The British cast of the film “The History Boys,” which opens today, is full of charming young men who play bright students studying to get into university. To wax poetic on the qualities of each would take far too much time, so here’s the skinny on one: Dominic Cooper, who plays the sexually charged Dakin.
While all the boys in the movie are attractive, Cooper can definitely be pegged as the hot one. His actions on-screen are provocative — he eventually seduces his history teacher — and he’s got the dark and brooding bit down pat. Offscreen, the young Brit is both good-humored and talented, having originated the Dakin role in the much-lauded stage version of “The History Boys” in London and New York (where he was nominated for a Drama Desk Award).
Of course, the measure of a man is not made on these choice bits of information alone, so Cooper sat down with WWD to disclose more about his past, present and future.
Age: He’s been advised by his handlers not to reveal his true age. “I range between 20 and 30. Today I’m being 27. I don’t know why, it’s just what I’ve been told.”
Hometown: Greenwich, England
Home and away: “New York feels like home. We lived here for six months in an apartment on Gansevoort and Hudson, above Fatty Crab. I don’t think I remember going to bed before six in the morning. We went to The Double Seven, Apartment, Bungalow 8 — that was for bigger nights. And you could always find us at Angus McIndoe after the show having a pint. I think people in New York thought we didn’t appreciate being on Broadway, that we didn’t care and didn’t know how difficult it was or how good it was. We did know how good it was, and we loved every minute of it.”
Girls, girls, girls: “At elementary school I really just wanted to play football [soccer]. I kept getting chased around the playground and getting kicked in the shins by girls. If that was a way of showing affection, I’m not sure. Then I stopped growing for a while and was deeply unattractive, with big crispy hair like Robert Smith of The Cure. So I wasn’t the studmuffin I claim to be in the film.”
An audience of one: “I haven’t done a great deal of film work before, so it was such a relief walking on the set and knowing everyone. We could just experiment, try out different things. We needed to lose the performance. We didn’t need to be performing to an audience of a thousand people.”
Treading carefully: “It’s an important time for me to get right in terms of what I choose to do next. With this film and then ‘Starter for Ten’ [with ‘The Last King of Scotland’ actor James McAvoy] coming out, people have a better idea of your work and they can just see you more. I’m coming back to New York in December to do a film called ‘Brief Interviews With Hideous Men,’ which is basically a book no one’s ever heard of. It’s supposed to be a bestseller.”
Fashion free-dom: “I like Prada suits and Tsubi jeans, or Diesel. I don’t know whether I’m very fashionable but I like clothes. I like getting free clothes better and I prefer stealing my friends’ clothes. I always look better in them.”