From his early beginnings in Leeds to international screens, Christian Cooke has carved out a dynamic career as an actor, writer, and director. With standout performances in major projects like Disney+’s REMATCH, Netflix’s That Dirty Black Bag and Point Blank, and critically acclaimed series including Stonemouth and The Promise, Cooke’s range and depth continue to captivate audiences. Behind the camera, his directorial work has also earned recognition, with his feature debut EMBERS premiering at Raindance and his award-winning short EDITH reaching global festival audiences. Constantly evolving, Cooke brings a grounded perspective to the ever-shifting world of film and television.

**Photographer:** *Dmi Vas* *master.it.london* *Photographed on Mamiya rz67 Pro ii / Kodak Pro Portra 400*
**Grooming:** *Laisum Fung* *@aisumfung*
**Stylist:** *Andrew Burling* *@andrewburling*
**Shirt:** *MKI MIYUKI ZOKU* @mkimiyukizoku
**T-shirt:** *Sunspel* *@sunspelclothing*
**Studio:** *Soul Performance Studio* *@soul.performance*

-Dmi (Editor)

Nice to meet you Christian. Usually, at the beginning, it is good to break the ice a little. Tell us about your journey to becoming an actor. Did you have any other aspirations? Was it something you just woke up one day and decided to do?

-Christian

- It is quite boring, really. I just started doing it when I was young. My mum took me and my brother to an amateur dramatics place. It was not one of those pushy parent situations. I think my mum just wanted to keep us occupied and off the streets. I played football, my brother did not really do much. He was about 12, three years older than me.

We went to these amateur dramatics classes and both really loved it. I was always really shy as a kid, I would not leave my mum’s side, always grabbing onto her. I probably romanticize it in my head, but I remember feeling like I completely changed within an hour of being there. I came out thinking, "That was great." And from then on, I always wanted to do it. I remember being 10 and thinking, "I want to be an actor."

I was lucky because a lot of people do not know what they want to do, especially nowadays. With social media, young people are so distracted. I have friends with younger brothers finishing university who just have no idea what they want to do. I do not envy that. Everyone wants a shortcut. Everyone is diverging into something else. I thought the idea of celebrity would become its own industry, and it has, in a way. Now people are chasing something, even if they are not in a profession that is necessarily in the limelight. People are distracted by how others live their lives on social media. It is hard to focus, and that is when people get into it and realize it is actually hard work. I remember Ricky Gervais once said that people look at George Clooney and jump straight to the red carpet, forgetting the 20 years of rejection it took to get there.

***What do you think was the hardest part of your journey so far?***

- Just that, really. You have to be naturally tenacious or learn to be, because there are always jobs you do not get, or things do not work out as you hoped. You can work hard on something and then see it and think, "This is terrible." But as an actor, you are only in control of your piece. Filmmaking is a director’s medium.
What is even harder is doing something you are proud of, knowing it is good quality, and then no one sees it. It is a real lottery. These are still kind of champagne problems because at least you are working, but the knockbacks are tough. You just have to carry on despite.

***Just a follow-up, when you say quality, how do you perceive it? What is quality for you?***

- I think it's like, it's in the eye of the beholder, isn't it? But for me, it's something that I would sort of sit down and watch and can make, you know, and that can be, it doesn't have to all be considered art, you know, something can just be really good for what it's trying to be, you know? So that might be just like pure entertainment or, you know, what, you know, or it might be something that you would consider like actually has some artistic value and is speaking to a moment or speaking to a cause or speaking to a demographic at a certain point and has relevance, you know, in, in society at that point.
And, and so any, if it, if it fits any of those boxes really, like see either something with artistic integrity or something that's just like, oh yeah, that's really good. And I think it's good because I like it. So that's, I guess quality is, it's subjective, isn't it?

***Let’s talk about Garry Kasparov, your role in*** REMATCH. How did you approach the character development?

- I watched and read a lot about him. There is a **BBC** documentary, Man vs. Machine. Actually, that is when I first learned to play chess. I was working on The Promise, the producer taught me chess, and he had produced that documentary. I watched it back in 2009, and then 15 years later, I got cast to play **Kasparov**. That documentary was my starting point. I read his autobiography and another book he wrote about strategy and winning, not just chess, but his mentality. That helped me understand how he thinks.
I studied how he moved at the chessboard, his hands, posture, behavior during stressful and confident moments. I tried to imitate that. But off the board, I was not trying to copy his voice or walk, more capturing his personality, his focus, and single-mindedness.

**Did you find the Russian accent complicated and what was the most rewarding aspect of your role?**

- He made an active effort to Americanize his voice. He traveled a lot, studied English, and was well educated. I think he wanted to sound more international. Probably like me moving to London and flattening my accent.
Working with the other actors. **Trine Dyrholm**, who played my mother, is an incredible Danish actress. She won the Silver Bear in Berlin and has done amazing work. She became a great friend. All the cast was lovely. When you are working abroad, living in a hotel for months, it makes a big difference to be surrounded by decent people.

How do you maintain emotional balance during intense filming?

- I just think you just got to, I just, it's quite, I just forget it already. Walk off set and go get a shower and go to dinner.

And watch so much stuff on television. You know, I think if you have to be sort of like so sort of tense or, you know, you have to play a certain thing most of the day, then you don't want to be, you don't, you want to do what you can to have some respite from that. You know, I don't really believe in sort of maintaining that 24 hours a day.

Because everyone's process is different, but I'm always quite admiring actors that can switch things on and off, you know, that can be on set and be just incredible in a scene and then be speaking to you about the, you know, the flowers they planted in their garden last week or whatever. Do you know what I mean? Like, I just think that's like, they're the people that I sort of gravitated towards.

And that's the skill to be able to do that is like what you want to aim for, really. So just I try and go home and do what I would usually do is I'd be on set googling restaurants, really good restaurants that deliver to the hotel. That's what I would do. So I'd be thinking about my evening meal, pretty much.

What's your favourite meal? What would be, you know, the thing that you would go for?

- Well, if I'm filming, I probably want something that's quite like, that's quite filling, but it's also quite healthy. So you're not eating shit every night, you know, and then feeling awful and putting on weight and whatever. But it's mainly just you want to feel good.

So I'd probably look for like a really good Middle Eastern place, like Lebanese or Israeli or Turkish or, you know, something like that, that's sort of like really good and consistent and sort of healthy, but you can eat a lot of it. Yeah. Or like a sushi.

There was actually, this sounds quite pretentious, but there was a Nobu in Budapest and they delivered. They delivered these like, yeah, they had Nobu on like a delivery service, which was incredible.

You just kind of go, you do it. Of course, you put a lot of effort into it. So was it always like this? Or you had to come to this sort of mindset? Was there like a moment when you actually realised that.

- I think a lot of the times when you're, if you're the lead in something and you're working every day for three months, four months, and you're doing sort of sometimes like 18 hour days in terms of like when you get picked up, when you get dropped off, sometimes it's like 16, 17, 18 hours. Usually you go home, you eat and you go to bed. That's literally what you do.

And it's very unsociable, working on film sets, because it takes over your life for the period that you're doing it for. So there's not really much time for anything else, or like even to think about like not switching something off or switching something on. It's like, what do I need to do to make sure that I can do it tomorrow?

Well, I need to eat and I need to get to sleep. So it's really quite, it just becomes quite practical, I think. It's harder when you have a smaller role in something and you're more in and out, dipping in and out, like filming a couple of days here, a couple of days there.

It's harder to get into the pace of... I bizarrely feel more tired when I'm working two days a week, three days a week, in a way, than I do when I'm working five or six days a week, because you get into the rhythm of going to work, eating at the same time, going to bed, da-da-da-da-da. If you work two days a week, all of a sudden you've been doing what you want and then you have to go and stand on a film set for 12 hours, It's knackering.

Do you have a favourite film?

I'm sort of such a bit of a film nerd, so I think it's sort of like... It's like saying, what's your favourite album. quite like movies that are quite hard, quite sort of like hard to watch, you know? Ones that people sort of get depressed when people say, oh, I don't want to watch that. I'm not in the mood for that. It's too heavy. I'm just like, why not? It's just a film. I like 70s American cinema. Kramer vs. Kramer is great. Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep were both going through emotional times during filming, which added depth. It's about them fighting over custody for their child, really. But it's amazing. And yeah, a lot of those early, you know, Scorsese, Coppola films. That era was full of maverick directors. It was a creative rebirth in Hollywood.

Many people associate success with winning awards, achieving fame. How do you personally measure success? What is your KPI for success?

- I think just, like, getting to do what you want to do and being able to, pay your rent doing that is pretty successful. Do you know what I mean? If your main passion is what pays your rent and you're able to make a living from it, that's a really fortunate position to be in because a lot of people aren't in that position, you know? And I think that's really successful. So, I think just to be grateful for that would be a definition of success.

People always say you're always looking at what you want and what you haven't done and whatever and never really appreciating, like, the things that you are doing and you have done. You know? And actually, the fact that you can just pay your bills doing what you love is a pretty lucky situation to be in, I think.

***Looking back, what advice would you give your younger self?***

- I think maybe just, like, not to worry so much about everything. Because I'm quite quite anxious, really, like I worry quite a bit about things that are so irrational and you can't change. You know, you can't do anything about that, so just, like, stop fucking worrying about it and move on. I think that would be something that... But I think you're either, inclined that way or not, you know? I don't think you can give that as advice. I don't think you can tell someone to stop worrying. That is how they are as a person their wiring. Worrying about stuff goes so much deeper than the actual thing you're worrying about. Do you know what I mean? I think maybe I would... Unless I was a different person completely, I think I'll always be someone who worries about everything.
*Dmi, What's your dog's name, by the way?*
He's pretty friendly, isn't he? Oh, super friendly. Isn’t it an English Cocker Spaniel. I think my brother wants to get one of these, They are traditionally hunting dogs, Gun dogs, they are good at collecting birds. And they've got loads of energy, haven't they? Yep. I bet you take him on big walks.

He is Harley, he is 2 years old. Still has plenty of puppy energy, I take him all over with me, he is like editors assistant, keeps all anxiety and worries at bay. Thank you Cristian for your time it was pleasure meeting you.

- Yeah, it was awesome. Thank you.

Christian Cooke Opens Up About Acting, Persistence, and Staying Grounded