Stephen Frears has revealed that he hadn't seen Dominic Cooper's previous work before casting him in his new movie Tamara Drewe.
The British actor stars alongside Gemma Arterton in the romantic comedy, the first movie for Frears since Cheri last year, but Frears had no idea that Copper had starred in mammoth musical hit Mamma Mia.
speaking to Movie.ie the filmmaker said: "I know this sounds ridiculous but I didn't know that Dominic had been in 'Mamma Mia!', nobody told me. I was even more innocent than you imagine. The casting director said he wanted Dominic Cooper, so I thought fine.
And while he also cast Gemma Arterton in the central role of his new movie he admits that he hasn't seen any of her work either.
"The truth is, to this day, that I've never seen Gemma in anything, I think I might have seen a few minutes of 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles' and my wife said she was very, very good."
Frears is famous for movies such as Dangerous Liaisons and The Queen so the rom-com is something a little different for the director and he admits that he learnt a lot about the countryside while working on the movie.
"I thought it was funny and sexy, but the truth is after a time you start to realise how complex things are. One of the unconscious things might well have been to do with Dorset.
"I've learnt a lot about the countryside, so I'm sure that was all going on in my unconscious in some way."
Tamara Drewe is out now.
Tagged in Dominic Cooper Stephen Frears