Dominic Cooper has a message for anyone convinced that being in a relationship automatically makes other people less attractive: real life is not quite that simple. The Mamma Mia! star believes it is 'ridiculous' to assume that people never experience temptation, he says during an interview with Metro on 25 October .
'To think that anyone has none of these feelings is ridiculous,' he explains. 'But we're desperate that that is the case. It doesn't mean anyone's necessarily going to do something.'
His comments arrive alongside his latest television role, which puts him right in the middle of a romantic mess that makes keeping secrets look like a full-time job. Cooper stars in ITV's new drama Adultery, a series about forbidden attraction, marital betrayal and the potentially disastrous consequences of following your heart when other people are likely to get hurt.
Dominic Cooper Says Temptation Is Part of Being Human
Cooper believes attraction does not simply disappear when someone enters a relationship. 'I think it's something that we all question and everyone has been tempted – whatever stage of their life,' the actor said. He hopes the series will encourage viewers to reflect on their behaviour rather than simply sit back and judge its characters.
Cooper also recognises that audiences may find the show uncomfortable precisely because its central dilemma is not entirely unfamiliar. ' [...] the way in which [the creator] writes it not from a judgmental point of view, it's just how it is in everyday life. We all are from different places, and we all coexist. Part of seeing that different world is sometimes part of an attraction,' he opines.
His New Drama Puts Marriage in the Danger Zone
In Adultery, Cooper plays Tom Kirkman, a successful doctor whose seemingly established family life takes a spectacular turn when he becomes attracted to Beth Brookes, played by Romola Garai. There is one rather inconvenient detail: they are both married, and their teenage children are dating each other.
Beth is married to Neil, portrayed by Matthew McNulty, while Tom's wife, Hannah, is played by Shelley Conn. What begins as an attraction between two adults soon threatens to spill into the lives of their spouses and children, leaving several people caught in the fallout.
The setup gives the series plenty of combustible material. Tom and Beth are not simply risking their marriages; their choices could also damage the family connections that brought them into each other's orbit in the first place.
For Cooper, playing a man willing to gamble so much for an affair was hardly a walk in the park. The actor admitted that he sometimes struggled to understand his character's decisions, questioning why Tom would jeopardise his family rather than attempt to repair his marriage. He wanted to explore the motivations behind the affair without pretending that the resulting betrayal was harmless.
Cooper Was Not Exactly Cheering Tom On
While audiences may enjoy watching fictional characters make spectacularly questionable decisions, Cooper found it harder to give Tom the benefit of the doubt. The actor has spoken about his own desire for relationships to work out, making it particularly painful to portray someone who puts his family at risk.
His personal experiences may also have influenced that reaction. Cooper has previously discussed growing up in a family that did not stay together, giving him an additional reason to consider the impact of relationship breakdowns.
Rather than treating infidelity as a glamorous escape from everyday life, he was interested in the damage it can cause when people fail to confront their problems honestly. In other words, a thrilling secret romance might make for compelling television, but the people left picking up the pieces in real life rarely get the same cinematic treatment.
Is Attraction the Problem, or What People Do With It?
That is the uncomfortable question sitting at the heart of Adultery. Romola Garai has also explored the moral complications of playing Beth, a woman whose desires clash with her responsibilities to her family. The drama asks audiences to consider whether someone can be fundamentally decent while making decisions that hurt the people closest to them.
It also challenges viewers to look beyond the immediate thrill of an affair. Attraction might be exciting, but secrecy, guilt and broken trust can turn that excitement into a much bigger problem.
With Adultery, Cooper is inviting audiences into precisely that uncomfortable territory. Viewers may find themselves judging Tom one minute and trying to understand him the next. Just do not expect the family group chat to survive unscathed.
