:37:12","slug":"flashback-friday-dominic-cooper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2013\/08\/09\/flashback-friday-dominic-cooper\/","title":{"rendered":"Flashback Friday: Dominic Cooper"},"content":{"rendered":"

The History Boy’s just been cast as Dracula in a big-screen adaptation and stars as Ian Fleming in the BBC biopic Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond – and now there are rumours he’ll play Christian Grey. In this Flashback Friday<\/a> interview from the archives, we talked to him about ABBA tunes with Meryl Streep and sex scenes with Keira Knightley<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Dominic<\/p>\n

This interview first appeared in Wonderland Issue 13, April\/May 2008.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Any way you slice it, this will be a year to remember for Dominic Cooper<\/a>. Turning 30; buying a flat away from the southeast London neighbourhood where he\u2019s laid tracks his entire life; and starring in three couldn\u2019t-be-more-dissimilar films, any one of which could propel him to the big league of Brit stars currently occupied by James McAvoy and Jude Law. \u201cThe things that are coming out are exciting and I keep being told they\u2019ll make a difference,\u201d he hedges. \u201cBut who knows?\u201d <\/p>\n

Thus far, Cooper has displayed a two-pronged appeal: a brash sexuality he exploited as the ferally manipulative Dakin in The History Boys, and a puppyish demeanour that makes audiences want to shield him. This second quality is on show in spades in UK prison drama The Escapist, in which Cooper suffers plenty as Lacey, the na\u00efve, new-boy convict let in on an escape plot because his wizened cellmate (Brian Cox) feels sorry for him. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe just gets beaten up, raped and generally shat on,\u201d says Cooper of his character, who makes a striking entrance into prison stripped to his briefs, smeared in white delousing powder and taunted by a cellblock\u2019s worth of randy inmates. \u201cThat was one of the first scenes I shot and Rupert Wyatt the director made sure it was the first time I saw the prison. It was scary.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt this vulnerability caught the eye of Nicholas Hytner, the National Theatre svengali who Cooper can thank for his career. Plucking the actor straight from drama school, Hytner cast him in swift succession in Mother Clap\u2019s Molly House, as Will in His Dark Materials and, of course, The History Boys. Before Hytner got his hands on him, Cooper had stumbled into acting haphazardly, following a brief detour in the employ of hip commercials outfit Academy. \u201cIt was exciting for a while but then I got a bit perturbed by people sat there talking about the colour and crispiness of a cornflake,\u201d he grins. <\/p>\n

Sitting in the photographer\u2019s north London flat, Cooper is engaging, self-deprecating and sporting the aftermath of a head shaved for a BBC Two film with Stephen Dillane called God On Trial, about Auschwitz prisoners awaiting selection for the gas chamber. \u201cBeing in Glasgow, in January, that subject matter \u2013 it was kind of\u2026\u201d Depressing? \u201cThat might be the word\u2026 It was more intense than sitting on a jet ski, oiled up and singing ABBA.\u201d <\/p>\n

That would be Cooper\u2019s next film, an adaptation of insanely popular stage musical, Mamma Mia!, which he didn\u2019t want to audition for but \u201cpeople forced me to do it\u201d. He may have cringed while belting out Abba\u2019s \u2018Lay All Your Love On Me\u2019 at the meeting, but still convinced them he was the right heartthrob and spent what sounds suspiciously like a seven-week paid holiday hanging out on Greek islands with Colin Firth and Meryl Streep. \u201cIn the final number, we\u2019re all wearing outrageous spandex suits \u2013 mine\u2019s pink and opened down to there,\u201d he says, motioning to his waistline. \u201cIt could be the end of my career but, you know, anything goes.\u201d <\/p>\n

His other major role comes opposite Keira Knightley in Saul Dibb\u2019s The Duchess, playing aristocratic MP Earl Grey, who conducted a passionate affair with 18th-century scandal magnet the Duchess of Devonshire. According to Cooper, his sex scenes with Knightley were \u201cdamn good fun\u201d but his behaviour during the shoot was \u201ccompletely moronic… I just made a fool of myself the whole time. I was pretending to be more academic than I was, seeing as I was playing a politician, and came out with garbage that I knew nothing about. I just acted like a naughty schoolkid the whole time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Naughty boy or not, Cooper\u2019s doe-eyed charisma has already seen him touted as the next Jude Law. Turning 30 this June, however, is one breakthrough he\u2019s not looking forward to. \u201cI\u2019m dreading it,\u201d he demurs. \u201cI should be planning a big party but I might just pretend I\u2019m not 30… Although isn\u2019t 30 supposed to be good? Isn\u2019t 30 me learning who I am and what I want to do with my life?\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps it\u2019s about exerting more control over your own destiny… Cooper had been planning to head off after the shoot to the NME Awards with some of his History Boys cast-mates, but he has a big audition in the morning and \u201cif I go, I won\u2019t get to bed before 6am.\u201d Instead he heads off, clutching his annotated script and i-Pod, to catch the Tube home and prepare for a role that might change his life all over again.<\/p>\n

\"Dominic<\/p>\n

\"Dominic<\/p>\n

Words: Matt Mueller
\nImages: Toyin<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The History Boy’s just been cast as Dracula in a big-screen adaptation and stars as Ian Fleming in the BBC biopic Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond – and now there are rumours he’ll play Christian Grey. In this Flashback Friday interview from the archives, we talked to him about ABBA tunes with Meryl […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":22069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3632],"tags":[4770,3714,79,4326],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nFlashback Friday: Dominic Cooper | Wonderland<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Flashback Friday: Dominic Cooper.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wonderlandmagazine.com\/2013\/08\/09\/flashback-friday-dominic-cooper\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Flashback Friday: Dominic Cooper | Wonderland\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Flashback Friday: Dominic 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