Sam Rockwell Interview, Iron Man 2

We recently caught up with Sam Rockwell to talk about his role in the upcoming Iron Man 2. Sam Rockwell plays Justin Hammer Tony Starks competitor and adversary.

MoviesOnline:   Now this is a little bit different than the part you did before, right? 

Sam Rockwell:  Yes, that's right, that’s right. 

MoviesOnline:   We talked a little bit about this at that, at some length. 

Sam Rockwell:  Yes, yes.

MoviesOnline:   And you were very ambiguous about the nature of this character.

Sam Rockwell:  Yes, yes.

MoviesOnline:   How much more can you reveal about him?

Sam Rockwell:  Well, you know, what you guys get from it is basically he's a rival to Tony Stark and he's an arms dealer and, you know, he's in cahoots with a couple of people.  He’s kind of a shyster.

MoviesOnline:   Was it fun for you doing such a big movie, because it’s not normally…?

Sam Rockwell:  Yes, yes, it was fun. It was like the all-stars, you know, which really, that was great.  You really get to work with really great talent, you know, whether it’s Matty [Libatique], our cinematographer, or Jon or the actors Don Cheadle and Robert and everybody. It’s important to get challenged in that way otherwise you're sort of working in a vacuum.  I think, you know, especially with that movie, literally working…

MoviesOnline:   Starring you and you.

Sam Rockwell:  Yes, exactly.  So I think it’s important to go and work with, you know, Ron Howard and all these people and sort of say, 'Okay.' So it’s showing up to the big game. It’s fun.

MoviesOnline:   Iron Man kind of set the template for taking these comic book characters and finding the real perks and floors in humanity.

Sam Rockwell:  Yes.

MoviesOnline:   So where does that come in with your particular character? How is he not just a bad guy? 

Sam Rockwell:   I think he’s actually, essentially he's a fan of Tony’s but he doesn’t get the attention he wants from Tony and so that's where I think it starts to go wrong for Justin a little bit.

MoviesOnline:   What was it like working with Mickey?

Sam Rockwell:  He was great. The first scene that we do in the film, Mickey suggested that we not meet until we shot that scene because our characters meet in the scene.

MoviesOnline:   You'd spoken to him?

Sam Rockwell:  No, never spoken to him.  Jon Favreau relayed this to me and said Mickey doesn’t want to rehearse, he doesn’t want to meet before that first scene.  And after that we did rehearse and work in a more conventional way. But for that first scene where our characters meet, we didn’t meet until right before we started rolling camera.

MoviesOnline:   So you had no idea what way he’d perform the character?

Sam Rockwell:  Had no idea.  I worked out my props and stuff, we didn’t rehearse, I got there a little bit early and worked it out, because I had a lot of dialogue and I had a lot of stuff to deal with.  And the way the scene is is he enters and I'm already there.  So he came in, we shook hands and then they said “action” and we got into it.

MoviesOnline:   And was that a really great way to work?

Sam Rockwell:  It was. It was really exciting, and I think it shows in the scene.  I think you'll see there's an electricity in the scene too, so it was really cool.

MoviesOnline:   I see your character’s dramatic moments, you know, because villains that are just kind of boring…

Sam Rockwell:  Yes.

MoviesOnline:   What did you sink your teeth into as an actor?

Sam Rockwell:  Well, you know, I watched Amadeus, you know, the  Salieri character is similar. It was being developed so I wasn't sure where the character was going, so I watched a lot of actors like Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor and George C Scott in Hustler. I watched Bill Murray in Kingpin. I was trying to get a lot of different things to incorporate.  And I did some research on the guns and learned how to handle the guns and talk about the guns and stuff, and that was really all I had to work on.  I worked on it the way I worked on everything was with an acting coach named Terry Knickerbocker and we worked on it together.  I would get certain scenes and we’d work on it, do some homework and then those scenes would change.

MoviesOnline:   That was really fluid writing…

Sam Rockwell:  Yes.

MoviesOnline:   So would you say your character changed from the first time you saw the script?

Sam Rockwell:  Yes, yes, he did change, he did change.  He's an interesting character. I mean we’ll see how it evolves.

MoviesOnline:   What are the similarities of Justin and Tony Stark?

Sam Rockwell:  They're similar. I think that ultimately Justin is probably more insecure and so that might be his downfall. And his ambition may be stronger in a way.  So it’s a trap that Justin might fall into.

MoviesOnline:   What about Justin Theroux as a writer? I mean you guys both played Charlie’s Angels villains?

Sam Rockwell:  That's right, absolutely.  Justin’s amazing. He did a great job.  He was the sole writer on the piece and he’s great. He wrote a great character.  And the character that he played in The Baxter’s similar to Justin too, so it’s a little bit of that.  So, absolutely. I mean Justin and I are old friends. We met at a theatre festival in Williamstown, so he was able to help me a lot. 

MoviesOnline:   How did you find your groove with Robert Downey Jr?

Sam Rockwell:  We had a great time, you know?  It was like we were gunslingers. The first day of shooting it was like we were trying to see who was faster. It was fun.

MoviesOnline:   How did he surprise you? 

Sam Rockwell:  He’s very quick.  He’s very quick, he's vassal and so we were ad-libbing. It was a fun first day. It was very challenging and exciting. 

MoviesOnline:   Is this a character that exists in the comic books? Did you have that material to research?

Sam Rockwell:  Yes, I looked at some of the comic books, but the character in the comic books is much different, so we were trying to find another way to tell the story and they wanted the guy to be more of a contemporary.

MoviesOnline:   But why did they think it was important to keep with the character's name?

Sam Rockwell:  Well because you don't want to disappoint the fans but you want to sort of reinvent it and give your own interpretation of the character, so that's what's fun about it.

MoviesOnline:   He’s in his '70s in the comic, right?

Sam Rockwell:  Yes, he’s like older. He’s like British or something, yes.  But that's what's fun about playing like, you know, if you see like five Hamlets,  if you want to see Ralph Fiennes do Hamlet, you'll see Jude Law... You want to see Richard Burton play Hamlet. You want to see them all do their own interpretation of something.  So that's what's fun. But Cheadle, too, it’s a fun thing to watch.

MoviesOnline:   Don was telling us that Favreau was a real actor's director. What did he bring to you? 

Sam Rockwell:  Well Jon and I worked together before and Jon’s really great because he's very much about being truthful in these imaginary circumstances so that it’s not just a bunch of sci-fi nonsense. He really wants to, when we talk about the scenes he’d be like, 'So how would you really react in this circumstance?'  So that's kind of how it evolves. It’s like, 'What's the truth of this event?'  And that's a very actor-friendly way to work because we’re just trying to be truthful and real.

MoviesOnline:   How did you really react when you saw Mickey?

Sam Rockwell:  Oh man, it was great. He’s just like, he's amazing.  So it’s like he gives you everything. He gives you the whole performance. 

MoviesOnline:   Do you want to go back and do something smaller now that you've…?

Sam Rockwell:  Yes, I might. I might do something, I'm not sure.  I don't know what I'm doing. I might do a play. I don't know.

MoviesOnline:   How surprised are you by the response to Moon which it has been getting all this time?

Sam Rockwell:   It’s really cool. I didn’t know if it would be around after two weeks.  It’s impressive. I'm really thrilled by it.

MoviesOnline:   How surprised were you by the reaction to G-Force this weekend? 

Sam Rockwell:  Not as surprised. 

MoviesOnline:   Have you got any feedback from it yet?

Sam Rockwell:  The people seem to be enjoying it. You know, it’s a family movie and people are going to see it.