Dominic Cooper: Mamma Mia! is like a family – but Band of Brothers has almost finished my career | Movie

Dominic Cooper has hardly tried for the first Mamma Mia! movie. He was filming something else and reluctantly went to the audition, not expecting to get the role, not sure that he wanted it anyway. While crossing the country in the rain, he thought: "I am not a person of musical theater. Why am I going? But he sang a song at the audition – "I was terrified" – and got the role.

Then he went to see the show and was deeply moved. "It was unbelievable to see an audience so carried away," he says. "Wonderfully, it turned out that people really needed it at that time – they were desperately seeking this escape." And then the film, starring Meryl Streep as single Donna, was released in 2008, just before the global economy. .

Her sequel, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, came out this week and – with his sense of joy, love and the sun – that seems to affirm his life, seems just as well timed. "It could not happen at a better time," says Cooper. "Everything has been rather dark and hard to understand what is happening.People sometimes need to go sit in a dark space with people they like and forget about everything. . "

Cooper returns as Sky, the husband of Donna's daughter, played by Amanda Seyfried. The actors had a relationship for several years after the meeting on the first film and were reunited for the second. "It's happened twice this year," says Cooper laughing – he also plays in the American TV series Preacher with his former partner Ruth Negga.

Was it embarrassing? "I think," How are you going? "So, okay, Ruth and I have been good friends, we both care about the show, we have worked so much together that we all know how the other works, she is more honest with me about Regarding the game any one could be, which is helpful.And it's great to see Amanda again.You work with someone you know very well. "Qu & # Is this, he asks, is the alternative? Sulk in a corner? There is no other option. In the end, you are friends. "

It was striking at the time how Mamma Mia dominated the women! Show and movie were .. Judy Craymer produced, Catherine Johnson wrote and Phyllida Lloyd ran a story revolving around a mother and daughter. "Was it different?" Yes, "says Cooper." I think this has brought a more stimulating atmosphere. The sets are still terribly masculine. I would like to see more women on the set – there is a different and wonderful atmosphere. I think that's what made this environment so enjoyable, non-competitive, relaxing and supportive. It's where people produce their best work. I think it appears on the screen. "

The sequel is more masculine – Ol Parker writes and directs – but Cooper says that Craymer's touch is everywhere." I have a hard time explaining when I say that it reminds me of my family. But it 's fun, it feeds, it' s loving and I think it comes from her. "

Cooper is spending a good year.Preacher is now in his third season and shares a sense of escape with Mamma Mia! If nothing else.This is violent and bloody. Cooper interprets Jesse Custer, a smoking and smoking preacher who possesses supernatural powers, in search of God.He says that DC's original comic, by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, "is very politically observant of people. Ennis never judges people's religious beliefs – he may be creating a whirlwind for conversation.

Then, there's another new film, The Escape, a budget-reduced British improvised drama in which he marries the stifled wife of Gemma Arterton. who slams and abandons his family. "I loved it," Cooper says. "These things really happen and they're real emotional nightmares – it's a joy to make Mamma Mia!" – but I'm moved when I see something that makes me think or change, who encourages me or m & rsquo; As a person. "

He describes The History Boys – Alan Bennett's 2004 play that marked his career – in the same way. "We all remember how magical it was," he says. "It's an amazing writing and you can understand why people have responded to it." People liked the language, the common understanding of what education is and what it's all about. life. "

The play moved from the National Theater to Broadway before becoming a film. However, Nicholas Hytner, the director of the film, told Cooper that he was now too old to play a high school student about to pass the Oxbridge exams. Cooper will not let go, pointing out that he had just played a 12-year-old Will in the production of His Dark Materials of National

. It seems to show some determination, I say. "Thinking about it now, I'm really surprised," he says. "Me now, maybe I'm gone," OK, of course. " There are moments in life like this, that everyone has, where you see different routes. I do not know what makes one grow one. You think, "If that did not happen, how everything could have been different."

The History Boys also launched the career of Russell Tovey and James Corden. "With James," said Cooper, "you knew from the first day that he was going to conquer the world." Was there any rivalry? He says there was none, exceptionally. "Towards the end of any show or movie, it's pretty hard because people are starting to come up with scripts." Everyone says, "Oh yeah, what's that?" "But we were not like that one with the other, I never really understood why, because I did jobs where it was. was horrible. "

A difficult first experience, he says, was on Band of Brothers, Steven Spielberg's second television series. "I had never been on a set and was terrified," he recalls remembering that he was full of young male actors competing with each other. Although he insists that it was an "incredible project", he recalls being "very young and very sad". He had never acted before the camera before and now found himself on one of the biggest television series. "All of this had to do with my own insecurities – it was camaraderie, competition and masculinity at its highest level.I was just not ready for that.Luckily, I had had other work quite quickly.This could have been very damaging.I could have said "No, it's not for me."

Cooper, now 40 years old, grew up in Greenwich, south London, his mother was a kindergarten teacher, his father an auctioneer, he did not do very well in his GCSE but his theater teacher was He was beaten so that he could stay in. He got a place at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art – and got funding. It was starting now, would he have the same opportunities? "No, I would not do it," he says. "Lamda is" making great efforts to ensure that people from different backgrounds can leave " but he says that there are obstacles for people from various walks of life. "It's inaccessible, people can not understand it." "Mom, can I go to school for three years? It will be very expensive."

Cooper's career got off to a good start: he was screened in Mark Ravenhill's Molly House at the National Theater, Mother Clap, and worked regularly on television and in the cinema – with the might prefer to be forgotten. (Last year, Stratton, in which he was playing a Special Commando Boat Service, received terrible reviews.)

When something is not right, does it bother him? "Yes, pretty much. You all try to do it best and sometimes you do it well and sometimes you do not do it. "In the end," he says, "you remember what makes you happy." This is part of something that is touching – something that moves and improves people. "

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again Released in the United Kingdom on July 20.