Cooper is breaking the fourth wall!
Keeping with Private Practice's ambitiously quirky episodes in its final season, in Tuesday's Cooper-centric outing, the doc will actually address the viewers at home as he shares his fears and excitement about Charlotte's impending pregnancy.
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"It's direct address," Paul Adelstein tells TVGuide.com. "I'm talking to the camera almost the whole time. It was a challenge for sure because I had to make sure that it wasn't general, that I knew who I was talking to and all that actor stuff. I think it's going to be a bit of a shock to the audience at first."
In the episode, Cooper is beyond excited for the babies to arrive and will try to get Charlotte (KaDee Strickland) to stop being in denial over her pregnancy. "I think when Cooper imagined himself as a father and as a husband, I don't think in his wildest dreams he would've thought it would've been somebody like Charlotte King, which I love because I think it's very romantic and very true to life," Adelstein says.
"As excited as he is about the babies, he, rightly or wrongly, is nervous that she's not as excited as he," Adelstein continues. "He obviously has his reservations and it's terrifying and all that, but I think he's putting a lot of his anxiety onto Charlotte's reticence. She's much more able to express her misgivings, maybe not in the gentlest way. He spends a lot of that episode trying to almost get her on board in a way that he wants that's going to comfort him. Whether that's fair or not is open to debate. It affects their relationship. He's all up in her business and she resents it."
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As Cooper tries to show Charlotte the positive side of the pregnancy, a few "curve balls" will be thrown their way, says Adelstein. "There's an emergency situation, which is not uncommon," he says. "Multiples is a very high risk pregnancy. There's some distress for the babies and for Charlotte." Eagle-eyed viewers might be able to figure out the outcome based on this promo.
Check out two sneak peeks from Tuesday's episode below:
Private Practice airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on ABC.
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