ED HELMS: ‘LOVE THE COOPERS’ STORY IS UNIVERSAL
Family deals with jealousy, grudges, love and loss — just like us
Ed Helms prefers a light, rustic touch for the holidays. Candles in the window, white lights outside and a pine wreath that his mom orders from Maine every year. You’d probably catch The
Hangover star crooning along to Nat King Cole, and his latest film hits the same sweet — and, at times, bittersweet — notes.
Love the Coopers (in theaters Friday) follows the multigenerational Cooper clan as they cram under the matriarch’s roof for Christmas, emotional baggage in tow
Helms, 41, plays Hank Cooper, who found out that he was going to be a father the same day he failed his high school biology class. Now in his 30s, he’s unemployed, in the throes of a divorce and trying to juggle three children as he visits his family.
It’s Helms’ year for being part of dysfunctional families. His last movie role was as Rusty Griswold in the Vacation remake.
The actor says he jumped at the script because he related to Hank’s sense of feeling lost. Those same anxieties are explored by an ensemble cast that includes Jake Lacy, Anthony Mackie, Amanda Seyfried, June Squibb, Marisa Tomei, Olivia Wilde, Alan Arkin, John Goodman and Diane Keaton.
“With a great deal of deference and love to my actual parents, I kind of wish that (Goodman and Keaton) were my real parents,” he jokes. “Don’t tell my mom that, but, yeah, I mean, they’re my heroes as actors.”
Helms also spent a great deal of time with Arkin, 81, who plays Bucky, Hank’s grandfather, who guides him through the divorce. Helms says the two would sometimes hole up in their hotel room on days off and jam — Helms on guitar and Arkin on ukulele — as temperatures at their shooting location of Pittsburgh hovered around 5 degrees.
On their private set list? Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra and, Helms’ favorite, Christmas carols.
“It was very special,” Helms says. “He’s one of those rare actors that you meet and he’s everything that you want him to be. He’s hilarious, he’s warm, he’s insightful. The big takeaway was just getting to hang out and work with these incredible people. Everyone was amazing.”
Every person in the audience will be able to relate to at least one character, Helms adds. The Coopers struggle throughout the film to navigate their insecurities, jealousies and losses while under pressure to put up a happy front.
“I mean, how real is that? Don’t we all sort of struggle with this fraud complex?” Helms says.
“Everyone is afraid of being exposed for everything that they are. We present a sort of edited version of ourselves to the world, especially with our families, where there’s just so much baggage and so much expectation,” he says.
“When you get to explore that, it’s actually kind of uplifting because it reinforces that we’re in this together. We’re all kind of stumbling through and just trying to make the best of it.”
Coopers, Helms says, examines that precarious journey with a deft touch that sympathizes with the characters, acknowledging the lighthearted side of family as well as the darker side.
Though some moviegoers may balk at the film’s seemingly premature spirit, Helms argues that the emotional themes are evergreen.
“It just speaks to a universal family experience,” he says. “There’s frustration, there’s love, there’s support, there are longheld grudges, but ultimately, there’s this sense that we’re actually better off all being together.”
“We present a sort of edited version of ourselves to the world, especially with our families, where there’s just so much baggage and so much expectation.”