Is Your Friends and Neighbors a True Story? Is Andrew Cooper Based on a Real Hedge Fund Manager?

Apple TV+’s ‘Your Friends and Neighbors’ is a crime drama series that follows a hedge fund guy whose life suddenly takes a turn for the worse when he is fired from his job. Jon Hamm plays the role of Andrew Cooper, whose personal life is in shambles since the divorce from Mel, his wife of 18 years. He has already lost the house to her and lives in a rental. Still, he has his job, and that’s enough until it’s not there anymore. With no money and no prospects, he turns to stealing from his neighbors in an affluent New York neighborhood. Created by Jonathan Tropper, the series presents a realistic picture of a man’s downfall as his crimes turn into a bigger deal than he had expected.

A Real Neighborhood Inspired Your Friends and Neighbors

‘Your Friends and Neighbors’ is an entirely fictional story created by Jonathan Tropper. He came up with the idea from his own experience of living in a similar affluent neighborhood. He revealed that he lived in New York’s Westchester County for many years, and during this time, he paid a lot of attention to the rich people around him. With the money they made and the way they spent it, he started to wonder how sustainable such a lifestyle would be for a person. This led him to wonder what was really going on behind closed doors in those huge mansions and what would happen if, someday, one of these people were stripped of the wealth and power they hold dear more than anything else.

The story started with a character falling into hard times, but the more Tropper wrote it, the more the story gained meaning in the context of the status symbol. Wealth, its presence or absence, became an important precursor in the story, and through Andrew Cooper, the writer explored the nature of impermanence in all these things. He wanted to underline the very real possibility of someone like Cooper losing everything in one stroke of luck and how this impacts the way they see themselves, their lives, and their dreams. He particularly wanted to focus on Cooper’s frustration and increasing repulsion towards a system and a lifestyle that he, too, followed not long ago.

While Tropper had the core of the story, he needed more information on the technical aspects to make the whole thing feel as realistic as possible. His outsider’s perspective from his wealthy neighbors allowed him to understand what the changed world would look like for Cooper, but that wasn’t enough. He brought in hedge fund managers, some of whom were his friends, into the writer’s room to help understand Cooper’s job, what it entails, how it affects him, and most importantly, how it plays into his future. Art consultants and luxury consultants, to name a few, were also brought on board so that the writer and the directors had a clear idea of who Cooper’s neighbors were, what kind of things they’d have in their houses, and most importantly, what Cooper would steal from them.

Jon Hamm Was the Only Choice for Playing Fictional Andrew Cooper

Even before Jonathan Tropper sat down to write ‘Your Friends and Neighbors,’ he knew that Jon Hamm was the only actor who could take on the role of Andrew Cooper with the humor, nuance, and depth it required. So, the first thing he did was to secure a meeting with Hamm and pitch the series idea to him. If Hamm didn’t agree to it, the story would not go forward. Luckily, the actor loved the story, and with his approval, Tropper worked on the pilot script and presented it to him shortly after their first meeting. The creator of the show revealed that Hamm’s everyman quality and the ability to effectively inculcate humor into the story was one of the major reasons why he wanted him on board. He also wanted Andrew to be played by someone who garners sympathy from the audience despite his actions, and Hamm seems to bring that quality to all his roles.

Meanwhile, the ‘Mad Men’ actor saw the story as entertaining, which also gave the audience a lot to think about. He got involved with Tropper in crafting the monologue for Cooper. The writer wanted it to be something like the noir movies of the ’60s. He wanted Cooper to come across as a detached character who has become indifferent towards his own story, whose end he already knows. Still, he didn’t want the voiceover to become a crutch that is used to fill gaps in the narrative. This is where Hamm came in. He worked up the right tone for the voiceover so that this omniscient narrator feels separate from the subject. He brought it close to Tropper’s vision while adding his own signature to it.

While playing Cooper, Hamm didn’t look towards any particular person for inspiration. Once he understood the core of the character, he didn’t need to compare him with anyone else. The premise lands Cooper in a situation where, after working tirelessly to achieve the goal of amassing wealth, he is cheated out of the system and must now truly reflect upon the things that he wants and the things he cannot live without. While crime becomes an important part of his story, it is the self-reflection and the exploration of his own fallacies and desires that lead him on a different path entirely. At the end of the day, the intent was never to judge the character for his choices or present them in a certain light but to humanize him for it.