"If you're that frightened, you should do it."

Chris Cooper on choosing roles, and how career and life intersect. (Greencine)

Q: Is there a role that you passed on, for whatever reason, and then have thought, "I wish I'd taken that role?"

A: I'm sure there is. [Pause] But on the other hand, the roles in both Adaptation and American Beauty, particularly American Beauty, the more and more I read that script, it seemed so dark that I was really tempted to pass on that. I was sort of afraid of the role and my wife really gave me a great thing to remember. She said, "Well, if you're that frightened, you should do it." And I'm very grateful for that. For Adaptation, I just thought that nobody has ever cast me as a character like that and my chances of getting that role, I thought, were near impossible. But I was so captivated by the character and I saw the character possibility going so may ways.