“I just wasn’t ready for it”: Steven Spielberg’s ‘Hyper-Masculine’ TV Series Almost Ended 1 Marvel Actor’s Career That Left Him Absolutely Terrified

In the world of blockbuster entertainment and critical success, no one rivals the mastery of Steven Spielberg. Notwithstanding the technical ingenuity of James Cameron and the interstellar scientific imagination of George Lucas, Spielberg stands – to this day – as the only Hollywood director to spread out his wings across (almost) every genre and master it without leaving any room for doubts.

Starting with the aquatic creature horror in Jaws, his xenomorphic explorations via E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the Nazi-hunting adventurer in Indiana Jones, the World War biopic in Schindlerʼs List, the awe-inspiring age of dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, sci-fi dystopia in Minority Report, and musical theater adaptation of West Side Story – no one does variety better than Steven Spielberg.

As such, it came as a surprise when the visionary director decided to compose a three-part story stretching over 20 years revolving around those who fought gloriously in World War II. The purpose of such a story was far beyond what anyone could have guessed. However, it was a necessary investment tied to a just cause that helped etch the struggle and loss suffered by the countryʼs bravest soldiers in the annals of history and in the medium that Spielberg knew best how to use.

Dominic Cooper Was Terrified of Steven Spielbergʼs Series

Dominic Cooper may have made his mark on modern pop culture via Mamma Mia! and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again but one cannot underestimate Cooperʼs star power due to his lack of filmography. With roles spread all over the board, Cooper has accumulated a vast and well-deserved following due to his appearance in MCU as a young Howard Stark and as the titular lead in the DC adaptation of Preacher.

However, even such heavy-handed roles that define an actorʼs career cannot determine how one might serve under pressure. As a newly-minted actor, Dominic Cooperʼs involvement with a Steven Spielberg series was similarly affected by the stress of scoring his first-ever acting gig and doubts of inadequacy on a competitive set. In a July 2018 interview with The Guardian, Cooper recalled:

I’d never been on a film set and I was terrified. [It was] an incredible project [but I was] very young and very sad. It was all to do with my own insecurities. It was camaraderie, competition and masculinity at its highest level. I just wasn’t ready for it. Luckily I got other work quite quickly. It could have been quite damaging. I could have gone, ‘Nah, this isn’t for me.’

The HBO series went on to launch the careers of such character actors as Michael Fassbender, Tom Hardy, Damian Lewis, James McAvoy, Andrew Scott, Simon Pegg, and Dexter Fletcher. But despite his withdrawal from the opportunity of a lifetime, one cannot completely fault Cooper for stepping out on Band of Brothers, considering he did so to preserve his sense of individuality.

Steven Spielberg Records History in a Three-Part HBO Series

The master of film, Steven Spielberg, was no stranger to expressing stories of great value and extraordinary imagination and compressing them into a 2-hour story feasible for mass consumption. But when it came to the subject of horror and tragedy, the records spoke a different tale. The narrative was no longer about the surrealism and creativity that made Spielbergʼs films so great.

Instead, it was about the historical accuracy and documentation of real lives slain and the tremendous losses suffered during the Great Wars of the 20th century. Steven Spielbergʼs ability to bring out the horrors and futility of war was expressed masterfully in Saving Private Ryan, and it was the effort of the star of that film, Tom Hanks, that served to further bring out the untold tales of heroism and bravery of soldiers in an age where superheroes hold more credibility than real people.

In time, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg constructed a three-part saga told from the perspective of land: Band of Brothers (2001), sea: The Pacific (2010), and air: Masters of the Air (2024). Spread out over 23 years, the stories adapted from biographies and documented events give a peek into the reality of our past and how justice and morality prevailed over violence and persecution.

Band of Brothers, The Pacific, and Masters of the Air are available for watching on Max and Apple TV.