Chris Cooper & Mackenzie Davis Interview: Irresistible
Irresistible is ready to pick apart the American political system. In this biting satire, Steve Carrell and Rose Byrne play campaign engineers who take over a small-town Wisconsin election for their own gain.
Meanwhile, Jack Hastings (Chris Cooper) is a simple-hearted man who wants to run for the good of his town, egged on by his newly woke daughter Diana (Mackenzie Davis). Together, the family finds themselves swept up in a political storm that goes beyond their original goal. The two actors shared some information on their characters with Screen Rant in a recent interview.
I wanted to vote for Jack Hastings after that speech and Diana is probably the most cunning person in this whole film. Brilliant job. First of all, I want to ask Chris, your character and family kind of get swept away by the political machine that's larger than life. Why does Jack succumb to the pressure to run for office? Without giving away spoilers.
Chris Cooper: Yeah, well, it's kind of impossible not to. But I think I can suggest that my daughter, played by Mackenzie, has convinced me to ignorantly go where I've never gone before and... I'll hold it at that.
Mackenzie, Diana adds such a different dynamic when you throw her in with this grouping of characters. She goes away to college, and she comes back more aware. Can you talk to me about the strategy that Diana has, through her own experiences, and what she sets in motion?
Mackenzie Davis: Not without giving a lot away, but I can say that I think Diana and her father have a vested interest in saving this town that they have seen promised so many things as it becomes a campaign stock over the years. And they finally want to be participants in saving their own town, and part of that is getting Gary, her father, to run for mayor. And luckily all of these very important people decide to exploit this race.
But yeah, they have a pretty simple aim. They want to take care of their own and stop being the forgotten people in a flyover state. They want to be agents of their own destiny.
There's an interesting turn when Gary enters the Hastings farm and their world. There's almost tension there. Can you talk to me about the chemistry you both developed onscreen with Steve Carell?
Chris Cooper: Steve is a wonderful guy. And so, with his talents, I just stepped aside and shot the scenes that, as I understood them, were pretty much word for word. And then Jon Stewart as director, when they got what they wanted, would do another take or two and turn Steve Carell loose to throw in whatever bits of humor he could come up with. Pretty impressive, pretty consistent. He'd knock me out.
Irresistible is now available on-demand.