TVLINE | How did the role come about?
I had heard the Gotye song [“Somebody That I Used to know”] and I asked [series co-creator] Ryan [Murphy] if he ever thought of using that as a duet on the show. And he said he had. And then a week later I got a text from him asking me if I wanted to come on the show to sing it. And I said, ‘Absolutely!’

TVLINE | Was it fun playing such a D-bag?
[Laughs] To me, the fun of the role was getting to play somebody who had such strong convictions and opinions about all of the wrong things and in all of the wrong ways. At the heart of it, he really does want to help his brother avoid the slings and arrows of being a young artist. He clearly hasn’t had an easy road of it as an actor. And over the course of that path, he sort of developed his own short cuts and tricks of the trade, which are all horribly misleading and misguided.

TVLINE | Have you ever encountered someone like Cooper?Yeah, of course. Any actor who participated in drama in high school or college had experience with guest speakers. And sometimes there’s a lot of gold in their advice. And then sometimes you’re just scratching your head. [Laughs] I’ve definitely had crazy acting teachers… Just completely bat s–t crazy. I’m not going to name any names.

TVLINE | The script also has some fun with your looks. I think Kurt refers to you as the most good-looking guy in all of North America. What is it like to hear that? Does it make you uncomfortable?
It makes me think, ‘I really hope hair and makeup [shows up] to work that day.” [Laughs] At the end of the day, Cooper is just desperate for validation. For him, hearing something like that is just the best news ever. That was the fun of the journey. I think he comes back to town under the ruse that he’s doing all of this gritty work for the next commercial campaign. But I think he also needs to get back in touch with his roots and reality because he’s having a tough go of it. But then once he realizes that he’s kind of a hometown hero, the hubris kicks in and his ego expands exponentially.

You can read the rest of the interview here.