INTERVIEW: Chris Cooper On What Inspires Him for Roles like the ‘Boston Strangler’

Movies about real life cases or people can be hit or miss. But what makes the Boston Strangler work is the fact that we’re seeing the untold story of these women who put themselves out there to stop the man who was murdering countless women without anyone stopping him. But the strength of Loretta McLaughlin and Jean Cole helped to save countless others. Loretta (played beautifully by Keira Knightley in the film) is single-handedly responsible for stopping a string of murders in a time when the world didn’t know what to call a “serial killer”.

The movie is described as follows: “Reporter Loretta McLaughlin becomes the first person to connect a series of murders and break the story of the Boston Strangler. She and Jean Cole challenge the sexism of the early 1960s to report on the city’s most notorious serial killer.”

Cooper plays Jack MacLaine, an editor of the paper. We were lucky enough to attend the global press conference for the film where one of our questions was asked to the panel! I love Chris Cooper’s body of work and so I asked him what draws him to a role in the first place and makes him want to tackle it.

“I say time and time again, the films that got me interested  in the business, were human to human,” Cooper said. “And my God, has the business changed? We’re gonna see in less and less of these films. And for lack of better words, I call it a good old time movie, simple as that, you know? Human to human activity and I mean, what Matt pulled off. Matt created, I think through a slow camera, which I always appreciate. He created such tension with the camera and going down these hallways and these women  turning and set such a mood in just lovely filmmaking.  That’s the stuff that kind of attracted me.”

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Boston Strangler is on Hulu now.

(Featured image: 20th Century Fox)

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