Chris Cooper — American Actor born on July 09, 1951,

Christopher W. "Chris" Cooper is an American film actor. He became well known in the late 1980s. He has appeared in supporting performances in several major Hollywood films, including the drama American Beauty, the biopic about a NASA engineer titled October Sky, the action spy film The Bourne Identity, the biographical sports psychological-drama thriller film Seabiscuit, the biographical film about Truman Capote, Capote, the geopolitical thriller Syriana, the action-thriller The Kingdom, the crime drama The Town, and the musical comedy film The Muppets... (wikipedia)

You look at a herd of cattle and well, they all look the same... but they know. They all have an individual personality, and those personalities change from day to day. They can have their grumpy days and their happy days and their serene days. But it's unpredictable. You can't be off in outer space when you're dealing with animals.
I had a couple come in with a negative amortization mortgage on a house that costs way too much relative to their income. They're consuming real estate, not investing in it.
You jot down ideas, memories, whatever, concerning your real life that somehow parallels the character you're playing, and you incorporate that in your scene work.
Frankly, my politics are pretty left of left.
I've got research, I have my own life experience I can apply, and I have my imagination.