Sam Rockwell: The Movieline Interview

I was fascinated to hear you talking at this film's press conference that you don't own a computer. How does that affect your preparation for a role?

I could definitely use the benefit of a computer for research. For Frost/Nixon I really could have used some of that. But I read, and I watched the news, and I went to D.C., listened to all the tapes and stuff. But maybe it's good because my character was existing in the '70s. I'm thinking about getting one, but I've resisted the urge so far. It's might be too much for me to handle right now. There's a lot on my plate.

What's too much?

Well, just to learn a whole new vocabulary for something. I have a way of doing things, and I don't have any interest in it for some reason. The only thing is that I would like to check out some odds and ends -- research-type things. Dustin Hoffman on Dick Cavett, that sort of thing. Other than that? I don't really want to have e-mail. I already text too much. It's just annoying. I annoy myself with the texting. I annoy my girlfriend. It's just arbitrary horseshit; it doesn't really mean anything. It's not like I'm doing any important texts. Some of them, maybe. It becomes a nuisance, though it is a good way to communicate quickly. But then it's then a bunch of mundane things you don't need to be doing.

It's as though the computer is the point of no return.

Yeah, you're on the path, and then you're done. I don't know if I want to step into that world. I'd love to have access to information, but the e-mail thing I'm not interested in.

Do you think that philosophy informed your character's relationship with technology in Moon?

It's possible. My relationship with technology and robots comes from all the science-fiction movies that I've seen. That is a very grass-roots sort of guy; a very blue-collar guy. But I played a computer genius in Charlie's Angels. I don't know. At some point I'm going to have to pick it up.

How much did you want to know about the character in Tornatore's original movie before going into this film?

I watched it once, and that was enough. It was good to watch it and see what the spine of this film is and what they had in mind for it. It's a wonderful film, but I wanted to do something different with the character. I thought the character was written differently; I was interested in doing something less benign with him, something more aggressive internally, like a Five Easy Pieces kind of character. I wanted the guy to have a little more angst in him. I met up with some percussionists, took a couple of lessons. I worked on it from a point of view of not being enough -- not being enough to please your parents, but at the same time being sort of content with what you have. I think he's an interesting character. He's kind of a slacker, you know?

That said, he's also the only one of Frank's kids who challenges him. Why do you think that is?

I think maybe it's a combination of things that lead up to that moment. Maybe it's because the other brother got a lot of attention, and I think he's just kind of done with it, for whatever reason. He just decides to let it out. The girls aren't doing that. He's got a little more angst in him, and I think that's what makes him different from the original character. The character in the original movie is kind of soft and doughy; this guy has a little more rage and anger in him about his situation. He doesn't feel like he was dealt a good hand by his dad.

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.

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