Politics & Power Quote by Chris Cooper

"Frankly" does a lot of work here: it’s a pre-emptive shrug and a mild dare. Chris Cooper isn’t delivering a stump speech; he’s signaling identity in the compact, offhand way actors often do when they know the room is listening for a label. "Pretty" softens the edge, but only slightly. It’s the conversational equivalent of unbuttoning a collar before admitting something that will be read as either admirable or suspect, depending on the audience.

"Left of left" is the real punchline. It’s not a policy position so much as a stance toward the political spectrum itself: the mainstream "left" is framed as insufficiently bold, insufficiently urgent. The phrase borrows the language of geography to dodge specifics while still staking out moral ground. That vagueness is strategic. In celebrity culture, precision invites the gotcha; a self-described placement invites interpretation. It lets him claim commitment without becoming a pundit.

Context matters, too: Cooper has long been associated with earnest, working-class, morally serious characters. Saying he’s "left of left" squares that screen persona with a real-world ethic - a public insistence that decency, labor, and social responsibility aren’t just plot devices. The subtext is less "I’m radical" than "I’m not going to pretend moderation is the only adult option". It’s a small sentence that tries to inoculate against Hollywood cynicism by embracing a kind of unfashionable sincerity.