EXCLUSIVE | Christian Cooke on playing chess legend Garry Kasparov in ‘Rematch’: ‘He was a very aggressive player…’

In 1997, the world watched as chess legend Garry Kasparov took on IBM’s Deep Blue in a battle that blurred the line between man and machine. Christian Cooke captures Kasparov’s brilliance and inner turmoil, while Sarah Bolger brings heart to the emotional storm behind the scenes. This was more than just a match; it was a test of pride, intelligence, and what it means to be human. As pressure mounts and trust falters, the game turns into something far bigger. Rematch dives deep into a defining moment where logic met legacy, and the clock never stopped ticking.

In an EXCLUSIVE interview with Firstpost, Christian Cooke talks about Rematch now showing on Lionsgate Play and how it was a challenge to him playing a real person.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

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How much pressure was there to play the role; since you are playing a real person?
I guess there’s always pressure when it’s you’re playing a real person, a real historical figure. And it’s an event, a lot of people know about, though it happened 30 years ago.

If it was an event that happened five or ten-years ago, then it would be fresh in people’s minds. I don’t really look a lot like Garry, so I think that helps because obviously a lot of the audience maybe don’t know what exactly Garry Kasparov looks like, so they can sort of get lost in the character a bit more.

I didn’t really want to imitate him, his voice or, you know, like, try and mimic him. I just wanted to sort of capture the essence of who he was as a person, the spirit of  Garry Kasparov, which was someone who’s very focused, single-minded and driven. If I did any sort of mimicry, it was how he was at the chessboard. When he was at the chessboard, it was his sort of posture, the way he moved the pieces, the way he leaned over the board. People used to say that he was a very aggressive player which I didn’t know much about.

Well, I find it quite odd that someone could be an aggressive chess player. Because it’s you we see it as such a civilized game where people are just using their hands to move pieces. But I think it would I think, obviously, it’s his style of play, how sort of, the speed at which he advances. There’s always pressure, but I think we need that to thrive sometimes. For me that pressure is very important to do a good job.

How pro did you get with the game?

To be honest, I’m probably not much better at all than when I started, I think, because a lot of what I was doing is playing. I was actually learning the actual chess moves that he played as opposed to sort of, like, learning to become a better chess player myself. It was more like we know, the chess games in the show are exact games and moves that were played in real life. It was another learning exercise, really.

You would sort of have to learn your dialogue and whatever, but then also learn these moves. And the way that Yan shot the chess games, he would do these long continuous takes where he would want to shoot sort of 30 moves at a time. So, we would be meeting up in each other’s hotel rooms on an evening to practice the chess games, just so that we really remembered where the pieces went. I am not sure my chess actually improved that much at all, really.

Since he’s a Russian, just wanting to know from you, he has an accent which is very Russian, so his English was very different right. How did you learn that accent and his mannerisms?
He spoke with a Russian accent. Garry studied English at university. He travelled a lot. He spent a lot of time in America. I think he’s lived in New York now and since the eighties, I believe. He is now anglicised or Americanised. So, the Russian accent was tough. I worked with a dialect coach.  I just wanted to sort of have a convincing Russian accent, but one that wasn’t sort of insanely strong. Because I think that can be quite distracting. And as I mentioned, I didn’t want it to sound like I am mimicking him.

I think anytime you’re doing a strong accent, but you’re still using the English language, it’s like if you were doing well, if you were speaking with an Indian accent or if you were speaking with a French accent, they’re very strong accents in the English language. And I think that sometimes that can be, you know, when the audience might know that the actor is not from that place, that can be sometimes quite distracting. So, I wanted it to flow and be sort of believable, but not be too pronounced. I think that was true to Garry as well because  Gary was so sort of Americanised, he didn’t he, you know, he didn’t sound like a Bond villain.

How difficult was it to get inside the mind of this chess grandmaster?

I think one of the things was he was quite like an athlete, I think. He approached the match like an athlete. I’m into boxing, and I watch a lot of boxing, and I used to train in boxing. I think when you have these disciplines and these sports like boxing, tennis, chess, there’s a huge psychological element to it. It’s not a skill playing the game, but also getting into the mind of the opponent and the mentality when you’re on the back foot being able to bring yourself back and stay in the present.