He expected to rise higher than he did in the FBI. He had a – he was terrified of failure, of not looking good in the eyes of his wife and his children. And in that study they suggested that he had very strong psychological demons that he was dealing with. Another motivating factor that I tried to justify to use as a possibility, I believed him to be truly a very committed, dedicated and religious person. It started at an early age this book that he read, he claims at 14, but was actually at 24. What about the religious aspect – was that only part of whom he was, and second, after making the film do you have any theories about why he did it? Chris Cooper: When he was captured they certainly did a psychological evaluation of him and if memory serves me, I think we played on probably four possibilities touching on why he did this and I remember some of the psychiatrist quotes suggesting that the roots of this may well have begun concerning the relationship with his father.
Was the Catherine Zeta Jones stuff true? Chris Cooper: Yes. He may make some friends with the guards there and see it someday. I saw a documentary on the prison where I believe he is, and I don’t know if they are granted reading material or televisions, but who knows. Will he see this film?Ĭhris Cooper: I don’t know. He’s in a super-max prison, and I believe to this day he’s caused so much trouble over the amount of material he gave the Soviets over a 15-year period that from time to time, he may well still be interrogated on occasion. Was there ever a question of you visiting Hanssen in jail? Chris Cooper: That would be impossible. I think the script handled some of those aspects very tastefully. No doubt this is terrible embarrassment for the country and his wife Bonnie and the children.
Did you feel intimidated to play a real person versus a fictional character? Chris Cooper: The intimidation was that even though there were some embarrassing and treasonous acts committed, I still felt responsible and respectable of primarily his family. He was shadowing Hanssen so there was a lot to draw from.
They were very helpful and of course we had the true Eric O'Neill who made himself available about a week before we started shooting to both and Ryan and I and we would spend anywhere from 10 to 12 hours a day peppering him with all sorts of questions, any bits of information about Robert Hanssen and their relationship. I looked around the house I needed to refresh my memory because I knew this was coming up, and I found at least five of the books I had used and they are pretty in-depth studies about Hanssen from his childhood all the way to his capture. The first step was certainly to find if there was any research material and there was a lot. And they backed him and supported me, and the great thing was that 4 to 6 weeks later, once it got around that we had a god script there were names knocking at Universal’s doors to try to knock me out of that position, but Billy and Universal stood by me. So we talked with Billy Ray and asked if he was interested in my coming aboard, and I believe Billy than approached Universal and asked them if this sounded like an okay thing with them. Fortunately the people I work with at the Paradigm agency – the script came to me a little bit earlier than it usually did the acting the community. Question: What was the first thing you did when you got this role and how much research did you do? Chris Cooper: As a rule it usually takes 3 or 4 readings for me to be interested in a script, and if I’m interested I’ll read it 3 or 4 times before I make a strong decision.
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