Written by:
Amy Silverman
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this Issue of Curve:
Vol. 16#3
Yes, it’s true: Skyler Cooper has really big muscles. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, we can get on to her acting. Last year, Cooper portrayed Othello as a woman in Impact Theater’s San Francisco production of the Shakespeare play, and critics were amazed at her ability to completely inhabit the role. She managed to squeeze us into her busy schedule of acting and working as a personal trainer to talk about why she has no plans to play it straight.
What led you to acting?
Isn’t it crazy to be [my] age and say I’m new in the business? … I think it was when I arrived here from Hawaii. I used to live there and I got a job offer in Silicon Valley and I flew out and I was working in the high tech industry. And I was there for about a year before I realized — okay, now I’m making money and I have a reputable job — but there was still something unsatisfactory about doing what I did. And I remember going to my mom and telling her that, “I really don’t want to do this line of work.” And this was after doing it for like over 15 years. I’m an electrician. … I was an aircraft electrician in the navy. ... And after telling my mother that, she said, “Well what do you want to do?” and I said — with hesitation because I was thinking, “She’s not going to support this” — I said, “Well, I want to be an actor.” And she goes, “You can do anything you put your mind to.”
It was around that time that Boys Don’t Cry came out … and I thought, “Why the hell is a straight woman playing a gay woman? Straight women play straight women. Why can’t gay women play gay women?” We have a take, a depth that I think we could bring to it, that straight women, I have yet to see [bring]. And I am impressed when a straight woman can play — like for instance Hilary Swank — play a male. … And I really didn’t know how I wanted to fit in. At first I thought, well, I’ll just be a butch woman playing a straight woman. You know, I’ll try to play it straight. I tried to go down that route but … I’ve grown out of that idea, and I thought, no, I should play what most women can’t play. I could change how we look at film and how we look at theater. For instance, Othello. I thought: Well, let’s re-imagine it. Why not make Othello a woman? Keep all the other characters the same and see what happens, because it’s really the same thing. … And I think the only way I can really survive in this business, is to choose my own battles…. All the things that come with being a woman of color … and you throw in the fact that I’m masculine and butch. You can kind of throw me on the bottom rung of the social ladder. So basically — invisible. And I just kind of thought, no, I have more to say and more to do.
Is Othello gay in the interpretation of the play?
Well, I am a gay woman. But Desdemona is not. I’m her first. And Othello was her first black man, so all of the text was there to support the character. It was there. And if you just change “he” to “she,” you’d be surprised. I mean we had to change “my lord” to “my love,” things like that, but mostly we kept the text the same.
What do you and Othello have in common?
I know what it’s like to have a skill that people need and respect and yet still not fit in. … I understand his feeling of needing to be loved and I think that on some level Desdemona’s love balances who he was, because this woman really loved him for everything he was and not just what he could do.
What other roles do you want to take on? A lot of actors talk about not wanting to be pigeonholed but it seems like in a way … you want to seek out the parts that are lesbian.
No, not just lesbian. I want to do parts that I can do well; for instance, I could have played the boxer in Million Dollar Baby. The character’s sexuality didn’t even come into play at all. So there’s material out there like that, that I want to approach. … I think there are a lot of levels I can play. I just cannot do the love interest, sexy vixen, you know. Just like Halle Berry can’t do that gun slinging. There are some things she can’t do and there are some she can. And I think it goes the same way and it’s about getting those parts out to the right people.
Do you think it’s opening up a little bit more now?
No. I’m not seeing it in anything. [Not] in The L Word —
There’s a recent article in Curve about the absence of butches on television.
Now when they do butch it’s like normally she’s really overweight, miserable and mean and all these things, but don’t let her be liked because if she’s likable then that might start showing acceptance. And I think … that’s what I see when I see characters who are supposedly butch and are not portrayed as such. The demeanor of what they say, what’s coming out of their mouths sounds butch, but when you are looking at the show it just says, “I’m too scared to show you out to the public. I’ll write down what you might say and what you might do but I won’t show what you look like.”
Is it important to you to be out?
As an actor, absolutely. I will not go underground because going underground does nothing for the community. I’d rather be liked as an out actor than be liked portraying a character that you like and then keeping my life secret. … I wouldn’t do a part that I felt ashamed about. … If I’m going to act, I’m going to be out.
Have you done other Shakespeare?
I’ve done other Shakespeare but in school. I mean, Othello is my passion and I think it’s because I love it and I understand it and I studied it for a year. Like when we had the read-through, everyone was looking at their scripts and I knew Othello’s monologues. It’s because in school … my mentor said, “Skyler, start studying his monologues now. Just know it inside and out.” And I started a year before I even got cast. … And I still will continue to look for things in it.
How did the director find you?
I auditioned for her — for one of her other plays. We did MacBeth, and at the audition I said, “I’m going to do an Othello monologue. I hope that’s OK.” … After that she goes,” I have no doubt you were meant to do this.”
So did you do it together then, the play you ended up doing?
No it was something like two years later actually. I got an email from her … and she was like, “You know I’m doing Othello. How would you like to play Othello?” And I was like, “Are you fucking kidding me?” And so that kind of all just took off from there and it was great. It was a great experience to play it.
What do you think that modern audiences take away from Othello?
I think the audience will walk away with, OK, this person loves the same way a black man would love. This person rules and leads the same way. It’s just a leader. That was the other thing — I don’t play Othello as a woman commander. I play Othello as a commander. … [male and female] commanders have the same way of executing things. They’re in control. They’re not high-strung. They’re pretty precise and they don’t tolerate insubordination. It’s all about getting respect and the minute that that is crossed, you have to establish the lines right away.
Do you think that other gay actors have a responsibility to be out?
I think they have a responsibility to be who they are. … If who you are is gay behind the doors and collecting your paycheck, then that’s who you are. I can’t live like that. I would feel horrible.
Is there anything else you want to say before we end?
It might sound cheesy but it’s really true. … If you are going to live in this world and you came into it in the way it is already … do what you want to do. Don’t be afraid to take on anything if it’s what you want to do, because whether you win or lose or succeed or fail, you are still doing it. … I tell a lot of my butch sisters — or should I call them brothers? — to hold your head up, because the higher you hold your head up, the more you will be accepted. Don’t apologize for who you are. It feels great.
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