Peter Sarsgaard and Dominic Cooper teach the art of playing lovable bad boys in 'An Education'

Let me say something right now: If you ever have Peter Sarsgaard and Dominic Cooper over for a party, they could do some serious damage — and I mean that in a good way. These two talented actors play (literally) partners in crime in the dramatic film "An Education." Set primarily in 1961 suburban London, "An Education" tells the story of a 16-year-old-girl named Jenny (played by Carey Mulligan), who’s on the verge of turning 17 when she meets and falls in love with a man named David (played by Sarsgaard), who’s more than twice Jenny’s age. David introduces Jenny to a more sophisticated lifestyle, which is funded by questionable means and illegal actions of David and his close friend/business partner Danny (played by Cooper), who take Jenny into their inner circle. It isn’t long before Jenny starts to rebel against the authority figures in her life and begins to question her plans to attend Oxford University.

Off screen, Cooper and Sarsgaard together are like two naughty teens in a classroom who like to play pranks and tell dirty jokes so they and everyone around them can have a laugh. And there were plenty of laughs to be had, as I experienced when I sat down with the two of them at the New York City press junket for "An Education." Interviews like these make me wish that I had a video camera in the room instead of an audio recorder. There are some things that just can’t be captured on audio. Like the way Cooper’s and Sarsgaard’s faces lit up when they were talking about their significant others (Amanda Seyfried for Cooper, Maggie Gyllenhaal for Sarsgaard). It’s very cool to see these guys so in love. Or how Sarsgaard excused himself to use the restroom in the hotel room where the interview took place, and Cooper followed him and playfully tried to barge in as Sarsgaard was shutting the door. Or the mischievous grins on their faces when I asked Cooper and Sarsgaard what was most rebellious thing they’ve ever done for love.

When I was in Toronto for the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival, I saw some of the stars of "An Education" hanging out at a restaurant in the city’s Yorkville district. Cooper looked like a total rock star, from his bed head and scruffy facial hair to his effortlessly cool black clothes to his well-worn boots. I couldn’t help but notice his striking resemblance to INXS singer Michael Hutchence circa 1989, when Hutchence decided to chop off his long locks and immerse himself in his alternative Max Q project. And I thought to myself, "If they ever make a movie about Michael Hutchence, Dominic Cooper would be perfect to play him." Apparently, I’m not the only person who feels that way, as you’ll see when Cooper made a confession that I didn’t expect in this interview. It turns out that Sarsgaard once wanted to play a very different rock star — and most people might never guess who it is. Read on to find out more.

[SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains a mild spoiler. If you don’t want to know about the spoiler, than skip reading the parts of this interview where the spoiler alert is indicated.]

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Dominic Cooper and Peter Sarsgaard in "An Education"

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"An Education" is a coming-of-age story that involves love and rebellion. What’s the most rebellious thing you or someone you know has done for love?

Sarsgaard: God, don’t let Dominic answer this question! … I actually once got in a car on New Year’s Eve, in upstate New York at Bard College. It was around 8 o’clock at night. Valentine’s Day was the next day. I drove all the way down to UNC [the University of North Carolina] Chapel Hill through the night, arrived in the morning, showed up on this girl’s front steps, had written a short story — this when I was in college — and there was a guy who played for UNC Chapel Hill (for the Tar Heels), who was there — a very large gentleman, and that was her new boyfriend. So then I went to a Tears for Fears concert and watched that.

[Cooper laughs.]

Sarsgaard: And I wept all the way through the concert.

Was the short story about the girl?

Sarsgaard: No, actually it wasn’t. It was likely ripped off from another writer. It was an obscure writer.

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Dominic Cooper in "An Education"

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What about you, Dominic? What’s the most rebellious thing you or someone else you know has done for love?

Cooper: Well, I …

Sarsgaard: No, you can’t talk about that one!

Cooper: The most romantic or most rebellious thing?

It could be both. Sometimes the two aren’t mutually exclusive.

Cooper: I can’t tell any stories about how rancid I’ve been?

Sarsgaard: There are too many stories with him. It’s potentially harmful.

Too X-rated?

Cooper and Sarsgaard: [They both say at the same time] Yeah!

[Everyone laughs.]

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Dominic Cooper and Peter Sarsgaard at the New York City press junket for "An Education"

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Dominic, since you’re British and London is your hometown, what’s your perspective on this movie and how it represented the London area in the 1960s?

Cooper: It was very interesting going back in that time. I didn’t really know much about it. I should, because it’s [a decade] that’s not that far away and one in which my parents existed and lived through. It often makes me very thankful how much times have changed and how much London has changed. It was on the cusp of becoming a very, very different place, with regards to music and freedom of speech and how people felt about expressing themselves. The Beatles and the Stones were recording at the time, so London was about to change dramatically.

But I didn’t really know a vast amount of art then. It was exciting to discover things about it. It seems like it was quite a bleak place, really. There wasn’t any sort of outdoor European café culture. There wasn’t much in the way of artistic culture, unless you had access to museums, unless you were like people I’m portraying [in "An Education"]. [Danny] was very affluent, coming from the background in which he did, an educated place. Those kinds of people lived a very privileged, exciting existence. But if you weren’t there, if you were living in Twickenham, in the suburbs, it was gray and grim and penny-pinching and quite oppressive, from what I’ve learned.

But [the movie "An Education"] is a wonderful little take on England, and the way Nick [Hornby, the screenwriter of "An Education] has written the characters is so brilliant. He understands where each and every one is coming from and who they are.

Sarsgaard: And we shot in Twickenham …

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Peter Sarsgaard in "An Education"

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Peter, did you stay in your English accent while this movie was in production, even when you weren’t shooting?

Sarsgaard: I do that mostly, not totally. There are many reasons to do that. One of which is to practice it during the day. The other is to not make life really confusing for the other people around you. There were plenty of times when [Dominic] would make fun of me for not being able to pronounce something correctly. I was fine with the accent, unless it was a phrase like, "You drink everything I put in front of you, every last drop and you slam your glass down and ask for more." There are too many "la" [phonetics] … Little phrases like that that were so well-written that I didn’t want to change them.

But for the most part it was fine. I had a very analogous situation going on: I had this ex-rugby player driver who spoke in an entirely incorrect accent, and I would speak in that one, because it was easier going to work. He was a bit rough. [He says in a Cockney accent] It’s much easier for me, because it’s sloppy.

[He goes back to his American accent] Anything that’s really articulated is difficult for an American. And I’d get home to the place where we were staying. I’d go upstairs and my wife and daughter were there, and I certainly never spoke in an English accent [around them] or my daughter would think I was crazy. So I had this complete other life going on.

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Dominic Cooper, Carey Mulligan, Olivia Williams, Peter Sarsgaard and director Lone Scherfig at the Los Angeles premiere of "An Education"

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In Lynn Barber’s memoir, "An Education," which inspired this movie, she talked about the accent sounding very odd — posh-sounding, but there was something off about the accent. How conscious were you of Lynn’s description when you were doing this character?

Sarsgaard: I used very little of Lynn’s description when I was doing my interpretation of him, because I didn’t think she would see him clearly as an objective portrayal that we were doing. So I didn’t want to play the character through the eyes of Jenny. I wanted to be the guy separately. And that part of the piece which I read basically gave me an excuse to be an American … It was liberating …

I think it’s something that’s very common among the Brits … I’ve certainly heard of actors in England making entire careers in another accent than their own, playing posh all the time when they’re not. And it’s more common now, it’s more popular now to get the "Sexy Beast" version of things … It’s like a game of pretend, as fully invested in a game of pretend. I was never doing the double thing of, "Oh look, I’m pretending I’m pretending."

I just tried to do everything as well and as fully as I could. [David], in my mind, is not a consciously manipulative person. I rarely think, "Oh, I’m going to put [Jenny’s] cello in the car so I can have sex with her." He’s not thinking like that. So it’s easy to think of it in the little increments as it comes along in the script. The script is so well-written, it really makes good acting irrelevant, in some ways. You just follow it.

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Peter Sarsgaard in "An Education"

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How much of a challenge was the pivotal scene in which David first meets Jenny and convinces her to get in his car?

Sarsgaard: To me, it was always important that she put herself in the car. In my mind, I see a girl at the side of the street with a cello that’s drowning in the rain. And the cello shouldn’t be in the rain. I play guitar … So I just made it my goal to get the cello off the street. And then we [Jenny and David] have this conversation, and she’s lovely and interesting. And she puts herself in the car.

What’s your opinion of an older man being with a younger female who’s underage?

[SPOILER ALERT]

Sarsgaard: It’s different having a relationship with someone than having a moment with someone, right? I’m seven years older than my wife. Someone said to me the other day, "You play a pedophile [in ‘An Education’]." And I said, "That’s interesting, because we [David and Jenny] wait until [Jenny] is 17 [to consummate the relationship], which was legal at the time. Why do you say that?" And she said, "Because if there’s more than a five-year age gap between two people, it’s pedophilia!"

That’s a very extreme opinion, obviously, but everyone has really different views on what is appropriate in the name of love or whatever they’re calling it. And there are obviously times when it’s wrong. Each culture has a different idea of what’s wrong.

[END OF SPOILER ALERT]

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Dominic Cooper in "An Education"

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Cooper: It also depends so much on what that person is like. When you look at [Jenny’s] friends in the film, they seem like different ages. She seems like a very mature girl, grown-up, at 16. She’s much more adult than the friends that surround her. We all grow up in very different ways. I feel very young in comparison to some of my friends my age. Not that [Jenny] knows what she’s getting involved with, but she knows herself well enough, I think, and it’s that person who’s that intelligent and that rounded, and yet she does learn some very harsh lessons rather quickly. She actually doesn’t seem that youthful to me.

Sarsgaard: One of the girls who auditioned for the [Jenny] role who was really quite good was 16 [in real life]. I remember going, "She’s fantastic, this girl." She actually wasn’t quite 16. Her father is a very, very famous director. I thought, "She doesn’t seem 16." But there was something in her that made it seem like an entirely different movie.

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Carey Mulligan and Peter Sarsgaard in "An Education"

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Peter, now that you’ve played an older man who seduces a teenage girl, how do you think you’ll feel when your daughter gets to be a teenager of dating age?

Sarsgaard: The thing that concerns me most about my daughter being of dating age is a 16-year-old boy driving her anywhere. I’m mainly concerned about life and death. If you’re going to be a parent that’s just going to moderate every single experience that your daughter has, they’re going to live a life that’s not prepared to deal with the world. Obviously, there are extenuating circumstances and times when you do get involved as a parent. But for me, it comes down to health and safety.

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Peter Sarsgaard in "An Education"

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Have you found that people in different countries react differently to this movie?

Sarsgaard: It’s interesting. When you say it’s a movie about a 37-year-old man and a 16-year-old woman, people picture lurid sex scenes — that’s really where the American mind goes. The fact that the film doesn’t have much sex in it at all, and you still get people going, "Oh, you’re a pedophile!" just speaks to the way sex is interpreted and dealt with in this country.

Where Lone [Scherfig, the director of "A Education"] is from in Denmark, there’s not the anxiety about it. I think they [Danish people] have less problems with it. I’m not sure, but if you looked at, per capita, the number of pedophiles there [in Denmark] is probably far fewer than in some of the repressed states in this country. I think that acting like something doesn’t turn you on and acting like it doesn’t exist just makes it more powerful in your life and you will act out in a way that’s inappropriate.

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Alfred Molina, Cara Seymour, Carey Mulligan and Peter Sarsgaard in "An Education"

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Can you talk about the relationship between David and Jack (Jenny’s father, played by Alfred Molina) and how David convinces Jack that David is an appropriate suitor for Jenny?

Sarsgaard: He just has a need for [David] to be what [he] appears to be. People tell me I’m suave in the film, and I go, "Really?" I don’t think I’m that suave. I might be trying a little bit, but it’s pretty lame. I think it’s more about [Jack] trying to create something that’s not there. We’re all parties to creating a fantasy in this movie. I’m not the only one in this movie doing make-believe and lying sometimes. Everyone is apart of it, including Jack. Everyone let the fantasy continues. No one steps in and goes, "Wait a second!"

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Rosamund Pike and Dominic Cooper in "An Education"

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Dominic, you can into the film pretty late in the process. How much time did you have to prepare and what inspiration did your draw from to play the Danny character?

Cooper: I had about a day from the time I knew I was going to do it to the camera test and rehearsal — which was quite freeing, actually, because I think I avoided the agony of wondering how I was going to portray the character.

Sarsgaard: I think on that day, you were having [hair extension] wefts put in your hair.

Cooper: Nick [Hornby] was saying this morning … Dialogue is not his problem. The structure and various other things can be problems. The ease that he finds in actually dialogue is that he just thinks of something and actually writes it. I’ve never done anything — and maybe because it was the lack of preparation time — where we just said the lines. They were just completely fully formed and there. I suppose it was about the relationship with all of us and learning abut who and why [these characters] did the things that they did.

[Danny] comes from a very educated, affluent and wealthy background. Why is he stealing pictures off of old women’s walls? He’s pretending to be something he’s not, chasing something that he doesn’t have, which is excitement and vigor.

Sarsgaard: [Danny] is bored. They didn’t have video games back then.

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Dominic Cooper in "An Education"

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How did Lone Scherfig’s directing style affect your performances?

Sarsgaard: She’s not an emotional director. She’s not prone to anger when it’s going badly or anxiety that’s noticeable. And she doesn’t put praise on you if it was great. She doesn’t go on to the next thing until everything is reasonable to her. Because she’s taken away the rewards-based system that most directors work off of, you don’t feel like a monkey trying to get another cookie. That makes the acting better, I think.

Can you name some examples of the reward-based system that directors use?

Sarsgaard: I actually had a director where an actor did a take, and the director said, "You have one more chance to get it right or I’m firing you." And the guy crumbled. That’s the rewards-based system. And when someone did really well …

Cooper: Is that director still working?

Sarsgaard: Very famously and well. There are plenty who are like that. I tell other actors so they can avoid [that director].

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Dominic Cooper in "Mamma Mia!"

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Dominic, I was talking to Colin Firth not too long ago, and he said that he’d like to do a "Mamma Mia!" sequel, just so he could work with everyone from the movie again. What do you know about a possible sequel?

Cooper: I don’t know nearly enough, I’m afraid. Everyone else seems to know.

Colin said that songs from a musical artist other than ABBA might be considered for the sequel. If you could choose the artist, who would it be?

Cooper: Duran Duran!

Sarsgaard: Oooh! That’s good!

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Dominic Cooper and Amanda Seyfried in "Mamma Mia!"

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There you go. Dance routines to "Hungry Like the Wolf." Would you want to work with Amanda again, even if it’s not for a "Mamma Mia!" sequel?

Cooper: It would be wonderful to work with her again. We had the most amazing time working together.

Would you like to do a drama or comedy?

Cooper: I’m really up for all sorts of things. I’d like to do more comedy, actually. I never really felt that musicals were my forté.

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Amanda Seyfried and Dominic Cooper at at the 17th Annual Elton John AIDS Foundation's Academy Award Viewing Party in West Hollywood, California, in February 2009

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You pulled it off at this year’s Oscars though.

Cooper: You obviously weren’t looking closely enough. I fell down the stairs and knocked Beyoncé off the stage!

[Everyone laughs.]

Hey, at least you didn’t end up like Bret Michaels when that set piece came crashing down on him at the Tony Awards this year and he ended up hospitalized with stitches.

Cooper: No, not quite like that. I turned around to the musical director [at the Oscars] and said, "I promise you, if you want me to leave, I won’t take offense." I just walked sheepishly off in the corner.

[Sarsgaard laughs loudly.]

Cooper: It was impossible, the dance routines they had. I’m not a dancer!

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Dominic Cooper and Amanda Seyfried in "Mamma Mia!"

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Amanda recently made headlines in the media for saying something interesting about you. Do you know about this?

Cooper: Is this before or after the phone call I just had with her this morning?

Did you see the articles?

Cooper. No. Tell me.

In an interview that got repeated by a lot of news outlets recently, she said that she thought you were gay when she first met you, because you dress so fashionably.

Cooper: [He laughs.] I don’t think she said that. Did she?

She’s been quoted as saying that, and now it’s been reported by news outlets around the world.

Cooper: [He says in a stammering voice] I can’t even ... I’m just…

[Says jokingly] It may be time for another phone call to Amanda!

[Laughter]

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Alfred Molina, Peter Sarsgaard, Carey Mulligan, screenwriter Nick Hornby, director Lone Scherfig and Dominic Cooper at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival premiere of "An Education"

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But back to "An Education" …

Sarsgaard: Why not?

[Says jokingly] Oh, is that what we’re here to talk about?

[Everyone laughs.]

How was the camaraderie on set?

Sarsgaard: The three of them: [Dominic], Roz [Rosamund Pike, who plays Danny’s girlfriend] and Carey knew each other. I’m the outsider, and they included me. [He whispers] "I’m an American and why the hell is an American playing this role?"

Cooper: Is that how you felt?

Sarsgaard: A little bit at first, because of the read-through. Let’s talk about the read-through, where you have to do the entire script in the accent.

Cooper: Oh, that must’ve been awful.

Sarsgaard: And I worked on it scene by scene, and I hadn’t been doing it for that long. And I had to do the entire thing in front of Emma Thompson and people like that who have good English accents … To feel like a fraud playing this guy isn’t the worst thing that can happen.

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Peter Sarsgaard at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival

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Peter, are you still doing that movie "Wichita"?

Sarsgaard: Yeah, but it’s not called "Wichita" anymore, I don’t think.

Would you describe it as a blockbuster-type movie since Tom Cruise is in it?

Sarsgaard: It is, but it’s funny, which I think is crucial. I love the script. It’s an awesome script … I’m really excited to be doing it. I have a really, really fun character.

How would you describe the character?

Sarsgaard: He’s a man with his own agenda.

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Dominic Cooper and Peter Sarsgaard in "An Education"

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Is there a particular role or character that you want to play at some point in your life?

Sarsgaard: When I was younger, I always wanted to play Gram Parsons. You know about him?

Yes. Great musician. He was in Byrds and in the Flying Burrito Brothers.

Sarsgaard: He had such a weird, crazy life. I can’t do that [play Gram Parsons] anymore. [He says to Cooper] Neither can you, actually, because you look nothing like him.

Cooper: But I could be Michael Hutchence from INXS.

Sarsgaard: You could. There you go. Beautiful. But unfortunately, the way things are right now and the way things get made …

Cooper: It’s not going to have the right ending.

Sarsgaard: It’s not going to have the right ending. Neither one [the Gram Parsons story and the Michael Hutchence story] would have the right ending.

Have you ever been to the Joshua Tree site where Gram Parsons died?

Sarsgaard: I’ve been to Joshua Tree. I’m not that crazy where I went to the [actual] site. There was a great film script that I read about the guys who tried to steal his body … which is probably the most interesting script related to him that I ever read.

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Michael Hutchence (pictured at left) and Dominic Cooper (pictured at right) 

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Dominic, you do look a lot like Michael Hutchence. Why else do you want to play him?

Cooper: Because of the music. The love of the music.

[Sarsgaard starts humming the INXS song "Need You Tonight."]

So even though you said musicals aren’t your forté …

Cooper: I could be a member of a band. I’d dig being a member of a band. It would be great to have much more control over what you actually wanted to do. I think it would be a very proud thing to create, develop and then to see an end product that’s something you were inspired by and have wanted to make. It would be wonderful. But it must take so much effort.

Sarsgaard: I think most actors, just like everyone else, are just trying to survive and get some work. I think every actor in Hollywood is for sale.

Photo credits: Photos #1, 4: Carla Hay. Photos #16, 18: Getty Images. Photos #6, 22: Reuters. Photo #19: AP. Photos #14, 15, 17: Universal Pictures. All other photos: Sony Pictures Classics.