Meet Cooper Foster

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cooper Foster. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Cooper below.

Cooper , we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?

My confidence comes from never caring about what other people are doing in their life or career-wise, or what they think of me. None of that is any of my business. It’s never been a competition between me and everyone else, just a drive between me and the version of me I want to be in the future. I’ve always felt like I was on an island. I embrace my uniqueness, I’ve always been seen as the “weird” one in my family, which reinforced my belief that fitting in was never a requirement. From a young age, I had a clear understanding of who I am and what I love. I’ve always felt that there are no barriers between my dreams and reality; I truly believe that anything is achievable.

Losing my father and grandfather in the same year when I was 18 also contributed to my deep confidence and drive. I realized how short life is. If I don’t try and do what I love now there was no guarantee that there would be an opportunity tomorrow.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

My background is in theater and sketch comedy, I love afro-surrealism/futurism, so I try to write and create projects based on those elements. I recently wrote and starred in a short called RE:DO, it’s a drama where a woman deals with grief in an unexpected way. I’m focused on continuing doing what I love, performing.

Success to me is making my own projects, performing at my local theaters and if someone pays me to do what I love… that’s the icing on the cake. I think if you become an actor because you want to be famous or desperate for some sort of clout…you will be severely disappointed. You truly have to love this or else the grind and the business of acting will wear you down. I am so blessed to have an amazing community of creative friends. We all root for and support each other in so many ways. It’s such a strange lifestyle and business to choose to be in and STAY in. You have to have some sort of deep love and unwavering drive despite constant letdowns, rejections, and uncertainty.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Pursuing a creative career has not been easy in the least, but my passion and determination have kept me on this path. I could not imagine life without pursuing creativity. I think resilience, kindness, and passion are the three most important things you need for a creative journey.

Also, supporting fellow artists creates a strong community that enhances creativity, and gives us all a safe place in this chaotic life.

Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?

Making money and being creative. Most of us here in LA, are doing “day jobs” to pay the bills and to fund our creative pursuits. For those of us who aren’t lucky enough to be born into a wealthy family, we gotta hustle to pay the bills and still have the energy to be creative. It’s hard for sure, but I can’t imagine a life without making art.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: this_is_coop

Image Credits

Photography by: Carl Lind