Sam Rockwell on his body of work and working with DeNiro

December 10, 2009 by Lance Carter

(Sam Rockwell is starring in the new film, Everybodys Fine with Robert DeNiro)

How did this movie affect your recollections of that time, or even your relationship with your parents today?
Mine’s different. I don’t keep secrets from my parents, really; it’s pretty open. Especially with my father. I had to use a leap of imagination and faith with this one. But it was just fun working with Robert De Niro, because he’s such a hero of mine.

What was your first meeting like?
It was great. I just went and met with him. He needed to meet me, had to have approval of the cast. He didn’t know me very well; he’d seen a movie I’d done or something. We met basically so Bob could make sure I wasn’t an asshole, and I was cast. But it was very easy working with him. It was very simple.

When you’re working with an actor like De Niro, who is so influential to so many people, it there necessarily a sort of father-son dynamic that is established?
There is a generation gap there. He’s about the same age as my father. Anyway, Bob keeps to himself. He’s very friendly, very affable. I got the impression that he liked me; I certainly liked him. It seemed like we were getting along. I think he’s very quiet, he’s on his phone a little bit, then he shows up and we do a take. I asked him a few questions about The Deer Hunter and stuff.

everybodys-fine-poster Like what?
I think I asked him about the Russian roulette scene, and he talked about… I think there were some sketchy moments hanging from a helicopter and stuff like that. I don’t know if I got to the bottom of what I wanted to get out of him; I was really interested in the acting in the Russian roulette scene. It was so intense. I just wanted to know a little bit about their preparation for that. In between takes we had these little conversations that were interrupted, and then you’ve got to go and do something else.

To what degree is a film set like a family?
It’s sort of a false sense of family. That is, if you spend a lot of time. On this one I was visiting a lot; I was very much a guest on the set. When you work more intensely, it becomes a family for sure. It was a very nice atmosphere on this set; it was very easy. It reminded me of Matchstick Men or something. There were no hot tempers, there was no stress. They had enough money on this film that they could do 10 or 12 takes. A lot of time you’re on a $3 million or $5 million movie, and you get three or four takes or something. You’re working on a four- or five-week schedule, and there’s a lot of tension. This was a nice, medium-sized movie. It wasn’t too luxurious, and it wasn’t poverty-stricken either. It was a nice, mellow set — just enough to make a decent movie. It’s hard to make a good movie in four weeks. It’s hard. I’ve done it, but it’s not easy. It’s the exception to the rule.

Your first role was 20 years ago [in Clownhouse]. After two decades of work, do you ever find yourself stopping to reflect or take stock?
You know, I watch a lot of cable, and sometimes I’ll see something on TV and stop and say, “Wow, look at that.” I might watch it for two seconds before I change the channel. But it’s fun to see there’s an accumulation of work and people are still seeing stuff. It’s nice when people you respect notice. John Krasinski told me he loves Safe Men, and that meant a lot to me. Viggo Mortensen dug Galaxy Quest, and I was really flattered by that because I’m such a huge fan of his. I just saw The Road; I thought he was fucking incredible in that. So it is really cool to start looking back, to say, “Wow, The Green Mile’s a pretty good movie! I like that movie.” Some of those movies hang in there and stand the test of time, which is nice. So we’ll see. I’ve gotten really lucky.

Your character in The Green Mile was kind of awful, not unlike a lot of your characters from your best-known early films. How much have you tried to distance yourself from those roles since?
Well, he was awful, but he was fun-awful. He was an outlaw, a cowboy. He was creepy, but he was also kind of a good time. He was a party boy. But yeah, you wanna shake it up. I’ve turned down a lot of bad guys. I’m sort of playing a bad guy in Iron Man 2, but it’s not really a bad guy. I’m not really sure what he is; more like a comic relief. I’ve tried to be careful. You have to. People always want you to do the last thing you’ve done. They don’t think of it in the terms that you think of it. I want to play Hamlet and Iago.