| John Cooper | |
|---|---|
Michael Cudlitz as Officer John Cooper, shown wearing the rank patch of a Senior Lead Officer. |
|
| First appearance | "Unknown Trouble" (Pilot episode) |
| Created by | Ann Biderman |
| Portrayed by | Michael Cudlitz |
| Information | |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | LAPD Senior Lead Officer |
| Spouse(s) | Laurie Cooper (divorced) |
Officer John Cooper is a fictional character who appears on the American television series Southland. A veteran officer with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), Cooper is a Police Officer III+1, which is a Senior Lead Officer, serving as a field training officer in the Hollywood Division in West Bureau. He is played by Michael Cudlitz.
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Little is known of Cooper's background. He has said that his father, who taught him to shoot guns, was in and out of prison during Cooper's childhood. His father has been incarcerated since 1991 for the rape and murder[1] of Cooper's 16 year-old girlfriend.[2] Cooper attended Susan Miller Dorsey High School.[3] He joined the LAPD in 1992 because it was the only job that someone of his educational level could start out earning $30,000 a year at the time. Cooper was previously married to Laurie, a nurse. They are divorced but remain on friendly terms, although Cooper refused her request to donate sperm for her to conceive a child.[4]
Cooper suffers from chronic back pain which he attributes to an on-the-job injury. He wears a back brace and self-medicates with pain pills, which he obtains from his ex-wife, drug dealers and the scenes of crimes he assists in investigating.[5] Cooper has refused to "go through channels" to receive treatment, saying that should he do so he would be taken off the streets and that if he could not work on the streets, he would "rather be dead". He has, however, sought relief through alternative medicine techniques like acupuncture.[1] After finally beginning to understand he has a problem,[1] Cooper decides to quit self-medicating.[2] He soon begins using again, leading to a negative effect on his job performance and an angry confrontation with Sherman.[6] Following his failure to back Sherman up in pursuit of a rape suspect, Sherman tells Cooper that either he will check himself into rehab or Sherman will advise the watch commander to order Cooper to take a drug test. Season three ends with Ben taking him to a hospital for a medical detox and back treatment.[7]
John Cooper is gay but apparently closeted to his co-workers. Southland initially dealt with his sexuality obliquely, with the closest he has been shown to coming out being a conversation with his partner/trainee, Officer Ben Sherman. When the two are returning from the funeral of a friend of Cooper's named Clark who committed suicide, Cooper tells Sherman that he and Laurie used to double date Clark and his wife. After Cooper's divorce, he used to see Clark in gay bars and they avoided each other.[8] Other indicators of his sexuality included his frequenting a bar with an all-male clientele[9] (where he picked up another man[5]) and the intimation of an affectionate relationship with a man named Caesar who helped Cooper build a retaining wall in his garden.[10] Caesar was later seen in Cooper's bed.[11]
Cudlitz has expressed his surprise that some viewers denied that Cooper is gay, saying that the show "couldn't be any clearer". Cudlitz recognized the significance of his portrayal to the LGBT community but was less concerned about playing a gay character than portraying his character with integrity. "If I play this character honestly, and he’s looking for all the things that most humans are looking for, which is human connection and to find love and to be happy, then I think that I am, by extension, doing the right thing for the gay community...But my focus is not to make any type of groundbreaking gay character. My focus is to make an honest, believable character that the audience can get emotionally invested in."[12]
Following the conclusion of season 3, executive producer Christopher Chulack stated in an interview that future development plans for the character are uncertain. He expressed his hope that Cooper, with the conclusion of his addiction story, will "come back fixed and unencumbered" and return to being an outstanding police officer.[13]
Officer Cooper has been described as "the pained heart of the series. He is a man in constant agony, not only from the physical pain of his back problems, but the emotional pain of his broken marriage."[14] Cudlitz has been lauded for his portrayal, with attention paid to how the character's homosexuality is presented.