There are few actors that have had the sort of career that Sam Rockwell has had. He blends seamlessly between leading man and character actor; comedy and drama; lovable and despicable.
He’s starred in every type of movie you can make: from B-movie thrillers to indie dramas to Academy Awards powerhouses to action franchises. Simply put, when it comes to being an actor, there’s nothing that Sam Rockwell can’t do.
Such a breadth and depth of career, however, makes him quite the intimidating interview subject, as having to decide which projects to ask about and which ones to ignore means some beloved and iconic films — that’d be at the top of my question list for virtually any other actor — fall by the wayside.
Here are some of Rockwell’s iconic performances that we DIDN’T discuss, for example: The Green Mile, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Matchstick Men, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Frost/Nixon, Moon, Iron Man 2, Cowboys & Aliens (not a ‘good’ movie but probably a fun one to ask about nonetheless), Vice, Jojo Rabbit, and The Bad Guys.
Luckily having a roomy 20 minutes to speak with him, though, we did have enough time to talk about plenty, such as linking up with Gore Verbinski for Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, the growth of AI in Hollywood, connecting to his character in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, realizing Galaxy Quest was a cult classic, and more.
Introductions and working with Gore Verbinski on Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die
ERIC ITALIANO, BROBIBLE: Folks, today I am joined by Academy Award winner Sam Rockwell. Thank you for your time today, Sam. I actually just paused Three Billboards and you just got set on fire.
SAM: Amazing.
ERIC: I’ve interviewed a lot of actors and directors and so on. Your body of work is probably as intimidating as I’ve seen in terms of trying to choose what to talk about.
SAM: That’s nice.
ERIC: But we’re going to start with Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die. I get that this is literally your job, but I’m curious how you get inside this guy’s head, right? Like, I just touched on Three Billboards — a racist cop is something that exists in this world. We know these people. There’s something to draw from.
SAM: Yes, that’s right.
ERIC: We don’t really have any common understanding of a time-travel freedom fighter. So what is that process like for you — getting into the headspace of a character that doesn’t exist in our world?
SAM: That’s a very good question, and I’m not sure how to begin to answer it. But basically, if I’m being honest, I stole from a lot of archetypes and films. You can’t deny what [writer Matthew Robinson] wrote.
Matthew told me there’s a Cary Grant movie he referenced — oddly — where Cary Grant’s… he’s kind of an airplane guy. I’m trying to think. It’s called Angels and something. He’s a pilot. He’s kind of angry about his job. Everybody dies. He told me to watch that.
Obviously Gore and I talked about a lot of things, but I think what happened initially: I came in doing it kind of like a drill sergeant type, then kind of Kurt Russell. And he said, “No, that’s too cool. This guy’s not cool. He’s the bottom of the list. He’s the least qualified for this job. He’s a coward.”
He was referencing Christopher Lloyd in Back to the Future. Then we talked about Robin Williams and The Fisher King. Then there was 12 Monkeys and Time Bandits.
Then I went off and did some work on my own. I have an acting coach. I started pitching my voice a little higher. I started channeling Don Rickles — kind of a misanthrope thing. It got kind of New York-y. And then… I don’t know, it just turned into whatever the hell it is.
ERIC: I’ve never seen a one-man play, but the intro to this guy reminded me — or at least gave me the idea of what that might be like. There’s a lot of talking, a lot of moving: comedy, drama, action. Tell me about days on set where you’ve got to do all this work — what your mindset is going into those days. And how long did that first diner scene take to get right?
SAM: That took about five to six days of shooting. We rehearsed quite a bit, me and Gore. Gore was really smart to physicalize it all. We got some stunt guys involved. I had a weight vest that I was wearing to prep for it.
And then the suit itself was very cumbersome. It was about 40 pounds. I had six dressers, a cooling suit like astronauts have. And then the text itself was really… you know, it was a lot. And then dealing with the different actors in the place.
So it was a lot. It was kind of like — I don’t know if you know Iceman Cometh — Hickey’s entrance in Iceman Cometh. Eugene O’Neill. It’s kind of like that. It’s a very theatrical monologue.
ERIC: Oh — and I looked it up for you. The film is called Only Angels Have Wings.
SAM: That’s right. That’s the one!
ERIC: 100% on Rotten Tomatoes — which is not the end-all be-all, but that says something. Your character’s goal is to install — this is key — *retroactively* install AI guardrails. If you could do that in your line of work, what would those guardrails be?
SAM: Um… in acting—
ERIC: Sure. Guardrails for Hollywood — actors, writers — your general line of work. What guardrails do you feel like you guys need?
SAM: Well… geez, I don’t know. I can’t think of anything. I mean, we’d only shoot good scripts, right? I guess that’s the thing.
Reminiscing on his Academy Award winning role of Officer Jason Dixon in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
ERIC: Three Billboards.
SAM: Yeah
ERIC: A few things about this. As my wife saw me prepare for this, she said, quote: “Dixon is the best character development I’ve ever seen in a film.”
SAM: Wow. Wow.
ERIC: Second, I lost my mom last year, and—
SAM: Oh, I’m sorry.
ERIC: Thank you. My love of film comes from my Mom, and this was one of her all-time favorites. So these questions are for her. What level of empathy do you allow yourself to have for your characters, if at all? And what I mean is: do you have to understand them to embody them?
SAM: Oh yeah, sure. You have to find something in them to be empathetic for. You have to show empathy for your character. That’s the only way to play a character.
ERIC: Do you agree that Dixon was really a good man in his heart?
SAM: I don’t really adhere to good or bad. That’s a childlike way of looking at things. There’s no black and white — there’s gray. Everything’s gray to me. People are complicated.
I don’t believe in good guy, bad guy. That’s not my job — to judge the character like that. I come at it from: this is a human being, and what’s the most honest way to play this human being?
ERIC: When you’re trying to relate to him, what do you grasp onto?
SAM: With Dixon, there would be low self-esteem, trying to fit in, and having nowhere to fit in. That’s the first thing that comes to mind.
ERIC: The film ends specifically this way to avoid this question — but if the film were to go on another hour: what do Dixon and Mildred do?
SAM: I think they go to a bar, get drunk, and make out, probably.
ERIC: That’s a very real potential — like they’re like, “Wait a minute. What are we doing here?”
SAM: I’m not convinced they kill anybody after that. I think maybe they get drunk and go honky-tonking or something. I don’t know.
ERIC: When you think back on the one take of you throwing Caleb Landry Jones out of the window, what’s the first thing that pops in your mind?
SAM: Doug Coleman — the stunt choreographer. Our camera department. We did that in about three takes. It was incredible. That was an incredible day. Half a day. We shot it early.
We rehearsed for a day. The first time I tried to break the window with the stick, it didn’t crack. I hit it in the wrong spot, and it was breakaway. We were like, “Oh, this is going to be a long day.” And then it turned out to be pretty not bad after that. It was great.
And I remember flipping the stick a couple times and catching it — and the guys liked that.
ERIC: You like doing that — the flip and catch. You do that a few times in this film as well.
SAM: Did I? Yeah. I like stuff like that. Hand-eye coordination… I mean, it’s a redemption story, I suppose — and so is this one. Redemption stories require anti-heroes, or even bad people sometimes. Like Dead Man Walking is a redemption story.
His scene-stealing role in the 1999 cult classic sci-fi comedy film Galaxy Quest
ERIC: So, that was my mom’s taste. My dad’s tastes are a bit different: Galaxy Quest.
SAM: Oh, yeah.
ERIC: This is an all-timer for him because he was a Star Trek kid growing up. This is undeniably a cult film now — but at what stage did you realize the legacy this film would have? Because I imagine shooting it there might’ve been a bit of ‘Is this going to work? This Star Trek send-up, blah blah blah.’ At what stage did you realize: ‘Wow, people are going to remember this in a vacuum — with nothing to do with Star Trek — just how great this singular film is?’
SAM: It didn’t really occur to us until the screening at the Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. I thought it was an amazing screening, and it did very well. But it became more of a cult classic later on.
It wasn’t initially like Ghostbusters or something. But it caught on, and now it’s this cult classic. They gave us this documentary, Trekkies, to watch for it — that was my research. And yeah, I almost didn’t do it. I turned it down. I was going to do a lead in an independent film.
ERIC: You steal that film, so it’s a good thing you did it.
SAM: Thanks, man. That’s a great cast.
ERIC: Me and my dad could crack up for hours on the ‘Oh, that’s not right!’ line. Were you basing your character — I know you said you watched Trekkies, but that’s fan culture — what archetypes and stereotypes were you pulling from?
SAM: I pulled from Bill Paxton in Aliens. And then Michael Keaton in Night Shift. Those two performances were very much in my index for that.
ERIC: There’s no inkling of an MCU spoof, right? Do you think something like this could even get made today — not even released in theaters, but with a huge cast and so on? What’s gone wrong here? Why aren’t there more of these films?
SAM: What did you say — MCU spoof? What did you mean?
ERIC: MCU — the Marvel films. There’s no sort of takedown of the current monoculture, whereas that was a very specific riff on those times. Is Hollywood too self-conscious to make fun of itself now?
SAM: Did they try to do one of those? Like a Scary Movie thing with superheros?
ERIC: They did, but this was way smarter. This was on a different plane than—
SAM: I think there’s definitely room for that. The closest thing would be the animated film The Incredibles… or The Boys. The Boys has tried to do that, but it’s still sort of serious. I think The Boys was onto something. And if anybody can do it, it’s the Guardians of the Galaxy guy — James Gunn.
Rumors that he was on a “shortlist” to be cast as Brainiac in James Gunn’s Superman sequel Man of Tomorrow
ERIC: I wasn’t going to do this to you, but you led me into it — your name was one of three that came up attached to play the bad guy in the next Superman film. That’s since been cast — was there any truth to that at all?
SAM: Who did they cast?
ERIC: They cast a Danish actor.
SAM: That’s bulls— I’m calling my agent.
ERIC: So that was true? Was not true?
SAM: No, I never heard that. But that’s cool.
Wrapping his head around just how popular his viral monologue from The White Lotus is
ERIC: Oh, sorry, man. Missed out. I want to ask you about White Lotus. Given the size of the show and the network, it’s very realistic that the monologue is what you’re known for most across the world. How does that feel?
SAM: If you like that monologue, check out the monologues in Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die!
ERIC: That’s what I’m saying — that first part is very much the Sam show. I could see why they needed someone like you.
SAM: Thanks. Yeah. The White Lotus thing really hit bigger than you’d imagine. Everybody watches that show.
ERIC: You were probably just like, ‘I thought I’d just do a quick thing for my wife, no big deal.’ And now it follows you around like a shadow.
SAM: It’s definitely prolific. It broke the internet.
ERIC: More than what you’re saying is the look on your face — like this guy just got back from war — that sold the whole thing for me. And you’re quite good at tonal clashes — probably why McDonagh likes to work with you so much — because what he’s saying is equal parts disturbing and also the funniest thing you’ve ever heard.
SAM: Yes. Very much so.
ERIC: That’s a tightrope to walk.
SAM: It is. It took some doing. It took some thought.
ERIC: You’re not bad, Sam. You might have a future in this.
SAM: Hey, thanks, man. I appreciate it.
Which of his characters would be the best and the worst to get a beer with?
ERIC: I’m assuming like most people — and if I’m wrong, I’m sorry — that you’ve seen One Battle After Another.
SAM: Yes, I have. I love it.
ERIC: Ever since seeing Benicio del Toro do his “few small beers,” line, I’ve started to ask this: if you could pick one of your characters that would be the worst to get a beer with, and one that would be the best — which two would that be?
SAM: *laughing* That’s a good question… Worst would be the guy from Snow Angels. And Dixon — not a good person to drink with.
ERIC: No, no, no. That’s a dark, long night.
SAM: Yeah. Although Dixon does get the evidence when he’s a little tanked. Best person… geez, I don’t know. What do you think?
ERIC: If he’s not trying to blow up the world, the guy you play in Charlie’s Angels seemed like a cool guy.
SAM: Yeah, he’s a fun guy. What the hell. Good kisser.
ERIC: Yeah. Or the Iron Man 2 guy — get him a little drunk, be like, ‘Can I get uhhh….?’
SAM: A few small ones! Definitely. Justin Hammer could hang at a bar.
Teasing his role in Martin McDonagh’s newest film Wild Horse Nine, in which he and Parker Posey play a married couple
ERIC: We’ll end here: what, if anything, can you tell me about Wild Horse Nine?
SAM: It’s got some political stuff — Chile, Pinochet. It’s also just a buddy movie between these two guys — me and John Malkovich. Steve Buscemi’s in it. Parker Posey. Amazing Chilean actresses… [Me and Posey] shot that after White Lotus, we play husband and wife in Wild Horse Nine.
ERIC: And that’s done, right?
SAM: Yeah. That’s ready to go.
ERIC: I have a feeling they might wait till fall. Probably see you back on stage at the Oscars in, what, 14 months?
SAM: We’ll see what shakes.
ERIC: Bam. Like I said at the top — and I meant it — I was like, “Oh f—, that’s right, he’s in Green Mile, and oh s—, he’s in Matchstick Men!” Man, you’ve been producing work that I love my whole life. It was an honor to talk to you today.
SAM: Thank you so much.
ERIC: Of course, man. Your new film rocks. You carry the whole ship, as you always do. Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die in theaters on February 13. Go see it. Cheers, dude.
SAM: Thank you so much, man. You’re awesome.