Ryan Cooper Shines A Light On His Multi-Hyphenate Career

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On the chic scene in Manhattan, there’s nobody quite like Ryan Cooper! Originally moving to the city for fashion modeling, Cooper’s since expanded his presence as an actor, producer, and personal trainer—not to mention father and, of course, model! So, how does he have it all? We caught up with Cooper on his newest projects—including a wild pickleball movie—and origin story, plus his new David Yurman campaign and how he juggles a wide range of roles at once.

Tell us how you got into acting! I was a child actor. I used to do plays when I was a kid, and I loved it. There was a moment where we had “Alex in Wonderland,” instead of “Alice in Wonderland.” They said, “If you can cry, then we’ll change the show from “Alice in Wonderland” to “Alex in Wonderland.” I said, “No, boys don’t cry.” I’ve had a love for theater, musicals, and acting since I was since I was a kid. I started playing in a band in high school and was wanting to do theater, but my father was very adamant that I should leave school and have a real job. I left and built houses for six years, and then did my carpentry trade. When fashion brought me to New York, it was a very opportune moment to revisit acting. I wasn’t shooting every day, and the best teachers and coaches are there in New York. I got to study under Bill Esper and Susan Batson—who’s Nicole Kidman’s coach—and Terry Knickerbocker. I bucked around with different studios for four or five years, and that became a wonderful exploration of self-therapy and brought me back to acting. I didn’t get the role of Alex in Wonderland, if anyone’s wondering! But now I cry every day [Laughs].

You’re from Australia, but live in NYC. What surprised you the most about NY when you moved here? The scope of it. Coming over the bridge for the first time, and the size of the city, the beauty of it, the diversity of New York. It really got its claws in me. It’s 18 years now. It was just such a strange, strange phenomenon, from having grown up on little tiny islands in the South Pacific with no running water, electricity, or a toilet, to then being in one of the most wealthy, progressive cities in the world. From island to island!

What are some of your favorite acting projects you’ve done? There have been so many! I feel very lucky. Every time we step into something, it should be real, and it’s really cool to have gotten to explore all of these characters. Recently, we just had Texas Cult House come out onto Amazon Prime, and I produced and acted. That was quite an interesting piece because it explores something that I lived with a lot with my family, who were missionaries. As much as they were not a cult [like the film], that was interesting to take what can be perceived in some ways as love and control to the far extreme. I found that quite a cathartic experience of exploring that. I led I’ll Be There with Jasmine Batchelor, and that was a beautiful exploration of what it feels like to not be well, in dealing with cancer and saying goodbye to family potentially. To get to play that was awesome. And then Pickleheads, playing opposite Harvey Guillen again, and my friend Adrianne Palicki, and corralling a production team and a superstar talent list like John O’ Hurley and getting to play in more of a comedic sense was really, really, fun to explore.

You produced, cast, and star in Pickleheads. Tell us about the movie—you also just debuted it at the Austin Film Festival! It was such a beautiful reception, and the feedback from the attendance has been wonderful. The response in terms of filmmakers, connections, and people reaching out and excited to collaborate or pitching projects my way, has actually been quite overwhelming and beautiful.

Do you play a lot of pickleball? I received the script when I had snapped my Achilles playing pickleball! This is my revenge on pickleball, right now, to make a comedy about the sport that I actually came to love in those 15 minutes before my Achilles said “No, thank you.” That was the very first time I ever played. Then, to approach Matt Manasseh and bring him on board. He’s an anchor from the pickleball TV channel, and got us in the studio with John O’ Hurley and Nat Manasseh of Tennis Channel, which owns the pickleball TV channel. The shoot out in LA was just such a wonderful, wonderful experience.

You’re also working on the film Six Day Detective, which has darker and more emotional themes. How do you stay centered between projects with different tones or genres? There is a lot of producing that is having five to 10 pieces in the in the water, lines in the water. The key thing I like to do when I am prepping a film is to really try to find something that someone will attach onto emotionally. I don’t want to spend my time putting together something that doesn’t have legs or a real voice or something to say. Having a real emotional connection to something—and then allowing that to also wash over you and teach you something—is how I like to be throughout a project, in curating and bringing in talent. Do they have an experience with the subject matter? Do they have a unique voice that is coming through? Those elements are very important, especially coming up to this next one that you’re talking about with Josh Flanagan, which would be our third project together—making sure that it honors the story we’re trying to tell based on when [Flanagan’s father] took his own life. It’s a really heartfelt, but oddly funny film that approaches this in a very human way, because of the gallows humor that he can speak to because of his comedic angles, as well as balancing a subject matter so delicately. From page one, I was crying and laughing immediately. Having lost my grandfather very, very young to the same sort of circumstances, was quite an impactful opening, and having dabbled with that depressive experience, I found those things that really break our hearts but make us have our humanity and faith reignited. Those are the stories I like to tell and want to maintain with the people that come on board.

David Yurman’s just tapped you for their new campaign. Tell us about that experience shooting with the new jewels! It was such a fun shoot with Roman Coppola and Eiza Gonzalez. I had such a wonderful experience. It was a very beautiful set. The jewelry is incredible, and the craftsmanship and the brand is so iconic. It was a real gift!

Do you wear a lot of jewelry, or keep a tight edit of essential pieces? I like a little gentle jewelry. I’m not a big bling type of jewelry person, but I do enjoy a couple of nice pieces and keep them on-hand. Usually there’s sentimental value. Even coming to Austin, I wanted to bring my friend’s jacket with me, and then a watch that I was given on a very special birthday from my daughter’s mom. Those kinds of pieces feel like a part of these people that have given me so much in my life. I think jewelry definitely embodies that as a gifting element.

You also model and do personal training. What’s the secret to balancing multiple roles? It’s the opposite of the advice that I give to coaching clients, is get less sleep and get more work done. I definitely need more sleep! The old cliché is very, very true: “Do what you love and it doesn’t feel like work.” I love getting to get alongside executives and people wanting not just fitness, but health, wellness and, spiritual self-reflection, so that they can sit with and find that space to grow. That is so inspiring, because from that space, people will make the choices that are good for them, like going to rehab, eating less, exercising more, or observing how they speak to their partners, or how they deal with the stress coming in. Being self-reflective, being very present with your whole body and ecosystem of what that is is, to me, the best possible way to function—especially when you’re juggling many things and many hats.

What’s some Australian slang that everyone should know? “Crikey” is definitely one. It can be used in a positive or negative. I think Steve Irwin very much made that popular. “Fairfair dinkum.” This is the line in [Pickleheads], and then my brother says, “What does that mean?” And he goes, “It means fair dinkum. It just basically means fair dinkum.” It’s how you say it, not what you say.

If you ever get a break, what do you like to do to relax in your downtime? I love sitting on my couch and watching things when I do get the time. I probably have watched half a movie in the last two months. I do enjoy catching up on films, and I really love going to a bathhouse, hot and cold and saunas, and all those therapies that are very helpful. Going to the beach and just chilling, swimming with my daughter…especially getting some time with her at the ocean’s edges is one of my favorite things to do.

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