RYAN COOPER
Ryan Cooper ’ s performance in I ’ ll Be There has brought him acclaim for his portrayal of a deeply layered character . He shares how he prepared for the role and the lessons he learned along the way .
What drew you to the role of AJ in I ’ ll Be There , and how did you prepare to embody the character ? Wow , great question . I actually read for role , I did it cold with another friend who was auditioning for the role of Grace , my sister . I had no context , zero knowledge of the script . And I was crying by the end of the scenes , knowing what this man was feeling and going through . As a father to a little girl , the idea of leaving her behind was the saddest thing to me at that point . It really just drew me into this story of going through a disease and seeing your family or potentially losing your family . When we get to the bottom of the barrel or we feel at our lowest point , that is when we often feel brave enough to say the things that we should have or could have said earlier . And so , I thought that was a really beautiful part of the story .
AJ is the center of the family crisis as he battles cancer . How did you approach portraying the vulnerability and strength that comes with such a difficult diagnosis ? I was fortunate enough to get to speak to Cindy ’ s brother who went through this . Cindy is the writer , and she has incredible humor . And one of the biggest takeaway that I wanted to have from that conversation was what were the levels of pain ? What did it feel like in there ? And he just kept saying there was so much pain … I just really just wanted to dive into that and understand that if I put my body in that space of feeling trapped , if I embodied the pain and then the release at the end when he is able to come out of the hospital … I think that was the kind of foundation .
The vulnerability comes from almost this helpless state of something else that I can ’ t control and releasing into the doctors and the people that are there helping . But also , sometimes as men , we don ’ t want help . We try to be that figure for the family dynamic . I think I really
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