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Chase Cooper (68)
Project: Nighttime soap (War of Joy)
Known as: No nicknames
Real name: Chase Charles Cooper
Group affiliation: Cooper family
Physical description: Seventeen-year-old Chase is the spitting image of his uncle, Clive, at the same age, which is to say notably good-looking. He’s in great shape (he is the high school’s starting quarterback).
Personality: If you think Chase is the same arrogant, self-centered jock his uncle was at the same age you’d be wrong. Chase is a good person and tends to elevate those around him. Positive and optimistic, he is the charismatic class president and participates in many volunteer activities. Still given he is a Cooper many people are still cautious around him and assume he has some skeletons in his closet.
And he might – literally. Either Chase or his sister Charlotte is a murderous psychopath. Time will tell.
History: Son of Liz and nephew of Clive, Chase did not hit the lottery in terms of great parental examples. However, he did have a loving governess and his twin, Charlotte (nicknamed Char). Chase and Char have always been extremely close and relied upon each other. Though very different on the surface, they privately believe that they are the same soul in two bodies, and together they make a complete person.
Chase, who reminds Uncle Clive of Clive when he was younger, is the heir apparent to the Cooper and Spring Toys fortune. However, he has avoided feeling the pressure of the earlier generation, in part because Clive himself is such a detached leader of Spring Toys. Chase dreams of a career in football and barring (or after) that, one in journalism.
Chase is surprisingly well-adjusted. A good student and athlete, he is popular and well-liked. Friendly to all groups at the school the only ones who don’t like him are those that resent all that he has. Still, many keep him at a safe distance in terms of trust (either because they have him on a pedestal or because at the end of the day, he is a Cooper).
Some secrets and points of drama we may or may not encounter:
- Chase or Char has murderous tendencies (think serial killer). The viewer does not know which one it is, but the twins are so close that whoever the killer is it is not a secret from the other.
- The one secret that Chase and Char keep from one another is that they each are in a secret relationship with Mandy Lake.
- Chase is active with his school paper (on top of everything else). He might face a crisis of conscious when he learns something unsavory about Spring Toys. Family loyalty will conflict with journalistic integrity.
- While I’m slinging clichés – his sports career sets up all sorts of possibilities (shaving points due to betting; PEDs; all the classics).
Role in the narrative: I didn’t want the Coopers to all be villains, nor the Lakes to all be virtuous. So, Chase is my good-guy Cooper (provided, you know, he’s not a serial killer). Basically, I don’t know yet if he’ll be too good to be true, or surprising because he is a truly decent Cooper.
Abilities: Chase is a blessed individual – bright, athletic, self-confident and stable. He is a talented enough quarterback to succeed in the NCAA, though he isn’t likely to be NFL quality. He is a good factual writer – his articles are clear and concise.
Inspirations: A little more Friday Night Lights influence – Chase is kind of Jason Street at the beginning of the series (provided he is not the serial killer – if he is, he’s a little closer to the killers from Scream who hid it so well). A little bit of Brandon Walsh with the school paper stuff.
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