{"id":2037748,"date":"2025-09-20T20:58:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T20:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2037748"},"modified":"2025-09-20T20:58:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T20:58:06","slug":"this-is-what-i-live-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/this-is-what-i-live-for\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018This is what I live for.\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEntertainment\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>
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On opening weekend for \u201cThe History of Sound,\u201d Kingston\u2019s Chris Cooper talks about choosing roles and his path from shy ranch hand to Oscar winner.<\/h2>\n
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\n\tChris Cooper stands by the poster for his latest film, “History of Sound.” Courtesy<\/em>\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBy Lauren Daley<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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9 minutes to read<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<\/header>\n

Chris Cooper tells me he has a \u201chistory of being selective\u201d when it comes to choosing roles.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery selective,\u201d he adds with a laugh in our recent phone interview from his Kingston home, making his wife, writer\/actor Marianne Leone, laugh in the background.<\/p>\n

From Tom Smith, the horse trainer in \u201cSeabiscuit<\/a>,\u201d to Stephen MacRay, Ben Affleck\u2019s jailed dad in \u201cThe Town<\/a>,\u201d or, my favorite, the partially-toothless orchid-loving eccentric John Laroche in \u201cAdaptation<\/a>\u201d \u2014 there are certain roles that just feel <\/em>like Cooper roles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A character actor\u2019s character actor, roles like these \u2014 from quiet complex thinkers to dyed-in-the-wool oddballs \u2014 are the Oscar winner\u2019s bread and butter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I love Cooper\u2019s acting for the same reason I love John Prine\u2019s songwriting. He steps into people. Has an uncanny knack to tap into an artery, some motherlode vein, to bring characters intricately, deftly, to life in all their human quirkiness and vulnerability \u2014 unaffected salt-of-the-earth artists who hit the emotional nail on the head with few gestures.<\/p>\n

So I can see where director Oliver Hermanus <\/a>was coming from when he read South Dartmouth artist\/author\/general store owner<\/a> Ben Shattuck\u2019s \u201cThe History of Sound,<\/a>\u201d and thought: Cooper.<\/p>\n

\u201cDidn\u2019t have to ask twice,\u201d Cooper<\/a>, 74, tells me. \u201cI jumped at the chance. This is my kind of story. This is the kind of thing that got me interested in film in the first place. This is what I live for.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a smaller part, but if you\u2019ve read the story, you know why Cooper couldn\u2019t turn it down.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The titular story in Shattuck\u2019s brilliant short collection, \u201cis singular, subtly tender, ripe for Cooper. Shattuck<\/a>, husband of Milton native Jenny Slate, also wrote the screenplay.<\/p>\n

Set in New England circa World War I, two Boston Conservatory music students, Lionel and David, fall in love, and spend one summer together recording and preserving old folk tunes, ostensibly collecting the history of sound on phonograph tubes. Cooper plays the older Lionel; Paul Mescal<\/a> plays the younger Lionel. Josh O\u2019Connor<\/a> plays David.<\/p>\n

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