Author's Note: This idea came to me when I was watching biographies of Cary Grant and Montgomery Clift. Let me know what you think!
PS, to those who might have reviewed before, it badly needed some editing. Sometimes I get so excited I feel I have to post a story immediately. Sorry again, but please enjoy the improved version :)
Portrait of a Breakdown
He was poised to be the next Brad Pitt and critics hailed his talent to be as rich as the likes of Robert Redford and Cary Grant. He had so much promise ahead of him, so why was it that this star burned out before he truly had a chance to shine? Why did Chad Dylan Cooper die at the age of twenty-five?
"I think a lot of his problems originated from his childhood and the way he was raised," girlfriend Katy Anderson told us while sitting in the most expensive hotel in New York City. She says she'll never return to Los Angeles again, because it hurts too much. She says the place reeks of him and if she stayed there she would only re-visit the site where the tragic car crash occurred. "He got everything he wanted. He wasn't used to hearing the word 'no'."
Chad Dylan Cooper was not brought into a modest home by any means. Born in the wealthy Beverley Hills district to a socialite and her heart surgeon husband, it was obvious that the blonde haired blue eyed boy would have an upbringing envied by many. His mother, the confident and beautiful Clara Cooper had already enrolled his older sister Brittany into dance classes and hoped the girl would begin a career of modelling before she was five years old. Her son was no exception and with his father firmly out of the family home and in the hospital, the future stage mother was free to have her way.
"I knew he would be a star," she tells us in her home in Malibu, a home her son bought for her the moment he could afford it. She sits in her favourite leather armchair smoking cigarettes and describing every object in her home. "He was absolutely gorgeous even as a baby, so why would I want to stifle it? It was inevitable."
Soon Clara had invested her confidence – and a lot of money – in professional photographs of her three year old son and agents. Her attention was turned away from Brittany, who she describes as a 'stiff' child to begin with. Agents told her that her son would receive a lot more critical success than her daughter, who was brushed off as a younger version of the starlets taking over Hollywood. They said Los Angeles was screaming for a young actor similiar to the suave men of yesteryear.
"His father wasn't really into the whole acting thing, but he felt guilty because his wife always wanted to model and that was ruined when she had kids," Katy tells us in New York. She's never been able to talk about Chad's mom without the sound of bitterness and distaste. She has made no secret of who she blames for her boyfriend's psychological anguish. "So Chad was growing up around people who were telling him he was so talented and so gorgeous. He never really had anyone around to ground him. Even the teachers they hired treated him like a God."
Chad's first acting break came when he was six years old. Little did he – or his mother - know that this role would prove to be his breakthrough. The show was called 'The Goody Gang' and despite its corny title and its paying homage to shows such as 'The Waltons', it was a major hit for the young actor who didn't even realise that his life had already been mapped out for him.
"We were both the same," Tawni Hart says, as we sit in a small cafe outside of her apartment. The show proved to be a breakthrough role for the young actress when she was also six years old. Little did the young lovers know that in less than ten years they would be rivals. "Acting wasn't what we did, it was who we were. People treated us like real stars and we lapped it up."
"I think it was that role that really bore his arrogance," Sonny Munroe once said to reporters when interviewed regarding the actor she begrudgingly shared a studio with. The interview remains one of the honest yet and even Chad Dylan Cooper himself applauded his co-star/enemy/frenemy/lover for her courage and class. "People told him he was beautiful and talented. He got whatever he wanted and did whatever he wanted. Nobody raised him right."
Many people, including Katy Anderson, have maintained that Chad's mother spoiled her son to compensate for the lack of a father in his life. The renowned Doctor Cooper was not known for having a talented son and an intelligent daughter (didn't you know Brittany was considered a gifted child? Of course not). He was known for his work with the poor and impoverished in and out of America. However, Clara Cooper has denied that she spoiled her son for this reason and insists that she knew his talent had to be nurtured. She argues that he wasn't even aware his father didn't care for his career direction, but Chad himself admitted that his father issues were something he wasn't sure he would ever recover from. The young Chad could also add psychic ability to his ever expanding career.
"I did what I had to and look where it got him," she argues strongly sitting in her armchair, gripping the rests tightly, as if someone is about to take everything away from her. It's hard not to agree with the woman. After the groundbreaking success of 'The Goody Gang', Chad Dylan Cooper's career flourished for many years. From voicing famous children's characters to modelling for Ralph Lauren, Chad did everything a young boy could possibly do. Clara's determination and Chad's good looks and natural talent had got him very far indeed and it wasn't long before he received the role of a lifetime.
"She should have grounded him in his teens," Katy tells us, almost choking on her coffee, she is that insistant about the point she's making. "She should have sent him to school."
Of course, she is referring to the role of the intense Mackenzie on the popular teen drama 'Mackenzie Falls', a show that Chad remambered as the best he'd ever been a part of. We attribute this to a certain fiery brunette he met, but we'll get to that later. Chad played the brooding Mackenzie from the age of thirteen up until the age of twenty and before he died he admitted that the role would probably remain in his shadow until he retired. Katy Anderson blames this typecasting for the deep psychological problems that plagued Chad up until his death.
"There is no one else that I envisioned for the role of Mackenzie," producer Walter Sinise told reporters at the launch of the new teen drama. "It was always going to be Chad Dylan Cooper. You watch; that boy's going to be bigger than Cary Grant or Brad Pitt."
"He didn't even hear a 'no' from 'Mackenzie Falls' or 'Condor Studios'," Sonny Munroe said in the same honest interview she was appraised for. "He got the part right away without question and he accepted without any hesitation. He got everything he wanted. It all came way too easy for him and that is why Chad will never survive in the real world."
Mackenzie Falls proved to be a hit with teenage and adult viewers alike and Chad admitted that he realised the true extent of fan behaviour after the show became popular. Mackenzie's brooding good looks and tragic romances with his various female co-stars proved a successful combination. The young actor admitted that he found the attention overwhelming at first.
"I was only fourteen when the show really took off and the attention really freaked me out," he told The Times shortly after the release of season one on DVD. "It wasn't just girls my age, but their moms too. Everyone wanted to be my Mrs Robinson and I didn't find it too exciting to begin with." Despite this initial lack of enthusiasm for the reception of his character, Chad soon grew to love the limelight, a little too much in the opinion of some of the people he worked with.
And that brings us onto the introduction of Sonny Munroe into Chad's life. First, a little background as to why she was introduced in the first place. One year after Mackenzie Falls debued on screens, Mr Condor of Condor Studios wanted to expand his fanbase past the female fans and their notorious mothers. So, alas, 'So Random' was born and the child actress Tawni Hart was brought in as the main star of the sketch show along with three unknown actors with immense potential. Thus began the famous rivalry between the former childhood sweethearts and co-stars.
Sonny Munroe arrived in Hollywood when Chad Dylan Cooper turned sixteen and EVERYONE who has ever known both Chad and Sonny have commented on the now iconic relationship between the two. Even Chad's mother – who once said that no one would ever be good enough for her son – knew about her son's feelings.
"I thought he hated her at first and I was fine with that because I didn't want him to be with anyone when he was so young, but soon it became evident that there were feelings there," she laughs. Someone else who remembers the relationship between Chad and Sonny is Portlyn Thomas, the love interest on Mackenzie Falls who witnessed more than her fair share of the sexual tension between the rivals.
"They were supposed to hate each other. Sonny was trying to appease Tawni because Tawni hated her and she had to be loyal to the show," she comments sitting on a beach in California. It's amazing how much she remembers. "I knew he liked her. She was really the first girl he had ever really liked more than himself and it seriously freaked him out. He was proud and so was she. It was so agonizing to watch; it was exactly like a teen drama. We were screaming for them to get together."
"The sexual tension was undeniable, but of course they denied it until the bitter end," Selena Gomez comments, sighing as she realises one half of the famous pairing is no longer with us. "I've said it before and I've said it again; it was the stuff of true love, and still is if you ask me."
"He never stopped loving her," Katy Anderson admits without even a hint of hesitation or heartbreak. Now remember, she was with Chad long after Sonny and up until the moment he passed away. "In a way he was like Heathcliff. His love for her contributed to his destruction. Definitely."
Eventually Chad and Sonny appeased fans and friends worldwide and became America's sweethearts overnight aftr declaring their love at the tender age of seventeen. It was a romance that would last four years and one that Sonny Munroe admits she will never forget.
"I really loved him and I know that he loved me," she told reporters after four years together. If you watch this interview, this is when the usually composed Ms Munroe broke down on national television unintentionally. "Those were probably the happiest days of my life."
Of course, no one cares to mention now the rumours that Sonny Munroe found it increasingly difficult to cope with what she considered to be the love of Chad's life: himself. It has been reported since the two hooked up, that their fights were often about the large place in his heart that she seemingly could never get past. The couple denied this vigorously and Sonny even admitted that the confident side of her boyfriend was a feature she found endearing. However, friends argue that Sonny was never truly happy assuming she would never come first. Was this relationship doomed from the beginning?
Sonny and Chad's relationship would reach breaking point, and the catalyst would be a tragic one. At the height of their relationship, Chad had been in a string of successful movies appealing to both teenage girls and a more mature audience. The New York Times compared his intense acting to that of Montgomery Clift and many other critics praised his diverse acting skills. These wonderful reviews were what encouraged him to leave the show that had made him famous and introduced him to the girl he promised he would marry.
"I have to admit, I never understood why Chad was so broken after his father died," Clara admits, tears streaming down her cheeks. Sonny Munroe confessed that she and Chad were in bed together when he got the phonecall regarding the heart attack that had killed his father. To this day no one understands why he died from a heart attack when he was a relatively young man. Clara blames his fast paced lifestyle and his addiction to travel, but perhaps the uncertainty of his death is what pushed the young star over the edge.
"He never really knew the man past phonecalls and presents," Sonny said. "That's what seriously broke his heart. I don't know when he planned to get to know his dad better but when he died, that would never happen. He would never get the chance to know the man and it killed him. It killed us."
"That was when the drugs and alcohol rumours started," Katy sighs, shaking her head. We have copies of our newspaper and the stories written about Chad and his new battle with cocaine and alcohol. At first reports were that the young actor was enjoying the success of his youth, but it soon digressed into rumours of deep depression and an escape from a reality that crippled him. "He realised that his success had undermined his relationship with his dad and he also realised that he'd missed out on a hell of a lot."
"George and I always had an agreement that if the marriage didn't work we wouldn't divorce for the sake of the children," Clara remarks, nodding her head as if justifying her decision. "To be honest it had stopped working the moment Chad was born, but we didn't tell him that. We didn't tell him or Brittany anything. I suppose we made a mistake there. They thought he didn't love them, but the truth was that he felt guilty about what was happening to them. He said I exploited them. It had nothing to do with them."
"I couldn't cope with the drugs or the alcohol," Sonny told reporters in that interview, tears in her eyes and her hands shaking. She had previously said that she would never speak of it out of respect for her ex-boyfriend, but he was the one who encouraged her to speak out. "I tried to help him. God, so many of us tried to help him, but he didn't want to be helped. Not really. He was digging himself a deep hole and none of us could reach out to him. Our love just wasn't enough anymore."
"He said that he 'woke up' to everything," Brittany says, after initially refusing to be interviewed. She finally relented and we sit in her cottage with tea and homemade soup. She's living a life far different to the glossy one her brother was accustomed to. She's now a university lecturer and admits she refused to admit they had any relation until shortly before Chad's death. "The coke had made him paranoid and he thought he was a fraud and everyone was out to get him. His father's death was the catalyst that poisoned his mind against everything. Against everyone. I tried to help him and Sonny did too, but it all became too much for her."
Sonny Munroe and Chad Dylan Cooper ended their iconic relationship at the young age of twenty-one after four years together and fought valiantly to keep the reasons under wraps, but everyone knew why. Sonny wanted to prosper in her career and felt she was being held back by the reputation that now followed the erratic Chad Dylan Cooper. She admitted that she knew it was the end of the relationship when she looked at him and felt nothing but pity for him. Chad confessed that his addiction demons destroyed the relationship and that he would spend the remainder of his life loving her. That much was true.
"No one wanted to hire him after that because he just got out of control," Katy tells us, drinking her fourth cup of coffee, her hands shaking now. It's a chapter in Chad's life that haunts her, Clara and Brittany, perhaps out of guilt? Sonny Munroe might have moved onto several shortlived romances with the prospering actors of the time, but Chad engaged in several disorderly activities and it soon turned into a normal occurrence reading about one of his arrests in the newspaper. "He was running out of money, so he stole, he got into fights with people, he drove under so many influences and he was so angry he would fight everyone."
There is evidence that Cooper wanted to redeem himself, as his five visits to rehab proved, but the actor just couldn't quit his addictions and many people have debated as to why this was. Was Chad in control of his own life and choosing to throw away everything promising? Or was this young man desperate to maintain some sort of control? Control he thought originated in dependent substances?
"He lost his dad, the love of his life and his career all in one go," Brittany says, shrugging her shoulders. "Of course it fucked him up. I think the drugs were the only things he felt he could control, but we all know that they in fact controlled him."
It was after Chad's fifth visit to rehab that he contacted ex-girlfriend Sonny Munroe, who had just left 'So Random' to pursue more mature roles. He knew that her interview would generate more attention and more popularity so he allowed her to tell a story that was desperate to be told. It would be the only interview Sonny ever done regarding her ex-boyfriend.
"I really didn't want to do this, but he really wanted the story to be told," she told the interviewer, her lips trembling. "I hope it shows you guys that he's not a criminal. He's not even a bad guy. He's just lost. Maybe this interview will help him find himself again and bring back the guy I love, but I don't know."
While Sonny Munroe was telling the world about her ill fated romance with the former Hollywood superstar, Chad was out with the girl he would remain with until his death. When we ask Katy Anderson about how they met and fell in love, she bursts into tears and takes several minutes to compose herself. Remember that the tabloids continued to report that she was a gold digger until Chad's death. Maybe this will shed some light on that controversial issue. Of course, one cannot ignore the shocking resemblance she has to the woman in Chad's life before her. Katy knows this is no coincidence. She knows why he chose her, but she tells us that she decided to ignore this factor, thinking that she could save the man no one had.
"We were in a bar: I had just run away from home after my stepdad beat me up for the last time and he had relapsed again," she tells us. She says that it was a cheap bar where no one knew them and he was able to be himself around the young woman. "He never got to be himself. He was always playing someone. I like to think that I brought out the real Chad. I like to think that he was happy when he was with me."
Katy Anderson couldn't save him though. The aspiring model admits that she felt she could do nothing more than turn a blind eye to his crippling addictions and paranoia. She admits that she knows she should have sought professional help, but she was worried he would leave her. Chad Dylan Cooper hit rock bottom halfway into their six month relationship when he progressed to heroin. Katy believes that this is the factor that abruptly ended their whirlwind relationship.
"He was in denial. Only he decided when he needed help and I worried that I would only push him away if I forced him against his will," she nods her head, but a tear escapes her eye as she ponders whether she made a mistake. "I was desperate when he got onto heroin, but I couldn't do anything. I could only be there for him."
Katy Anderson didn't have to do anything in the end. No one did. One night, when Chad Dylan Cooper got into his car for some groceries and no doubt another score, his beloved Ferrari collided with another car and this was the accident that cost him his life. In a twist of fate that can only be described as unfair, Chad's was the only life lost that day. There was no doubt that Cooper was under several influences and doctors noted that the actor most likely died on impact. That should bring some relief to the fans who, even though he failed to redeem himself, felt he had suffered enough.
"I was numb when I heard the news," Clara sobs, the painful reality of her son's death hitting her as strong as the car that collided with Cooper's Ferrari. "I couldn't believe it. I still can't believe it."
"I blamed myself for a while," Katy admits, nodding her head again. "I thought I could have done something to save him. I felt like everyone blamed me." She's just finished composing herself once more, the shocking reality of what happened sinking in. She looks to the portrait of her deceased lover on the wall during better times and smiles a little. "When I feel like shit I look at this picture and I know that he's at peace. He's finally getting to know his dad and he's left all of his demons behind."
Although Sonny Munroe has only formally expressed her deepest condolences after hearing the tragic news regarding her ex-boyfriend, sources say that her heart was broken the moment she heard. Her heart couldn't have been helped when – just before his death – Chad confessed that he would never be happy knowing that he let his ray of 'Sonshine' go without a fight.
"She should know that she means more to me than anyone or anything in the world," he told the paparazzi after leaving a bar with one too many tequila shots forced down his throat. "I love her and I always will."
"She knows she would have married him if she hadn't lost him to drugs," the source told us. "She still loves him. This has hit her extremely hard. She didn't expect it. She always thought that he might finally get his act together. Now she'll never know."
"A lot of people blame me, and I will admit that I was perhaps a little too leniant, but I am not the only person who killed him," his mother snaps when we ask her whether she did make mistakes. We do not think for a second that his mother was to blame, but it is astonishing how willing she is to place the blame on others. When we speak to both Katy and Brittany, their replies are suspiciously similar to that of Sonny Munroe:
"Someone should have said 'no' to him."
Chad Dylan Cooper was a deeply disturbed man before he died, there's no doubt. After researching his past and present, and speaking to those closest to him, we've reached a conclusion about this fascinating young man. Chad Dylan Cooper had vast amounts of talent unlike those around him, but like one of his idols, Montgomery Clift, he was unable to cope with the repurcussions of his talent. Chad Dylan Cooper is similar to many children brought up in privileged homes. He wasn't used to being refused anything and when this is the case, often people grow tired of what they can have and instead what they can't have. He also lost his father to his fame and with an oblivious mother and several enablers around him; he was unable to resist the temptation of Hollywood. With no one around to say no to this superstar, is it any wonder he succumbed to drugs and alcohol? Chad Dylan Cooper remains, like so many others, forever young and talented. And that is how he should be remembered.
Author's Note: I don't know what came over me, but I really had to write that. I hope you liked it. Please let me know what you think :)