Sam Rockwell on Conviction, 'Sam Rockwell Movies' and Being Piloted Around by Han Solo

Kenny isn't around any longer, what did you use to try to get to know this guy?

I was given audio tapes of him talking with his lawyer. Betty Anne told us countless stories. I filmed her, I taped her. A lot of source material [came] from all of the relatives telling me stories about him. And doing impersonations of him. I think Hillary had more of a responsibility because Betty Anne is around and she felt more of a responsibility to get Betty Anne's cadence and everything.

I was familiar with this story but didn't know it that well before seeing the film. When the film ended, I was feeling pretty good. But then I read the production notes about Kenny dying from a fall only six months after he was set free. It really took the wind out of me. What's your opinion, should that have been in the movie?

You know, I was on the fence about it. Tony screened it a few times like that with it in the roll credits that he had passed away. And, as you said, it's a gut punch. And I think what happens is that people love the movie and they hear that and it becomes something else. It's not what the movie is about. And I think it was a very tough decision for Tony to make. Ultimately, the movie is about this love story between these two people, and it's about his freedom. It was an important decision. I tend to think the movie is about his freedom, so it takes away in an odd way. It makes you upset and kind of angry. What are you going to do? He was an unlucky guy. But the last six months of his life was probably the happiest of his life. He was on Oprah, he had movie deals coming in, he was the toast of the town.

And I don't know why, but father-daughter reunion scenes get me every time.

Yeah! That scene is effective, isn't it? I know, they get me, too. Steve Zahn has one in Riding in Cars with Boys where he says goodbye to his son, the champ. They kill you, those scenes.

In the film, Kenny almost lost me for a minute when he found out he might be released. Even so, that's no reason to disrupt the other prisoner's pick-up basketball games.

Yeah, that was fun. We had these slippers in prison. We had these slippers on and you can't really run hard or run around in these slippers. Little Kung-Fu slippers, it's not like running around in track shoes.

Did that hurt?

Yeah, after awhile. I did it like 15 times so, you know, it wears on your legs.

You've been in so many movies. What do you still look back on as something that, to this day, you're the most proud of?

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind_, Snow Angels, Moon -- those come to mind. I love Safe Men, I think that's a gem.

You just wrapped Cowboys and Aliens. What's your favorite Harrison Ford story?

He's a funny guy, man, he's a funny cat. He's fun to hang out with. You know, he's a bad ass mo fo. He knows how to fly planes and he has his own f*cking airline. If you have more than six planes you're officially an airline. And he has a helicopter and he flew us in his helicopter. He's a great pilot. He's calm as a cucumber. It's amazing, it's Han Solo flying you around over the valleys of Sante Fe. He's awesome. He's Indiana Jones, man, he's bad ass.

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