The recent high school grad spoke to WWD about starring in the buzzy new musical.
“I honestly was so honored and surprised to even be there,” says Cooley of the accolade. “I had seen the Jimmy Awards all my high school career. The coolest and most talented upperclassmen that I looked up to go there. So when I was there I was like, ‘oh my gosh.’ It felt out of my depth, but it was incredible.”
Cooley’s first impression of the role? “I was like, yeah, this definitely makes sense for me,” says Cooley of Seth, who has a particular affection for anagrams. “He was a weird, eccentric, kooky kid. I played things like that before, and I knew I could inhabit the authenticity of that.” “Especially in Broadway’s current era, you have a lot of stuff that goes dramatic and dark even when it is comedy. That’s what I thought we were doing [with ‘Kimberly Akimbo’], but honestly it’s a subversion of that,” says Cooley, adding that the production has connected with audiences across all age ranges. “This is about people who are unequipped and not the best people and not in the best situation, trying to make the best of it,” he adds.
“Getting my first awards, there was a lot of shock; there was kind of imposter syndrome,” says Cooley. “[Seth] really resonated with a lot of people,” he continues. “And so that kind of grounded me in it, and I was just glad to share that. The recognition has been an incredible honor, and I think above it all has just sealed an understanding for me, like, yeah, you should continue trying this.
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