Sam Nivola and Cooper Koch on Nepo Babies, Incest and The White Lotus

Sam Nivola And Cooper Koch The two played brothers in complicated fraternal relationships last year. Nivolan, like Lochlan Ratliff on “The White Lotus”, aspired to impress the older brother Saxon (Patrick Schwarzenegger), but found himself in a state of drunkenness with him. Koch, like Erik Menendez on “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez, had to offer a prismatic performance, illuminating all the ways in which commentators and friends saw the case of two accused brothers later for having killed their parents. The two actors also had to offer moments of the centerpiece: Nivola in the experience of the death of the season of Lochlan and Koch in a unique episode in which Erik explains to his lawyer the abuses in the house Menendez.

Sat NIVOLA: This is our first meeting.

Cooper Koch: But I have the impression that we know each other – you are sort of my brother.

NIVOLA: We should have been in the emissions of the other.

Koch: It should have been us. So what’s the start for you? Where did it all started?

NIVOLA: I come from Brooklyn, New York. I grew up with two parents who were both actors – (Alessandro Nivola and Emily Mortimer).

Koch: ALL RIGHT.

NIVOLA: Do you have parents in industry?

Koch: I have no parents of actors, but my grandfather was producer.

NIVOLA: I constantly receive the question.

Koch: Baby nepo.

NIVOLA: Yeah, baby nepo. My thing was that my parents really didn’t want me to be an actor, which I totally get – I don’t know if I want my child to be an actor. It is a career really mentally difficult to do. And even if I was not successful, I would like to do it. But they really didn’t want me to do it.

Koch: And then, of course, you say to yourself: “Sorry, I do it, guys.”

NIVOLA: Have you done a lot of theater in high school?

Koch: Since I was 5 years old. We had two musicals per year. I see my life as a constant. You start a show and you have rehearsals. And then you make the show, and it’s over, then what is the following? And then you start again.

What were you doing before getting this first job? Have you done theater?

NIVOLA: I did it. I did all the school games I could do. I was really watching movies. I first obtained a Criterion Channel subscription to impress this girl that I was running. She says: “I wear berets, and I am really in France for the moment.” And I said to myself: “Ok, I can get behind that.”

And then I had a period of ultimate pretension and I fell in love with cinema: this hearing was for “white noise”. (I said): “This is an opportunity to be on the set of one of the greatest directors of all time”, but my parents really wanted me to go to the university, which I understand.

Koch: Didn’t you go to university?

NIVOLA: I went to university during a semester.

Koch: I love it. How did you win this crazy part which …

NIVOLA: … I changed my life? I fear that it is not as interesting as you think, because it is literally as, made a self-tape, made a reminder, reserved it. My reminder was with Mike (white). The only thing that was different is that his writing is simply incredibly natural and real. It’s not just other writings with which I have worked in the past, but there is something that I specifically like in the way he writes that did that, so I did not have to do work to prepare for hearing.

What about your hearing process? What is Ryan Murphy’s atmosphere?

Koch: In fact, we did not know that he was going to be there. They didn’t tell us. We just thought it was going to be casting directors. But then it walks just in the room. He said to himself, “What do you know?” And I said to myself: “I know everything.”

NIVOLA: Referring to the lines?

Koch: No, referring to history. We sat down and had this incredible conversation on this subject. It really calmed the nerves. We went upstairs and made the recall for two hours. We made three scenes and had conversations between the two. It was very collaborative – one of the best hearing experiences I have ever had.

NIVOLA: “”What do you know? It’s amazing. You said to yourself, “All this”.

Koch: “I know everything!” Because I have been with this story for so long. My second hearing was never for the “Law & Order” series about them in 2017. And then I also had a hearing for the film for life they made the same year. I just felt this crazy cosmic thing that looked like: “I have to play this role.” And this immense empathy. There are all these strange parallels. We both went to Calabasas High School.

NIVOLA: Holy shit.

Koch: Yeah. So it was a long journey. And I always care about them so deeply. They go to the parole card in June; It seems very positive.

NIVOLA: Have you watched tons of videos to try to identify the way he talks about and the way he works? What level of identification did you do? Part of what I love in the show so much is that there is a lot of ambiguity, and you must therefore make strict and fast choices.

Koch: I listened to it every night before going to bed. I got it in the car when I was driving. I really wanted to get his voice and manners because they all support more than he was sexually abused by his father. I know there are so many prospects, but I always wanted the public to sympathize with him.

NIVOLA: I have to ask you questions about the unique episode. How many sockets have you made?

Koch: I had eight months with it, so I read it every day, and I would visualize what he said and created these images so clearly, so that when we were going to do it, it would affect me emotionally. We made eight, four on the first day, four on the second day, and they chose the very last.

NIVOLA: Was it towards the end of the shooting?

Koch: Yeah – I had a very long time with that, and it was the backbone of my whole character. It was my background frame; I didn’t have to write one. They wrote it for me.

Let me go back. How did you shot down? You and Patrick have had such an interesting dichotomy.

NIVOLA: We were talking about it a lot. Part of the nature of this show that makes it a dream as an actor is that you live with people who are your family in the show, and you spend all your time with them. They closed the hotels, so there is no one else to distract you. The time difference with New York was 12 hours, so I was barely in contact with anyone.

Koch: You are really in this bubble.

NIVOLA: And you feel like your character, in many ways, because you sleep in the same bed. We have talked a lot with Mike brothers and sisters, obtaining the dynamics of these two at the opposite ends of this spectrum of morality. I think something we both had to face is that a lot of people are like: “the kind of creep of your character”.

Koch: It’s so funny. I didn’t feel that at all. In the end, when you say to yourself: “I am a pleasure for people, I just want to make everyone happy, I am in a family of narcissists”, I said to myself: “Yes. This is what it is. “What do people say?

NIVOLA: Well, they simply say that he is any sexual deviant. In your case too, let’s say they were murderers who killed composure and that there was no reason for that. Or let’s say that my character is a pervert. You must always find a way as an actor to love your character. I really become protective on my characters.

Koch: As you should. This is the only way.

NIVOLA: You can say, look, how much you like Erik, and it’s a nice thing.

Koch: So to bring him back to death, what did it look like?

NIVOLA: It was really emotional. Before going to Thailand, I spoke very disastrously the actors who come back from a shoot and said to myself: “I really lost myself in the character.” “Kiss my ass!” But when I was there, I said to myself, “I understand now.” I felt like Jason Isaacs was my father, bringing such a raw reality to this scene: I am at that moment and I die.

Koch: I really thought you’re gone.

NIVOLA: I did it too.

Production: Bauie + Rad; Production design: Francisco Vargas