Chris Cooper Reflects on ‘American Beauty’ 25 Years Later (Exclusive)

Chris Cooper is reflecting on American Beauty‘s legacy more than 25 years after the Academy Award-winning film hit theaters.

“Well, when we shot it, we said people are either gonna love this film or hate it,” Cooper tells PEOPLE of American Beauty at the New York City premiere of his new movie The History of Sound on Tuesday, Sept. 2. “And though the characters have a sexual preference, it’s just amazing how people unfortunately compare the two … and there’s no comparison.”

Cooper, an Oscar winner for his role in the 2002 movie Adaptation, starred in American Beauty among an ensemble cast that included Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Thora Birch, Mena Suvari, Allison Janney, Peter Gallagher and more. The movie follows several families in a suburban neighborhood whose lives grow complicated and intertwined as the lead character Lester (Spacey, now 66) develops an unhealthy infatuation with his teenage daughter’s best friend. In the movie, Cooper portrayed Spacey’s neighbor, a retired soldier named Frank.

When asked if Cooper is still in touch with any of his costars from the film, he adds, “Let’s see — I’ve run into Wes Bentley, the fellow that played my son, on occasion, but I haven’t seen many of them, other than Wes.”

American Beauty received seven nominations at the 2000 Oscars and won five of those awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for Sam Mendes and Best Actor for Spacey. Spacey has been accused of sexual misconduct in his personal life in the years since the movie’s release

Though Spacey was cleared of sexual abuse charges in New York in 2022 and of sexual assault claims in a 2023 London case, one actor who has accused him of making unwanted sexual advances on him as a teenager, Anthony Rapp, said Spacey’s performance in American Beauty was “unpleasantly familiar” while testifying during a New York City court case back in 2022.

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More than two decades after American Beauty, Cooper now costars in The History of Sound alongside Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor. The movie follows a romance between Mescal and O’Connor’s characters Lionel and David after they meet in Boston in the 1910s; Cooper portrays an older version of Lionel in the film.

“Having read the book, this is the kind of script that really attracts me,” Cooper says of the movie, which is based on screenwriter Ben Shattuck’s own short stories. The veteran actor also tells PEOPLE that he did not get to meet Mescal or O’Connor “until my final day of shooting,” and that Mescal “was kind enough to show up to my location and introduce himself.”  

The History of Sound is in theaters everywhere Sept. 12.