Sam Rockwell began 2009 in Sundance's best one-man show, and he'll end it this week in one of Hollywood's higher-octane holiday ensembles. Everybody's Fine features Rockwell as the son of Frank Poole (Robert De Niro), a retired widower who hits the road to visit his grown children scattered throughout the United States. Among them are his married ad-exec daughter in Chicago (Kate Beckinsale), his youngest girl in Vegas (Drew Barrymore), and his musician son (Rockwell) in Denver. By bus, train and plane, Frank reconnects with his kids in a series of surprise visits that brings every last family secret -- some more dire than others -- around for reckoning. (Director Kirk Jones adapted the story from Giuseppe Tornatore's 1990 film Stanno Tutti Bene.) Talking to Movieline recently in New York, Rockwell discussed his Deer Hunter powwow with De Niro, the do's and dont's of acting in a remake and the diminishing returns of text messaging.
I wanted to start by asking about your own upbringing, which was a bit bohemian in a way. What was your relationship with your parents like, and what kind of support did they offer?
It was a lot of... [pause] fun, but I sort of grew up quickly. My parents were both actors; my dad sort of quite early on. My mother acted for a while, and now she's a painter. So it was eclectic and weird, but now I'm here.
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.
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.
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.