Interviewing some celebrities is like extracting molars… and then there are dream interviewees like Daisy May Cooper, who is so brilliantly entertaining and unfiltered (she’s a walking, talking headline), you forget it’s work and totally lose track of time.
The 38 year old isn’t just good company and hilarious, she’s also insanely talented. She scooped a BAFTA for her comedy performance in BBC3 hit This Country, which she co-created with her brother Charlie, has starred in acclaimed comedy dramas (Witchfinder and Rain Dogs), and also penned BBC1 comedy thriller Am I Being Unreasonable? with best friend Selin Hizli. In fact, they were in the middle of filming series two in June when Daisy went into labour prematurely with baby Benji (‘He’s absolutely fine now, he is a real big bastard’), who she shares with boyfriend Anthony Huggins – she also has six-year-old Pip and Jack, four, with ex-husband, Will Weston.
Next up, we’ll see Daisy as a team captain on the UK version of the hit US game show Password (ITV1) – against heat favourite Alan Carr, and Stephen Mangan as host – which is essentially a fun word association game that literally anyone can play. While she happily chats about that, and anything else heat wants to know about, really there’s only one thing looming large in Daisy’s mind: her Klarna debt. Yep, in spite of all her success, she freaks out about her monthly bills, just like us – just one of the many reasons why we love her…
You gave up booze pre-pregnancy. Are you still not drinking?
Yeah, because when I drink, I am just like a racoon in a garage. I cannot have just one, that’s the problem. So, I still haven’t had anything to drink and it’s been amazing, because I haven’t set fire to anything in ages!
What are the other benefits?
Not having those awful hangover anxieties – those were crippling, they killed me. Being in bed on a Sunday thinking, ‘Who have I messaged and what did I say?’ And, ‘Oh my God, was I twerking?’ That all goes, and you can do more productive stuff with your Sundays, like you can actually get up before 12midday and eat stuff that’s not Deliveroo. I thought I would be one of these people who would just drink myself into my grave – I didn’t realise quite how much it’s affected every area of my life, but it’s made me so much happier. Giving up drinking is the best thing I’ve ever done.
Are there any other habits you’d like to break?
I would love to pay off my Klarna debt – I just keep putting it off. And I want to start sending back clothes from Shein and Boohoo that don’t fit me, because it’s just so wasteful. I don’t know what my problem is really! I also want to pay my credit card off. I think I’ve had this bill since I was 19, and it’s always one of those things where I think, ‘I’m going to pay it off’, and I never do.
Well, you’ve got a BAFTA. That must be worth a bit…
You don’t even own those! You sign a thing that says, like, you basically rent it until you die. So, I couldn’t take it into the pawn shop and say, ‘If you melt this down, how much will I get for this bronze?’ It’s really annoying, cos I’ve thought about a few times!
You were pregnant when you started filming series two of Am I Being Unreasonable? – how did you hide your bump?
There was one scene where I am just wearing a giant bin bag with a hole cut out for the head and two holes cut out for the arms, so that hid my bump. And also we did shots where you just see me from the tits up. We started filming, it was all going really well, and then I ended up being rushed to hospital because my waters broke and Benji came, so I’ve got to go back and redo that. Bit annoying, because I think I’ve already been paid for it, and I hate doing work that I’ve already been paid for, because I’ve already spent that money on Boohoo clothes that are probably too big, which I’m not going to return.
You’ve also just done Password with Alan Carr – was that fun?
Working with Alan was just a dream. I found out he used to work in big Tesco, and I used to work in Waitrose, and I think, ‘God, if we’d worked in the same supermarket, we would have absolutely just been out having a fag the whole time, f**king around, and gossiping about the shelf stackers.’ He’s just such a joy. He said, if we bottled what we had together, we’d get bleach, which I thought was really apt.
Were you good at games as a kid?
I used to love playing charades and games like that when I was a kid, but to do a game show like this is just such a joy, because it’s so f**king simple. I couldn’t do anything like The Chase or The Cube, that is just so complicated. What’s great is that, because me and Alan are so thick, it’s just the right amount of competition for our tiny peanut brains to understand.
How competitive are you?
I didn’t think that I was that competitive, but there’s so much pressure when you’re trying to win money for somebody who really needs it. That element of stress makes you even more competitive. As a kid, I wasn’t that sort of ‘flipping the Monopoly board’ type person, but I’d get hysterical playing Buckaroo, like screaming – I have so much anxiety, I’d just pass out.
What else do you have on work-wise?
I’ve started writing a film that I really want to do. I feel really passionate about it. I just love the idea of having 90 minutes and having to stick to that running time. It’s sort of a bit of horror, a bit comedy, a bit of romance, a bit of drama – it’s a bit of everything. The problem is I’ve got ADHD, so I just change the f**king theme halfway through writing it because I get bored.
Are you doing it on your own?
That is the first thing I’ve written completely on my own, so that’s quite liberating. But also, I’ve written, like, five pages, so I can’t even say that I’ve really written anything.
As This Country fans, please say you and Charlie will write some more?
The BBC asked us to do a This Country Christmas special. We would have done it, but the pressure was too much for not that much money. And then I said, ‘Why don’t we do a live show, kind-of like a This CountryChristmas Show, where it’s them trying to put on a pantomime. And then I found out how much we’d get after all the expenses and it wasn’t that much, so we thought, ‘No, f**k it, we’ll just leave it for a bit.’ Maybe we’ll do a film. I think there will just be such a lot of pressure to get it right, so when we come to doing it, it’s gotta be absolute perfection or don’t bother – and we’ve gotta be paid well for it.
Would we ever see you on I’m A Celeb? The fees are pretty good…
I really don’t know. I don’t think there’s any amount of money that you could pay me to eat a kangaroo’s dick. That’s where I draw the line. I’ll do a lot of things, but I think I couldn’t do that, and the whole holding spiders in the mouth…
Fair enough. Your Instagram cracks us up, especially when you screenshot WhatsApps of family arguments. Your dad [actor Paul Cooper] sometimes gets upset and goes to his room, refusing to eat, doesn’t he?
He sulks. He’s in his sixties and he’s sulks like a f**king child. It’s extraordinary. His latest thing is he was in a mod band called Replay – they were terrible, and he tells it as if they were the f**king Beatles. In the ’70s and ’80s, they just played working men’s clubs in Reading, and he’s written an idea for a documentary that he wants me to try to get commissioned with him, where he reunites his old band so they can play a one-off gig at Wembley.
Oh, wow…
It’s like he’s having a slow breakdown. It’s like, ‘Dad, who do you think would want to commission this?’ It’s appalling – unbelievably depressing.
Onto something cheerier. You dedicated your memoir to Ben Shephard, then you met him on GMB. What was that like?
My God, he’s more beautiful in real life, and he’s got a smell – like really fresh linen. That’s the only way I can describe it. It’s just he’s got this f**king aura about him.
We can’t tell if you’re joking. Do you genuinely fancy him?
Absolutely. I’ve always fancied him. He’s just the perfect man. It’s his brown eyes, it’s just everything, he’s gorgeous. It’s the tone of his voice, you know, like in Speed, where Keanu Reeves is talking Sandra Bullock through driving that bus. The tone of Ben’s voice is so calming, he could get me through a terrorist bus incident.
Did he appreciate the bespoke Ben Shephard blanket you took along?
I think he was a bit scared and that upset me, because that’s not the impression I wanted him to have. I wanted him to sort of want to shag me, but he was terrified.
We wondered if you’d moved on from this crush, but the encounter seems to have fuelled the fire…
Yeah, I think it’s just increased my love for him. He’s just absolute perfection. I don’t think there’s anybody who would ever be able to top that. Even on Tipping Point, when people say f**king stupid answers, he doesn’t smirk. He’s just so f**king kind and sincere. I think that’s what I love about him.
A Ben Shephard tattoo seems like the natural next step…
One thousand per cent that’s what my next tattoo is going to be. I’ll get it on my forehead, so people are constantly reminded of my love for him.
Password is on ITV1 and ITVX, Saturdays from 31 August, at 9.40pm
