Cooper Hoffman has put together a pretty eclectic run since breaking out in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Licorice Pizza,” following it with Ethan Hawke’s “Wildcat,” Jason Reitman’s “Saturday Night,” the Stephen King adaptation “The Long Walk,” and now Gregg Araki’s “I Want Your Sex.” But apparently playing Cyclops in Marvel’s upcoming “X-Men” reboot isn’t part of that trajectory.
During a recent conversation with The Playlist alongside Gregg Araki for “I Want Your Sex,” Hoffman was asked directly whether rumors that he’s playing Scott Summers were true. His answer was pretty definitive: “That, uhh…no.”
Hoffman is an X-Men fan, though, and certainly didn’t rule out joining the franchise someday. “I love the X-Men so much, but no, I haven’t heard anything,” he said.
Araki immediately jumped in with his own solution: “Have you not? Because I’m directing…” That prompted Hoffman to joke that he’d already pitched the idea himself. “I told you that I wanted you to direct! I was like, ‘We gotta get a Marvel/Gregg Araki movie.’” Araki suggested his version would have “lots of sex,” to which Hoffman replied, “Lots of sex! It could be really huge.”
So, no Cyclops for Hoffman, at least as far as he knows. But another answer about his upcoming projects contained a more unexpected nugget involving Chase Infiniti and Luca Guadagnino.
Hoffman stars in Guadagnino’s upcoming AI-related film and said he doesn’t know when audiences will get to see it. Infiniti apparently already has, however, and Hoffman casually revealed why: “The Luca movie…I don’t know when it’s coming out, but Chase [Infiniti] actually got to see a screening of it, because she just did something with Luca. And I hear it’s great.”
Hoffman didn’t elaborate on what Infiniti “did” with Guadagnino, so whether that means a new film role, another project, or something entirely different remains unclear. But his wording suggests the “One Battle After Another” actress has worked with Guadagnino recently on something that has yet to be announced.
Hoffman also clarified the status of another project he had previously been attached to, saying his planned film with filmmaker Cooper Raiff, “The Trashers,” had fallen apart. However, he hasn’t entirely given up on it.
“The Cooper Raiff film is not happening. That kind of fell apart a while ago,” Hoffman said. When Araki suggested it could still come back, Hoffman agreed. “It might come back! I would love to. That script is great. And that story is really great.”
One project Hoffman has completed is a new film with India Donaldson, “The Chaperones,” which he described as “one of the best shooting experiences I’ve ever had.”
“I, like, love her,” Hoffman said of Donaldson, indie director behind “Good One.” “And those boys I got to spend time with in the van—David [Jonsson], Paul [Dano], and Billy [Barratt]—are just fucking great.”
Asked if there was anything else he could reveal, Hoffman laughed and said no, though he did manage one more piece of casting enthusiasm: “But David [Jonsson] just got cast as ‘Black Panther,’ and we’re all happy about that.”
For now, Hoffman’s Cyclops rumor is much easier to resolve: he says it isn’t happening. Whatever Chase Infiniti recently did with Luca Guadagnino is the more intriguing mystery. More from this interview today. — Additional reporting by Luke Hicks
