Making Sam Rockwell Talk About (Almost) Every Film He's Ever Done

In fact, I got a twitch in my chin from that part

because I kept talking like this all the time, you know?

And then as soon as I stopped the part

it went away, you know?

It was just this muscle in my chin, you know?

'Cause you're talking like that.

[slow music]

Hey GQ, I'm Sam Rockwell

and today I'm gonna answer one question

about almost every movie I've ever done.

[board clapping]

Good luck.

[upbeat music]

[Interviewer] Charlie's Angels.

Charlie's Angels, yeah.

[Interviewer] One of my favorite movies ever.

That Simon Says sequence.

[upbeat music]

Was that choreographed or did you just go for it?

That was second unit, you know?

So, second unit can be very liberating

'cause the director's not there.

It's a small crew and I think we just around

and played some James Brown and I smoked a cigarette

and did the splits and I think I asked them

to put something slippery on the floor

so I could slide like that.

Like James Brown and stuff, yeah it was fun.

[Interviewer] Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

[Sam] Yes.

[Interviewer] What's the tone like on set

when you're trying to make this tragic story funny?

I find with a lot of dark material

you actually have to keep it somewhat light

because it is so intense

that you have to have moments of levity

to kind of break it up.

It helps to have Woody Harrelson on set.

Francis sort of wanted to keep away from the cops

and kinda keep her distance a little bit.

[Interviewer] Why do you like working with

Martin McDonagh so much?

Well, to be a great director I think

with actors anyway, you have to have empathy and compassion

and Martin's got that.

He's just a nice person, you know?

And so he really, he cares,

and he cares about acting and he loves actors, you know?

He's married to an actor.

[Interviewer] The White Lotus.

[Interviewer] The White Lotus, yeah. Yeah.

Everyone watches fucking White Lotus, everybody.

So, everyone calls, and I was in Easter Island

when the show aired, you know?

[Interviewer] First impression the first time

you read that monologue?

Well, I was prepped by Leslie and Walt.

They told me it was really something

and then I was sort of blown away by it

and then I wanted to do it.

I was worried I wouldn't have enough time to prepare.

I talked to Mike and pitched him some things

for the other part of the shows, you know?

And he was very cool about it.

Sex is a poetic act.

It's a metaphor, metaphor for what?

Are we our forms?

Am I a middle aged white guy on the inside too?

Or inside could I be an Asian girl?

Woody Harrelson dropped out of it.

He was gonna do it, so, yeah I jumped in, yeah.

[Interviewer] What was the most surprising

phone call you got?

I mean, the text from Sean Penn was kind of,

kind of wild, you know?

I always think he's like in,

fixing things in Haiti and reading Proust

or like, you know, after Hurricane Katrina

going to New Orleans and stuff

so I didn't think he was on Sunday nights

watching The White Lotus but I guess his girlfriend

watches it, so...

[Interviewer] Did you see that coming?

No, I did not.

I did not.

Not like that.

[Interviewer] Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die.

You seem to gravitate towards playing

an irreverent antihero.

Yes, I do.

[Interviewer] Why do you think that is?

I don't know.

I grew up on those movies in the '70s, you know?

Jack Nicholson and Last Detail,

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, stuff like that

and I am a weirdo and I think I'm likable.

You know what I mean?

I, I think I'm essentially like a nice guy, you know?

My experience is that everyone on the planet earth

has rage, has sorrow, has sadness,

has great joy sometimes

and you know, it's like everyone experiences these things

and it's just our job to kinda

exploit those feelings, you know?

[Interviewer] And you're doing all that

in this like giant suit.

[Sam] Yeah.

[Interviewer] With all these like bits and bobs

hanging off.

Yeah, Gore.

The suit was a nightmare, a nightmare

but I didn't know that it was gonna be like that.

He showed me some drawings.

I thought it was gonna be lighter.

It was very heavy.

I think 40 pounds.

I had six dressers.

I had a cooling suit

like astronauts have to cool it off.

Battery pack, in camera effect

so the lights would like light up

because of this battery and the battery overheated one time.

So, it was not great.

You know, Gore would say,

can you run faster?

I'd be like, you get in this fucking thing.

You run faster.

[Interviewer] Fosse/Verdon.

Yes, Fosse/Verdon yeah.

[Interviewer] How did it go

training for dance formally

after years of dancing on screen?

Well, my dancing is just screwing around, you know?

I'm not a dancer.

Those dancers, wow.

You know, they know how to dance.

So, there was a woman named Marianne Lamb

who taught me the vocabulary

and the first thing she says is,

I don't break so if you need a break you gotta tell me

and I couldn't keep up with her.

She's probably a good 10 years older than I am

and she's fit as a fiddle

and I couldn't keep up with her.

Sweating profusely.

The weight loss was very intense for 8 months

and then staying at that weight

and you know, knowing the difference,

what a line is, you know?

To really have a line in your dancing is really,

all that stuff is educational, yeah.

[Interviewer] Jojo Rabbit.

Yeah, Jojo Rabbit.

[Interviewer] How would you describe

Taika Waititi's process?

Oh my god.

There were times you know when you call Martini,

you know Martini's the last shot?

They would actually bring him a Martini.

Well, he was playing Hitler.

He was getting frustrated, they were losing the light

and he started yelling at the crew

and he realized he was in the Hitler outfit

and it didn't, it wasn't a good look.

[Sam laughing]

Yelling in the Hitler outfit

but I was playing a gay Nazi

who's sort of in the closet

and is disillusioned with being a Nazi

and wants to come out of the closet I think

and that was the subtext.

I don't know if that came across

but that's what that character was all about.

So, a little about me.

Who am I and why am I here

talking to a bunch of little tittie grabbers

instead of leading my men into battle

to it's glorious death?

Great question.

I've asked it myself everyday

since Operation Screwup where I lost a perfectly good eye

in a totally preventable enemy attack.

I had this eye that was like white, you know?

And it was really, it was really intense.

We had to get somebody to put the contacts in

and this poor guy came over

and I was sitting in the chair

and the guy was going like this, you know?

And I was like, okay wait a minute,

let's take a little break

and then we went and took a break

and then we came back and he was like, like this,

and I was like all right, maybe we should

take another break and then we ended up

getting this girl who did it

and she was very calm and she did it.

[Interviewer] The Bad Guys.

The Bad Guys.

[Interviewer] How do you approach a voice acting role?

Occasionally on the animation stuff

I will go to my acting coach

but usually it's such a strange process.

It goes over like two years.

You don't really have,

it doesn't really work like that.

It kinda, you kinda have to go in and just be open.

Watch the latest cut.

It is awkward 'cause you're in this little bubble

and you're trying to like get energy going.

You gotta like kinda you know, pump it up.

Sometimes you jump around you know

and get out of breath.

I mean, Zazie and I had like a fight scene to do

where we're sparring so we had to like

get out of breath and kinda, you know, fight.

It's always helpful to be in the room

with the other actors.

I have a friend of mine Mike Godaire.

Michael will read with me sometimes

and Zazie Beetz who's also in Good Luck, Have Fun

is in Bad Guys.

It's funny, Zazie, it's full circle for me and Zazie.

[Interviewer] Seven Psychopaths.

What kind of research do you do

when you're preparing to play a psychopath?

Martin McDonagh and I talked about,

a lot about a lot of Scorsese stuff

but I did, I did actually read this book,

what the difference between a sociopath

and a psychopath is but I also sent in to a therapist

and you know, worked on it with my acting coach.

[Interviewer] If you were to give an actor advice.

Yeah.

[Interviewer] Of like one thing they can do...

Yeah.

[Interviewer] If they're playing a psychopath,

what would you tell them?

Oh wow.

Don't overdo it.

Alan Rickman told me for Charlie's Angels

keep it simple.

He said, you know Sam, I killed someone

and then I ate a sandwich, you know?

So, he's like, he was really emphasizing keep it simple.

[Interviewer] The Green Mile.

I was very nervous.

One of my first studio movies, yeah.

[Interviewer] How was it spitting on Tom Hanks?

You know, he was really cool.

He just kinda let me freak out.

He was really like, he was digging my

kind of like stand up comedy.

[Interviewer] Did you really spit on him?

You know I did and then I think I,

also we had this like turkey baster

of like chocolate moonpie sludge

that I think we spit.

But, that was David Morris,

I spit on Tom Hanks just regular spit, yeah.

Stanislavski says, concentration and relaxation

are the most important things about acting.

I think with a character like that

you really have to be free.

You know, you can't be hemmed in

and I think Frank Darabont was really great about

letting me be free and not be hemmed in

so I would improvise maybe a little more

than some of the actors.

I had a little more liberty

'cause the guy's you know, crazy.

[Interviewer] Vice.

Vice, oh boy, yeah.

[Interviewer] What's the research process?

Yeah.

[Interviewer] Especially when

you're playing a real person...

Yeah.

[Interviewer] Who's so familiar to us.

It's a lot of pressure because you,

he's so famous, you know?

It's like playing Elvis Presley

or Michael Jackson or something.

It's like, everybody's got an opinion

about how he talks, you know?

So listen, I got a lack of experience problem

in the polls and you are one of the most

experienced guys around.

You wanna jump on board, be my vice?

In fact, I got a twitch in my chin from that part

because I kept talking like this all the time, you know?

And it would put this,

I just was overusing this muscle

but I was going crazy 'cause this twitch wouldn't go away

and I thought, am I exhausted?

Do I need more magnesium?

And then as soon as I stopped

the part it went away, you know?

It was just this muscle in my chin, you know?

'Cause you're talking like that.

There was an interview on Jimmy Kimmel he did

that I listened and watched quite a bit.

His audio book.

I even tried to run, he had an 8 point something mile

he jogged.

He did it when he was 40

and I tried to do it on the treadmill

I could barely do it.

I mean I guess he was fit

or maybe he claimed he was fit.

I think he was pretty fit.

[Interviewer] Were you surprised when Adam McKay

asked you to play?

Yeah, it was crazy.

I met him down at a hotel

and I said, you know I'm incredibly arrogant

and also completely terrified about the prospect

of playing this part.

You know, like I really think I can do it

but I'm also, it terrifies me.

I think he saw that I looked enough like him

with the help of some prosthetics

and that I had a vibe that would compliment Bale, you know?

And we were about the same age and it would work.

[Interviewer] Moon.

Yes, Moon, oh boy.

[Interviewer] How do you prepare

to play opposite yourself?

You have to have a huge ego is the first thing.

That trick is really fun

because you can be your own director

and you can have control over the scene

'cause you're playing both parts

so you kind of have control of how

the scenes are gonna go.

That's a trick I've seen done well a couple of times

but the time that I really remember

was Jeremy Irons in Dead Ringers yeah.

So, I watched that quite a bit.

And I watched Midnight Cowboy.

I was stealing his sickness

so my clone gets sick

and I kinda stole Ratso's, kind of whatever that was,

tuberculosis or whatever the hell it was.

[Interviewer] Were you really by yourself the whole time?

Yeah, pretty much, yeah.

Yeah.

[Interviewer] Was Spacey on set with you as the robot?

Uh no, no, no.

[Interviewer] Really?

Script supervisor, yeah.

[Interviewer] Wow.

Iron Man 2.

Yes, fun.

[Interviewer] There's a rumor

that you were initially in talks to play Iron Man

instead of Robert Downey Jr.

Oh yeah, well there was a phone call

and they said, would you be interested?

I said, yeah yeah, it was Jon, I knew Jon

and I knew Pete Billingsley and they called me

and that was the last I heard.

Then next thing I know Robert Downey got it.

[Interviewer] But, then they called you again.

Then they called me again

because I knew Justin Theroux

and Justin Theroux was a very good friend of mine.

When Justin got the job to write it

'cause he'd done Tropic Thunder

I said, hey put me in the movie.

Make me one of the bad guys or something

and he was like, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think him and Favreau came up with the plan

of instead of one villain,

splitting it into two villains

with me and Mickey.

[Interviewer] Are you gonna come back to the MCU?

I would love to.

I mean, I've now worked with Chris Hemsworth.

I know Scarlett, I know Ruffalo.

I would love to do something,

like something silly,

like you know what Ruffalo did with Chris Hemsworth

in the Thor movie, Ragnarok.

[Interviewer] The Way Way Back.

Oh man, I love that movie.

[Interviewer] Me too.

Yeah, that's a fun movie.

[Interviewer] What was the best and worst part

of going to work at a real operating water park everyday?

Well, we were ad libbing and it was a functioning park

so there were real kids there, real parents,

and real camp counselors so to speak,

so you know sometimes the ad libs

would get a little rated R

and one of the people who worked there

got very upset.

Doug, can you please report

to the administrative office international?

I have to announce this over the PA

as my voice won't carry that far.

My throat suffered major damage

during a test makeout session with Louis's mom.

She has a forked tongue and a touch of the herpes.

We got her wrath and understandably

and we had to apologize and tone down

some of our ad libs.

I mean, that's essentially Bill Murray in Meatballs.

You know, that's the character.

[Interviewer] Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

How did you film those second head scenes?

The second head scenes was really tricky.

A lot of green screen, prosthetics.

A mixture of prosthetics and CGI, not fun really.

It's all that kind of stuff

that Jim Carrey and Eddie Murphy do really well

and Jerry Lewis, it's like multiple personality...

[Interviewer] Yeah.

Kinda thing.

Those puppets were phenomenal.

The sets were incredible.

Animatronics and it was just,

I worked with John Malkovich on that actually.

We have a scene together.

That was the first time I got to know John.

[Interviewer] Galaxy Quest.

Galaxy Quest.

Who doesn't love that fucking movie, right?

[Interviewer] How many times

did you have to do that scream?

[Sam screaming]

That was probably a lot, yeah.

But the one that really got me

was my freak out on the space ship.

My anxiety attack, my panic attack on the,

on the space ship coming down.

[Interviewer] Yeah.

And not breathe, fear that I was gonna

run out of oxygen.

That was a scary one.

[Interviewer] In that screaming scene

you're scared of like the CGI aliens.

How do you get that scared of something

that's not really in front of you?

You know, you have to really use your imagination

and again, you have to treat it like a drama.

It's not a comedy, you know?

I watched Bill Paxton in Aliens for that.

Yeah, Michael Keaton in Night Shift

and it took a lot out of me

'cause I had a lot of caffeine.

So, I couldn't sleep that night.

It was really, it was a lot.

I don't know if I have the energy

for that kind of stuff now.

I mean, I'd have to really,

that's a lot of mochaccinos.

Yeah.

[Interviewer] Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.

Oh, that is a great movie.

[Interviewer] Do you think Chuck Barris

really was a secret agent?

I think he maybe met a recruiter

and maybe toyed around with it.

[Interviewer] Did he think that he was?

He did.

He maintained that he killed people.

[Interviewer] How was it working with George Clooney

on his debut?

George really taught me how to be simple

and not put too much in there.

He really did his homework on that movie.

He took from like Frankenheimer and Mike Nichols

and like, we had a great DP, Tommy

and we really, we had story boards on the sides everyday.

George gave me a video camera,

said just live with Chuck basically

and I hung out with Chuck

and then I did this training.

Matt Damon hooked us up

with this Jason Bourne type shit guy

who kinda gave me a little training, you know?

None of it really made it in the movie

but it was fun to have that.

[Interviewer] Snow Angels.

Oh yeah, that's a good one.

[Interviewer] I've watched a few of your interviews

and you mentioned Snow Angels

in almost every one of them.

Yeah.

[Interviewer] Why does this movie

stick out to you so much

as you look back on your career?

That's a good question,

you know it was just a real,

I think David allowed me to do what I wanted to do.

David Gordon Green and I created the character together

based on this book and it was a dark story

and there was a documentary that Brad Pitt gave me actually

when I was doing Jesse James

about these born again Christians

who blow up abortion clinics

and I watched that.

That was very helpful watching that

'cause the guy was kind of a,

had a lot of faith but he was an alcoholic.

It was a really cool movie to do.

[Interviewer] Matchstick Men.

Matchstick Men, really fun.

Had a lot of fun with Nick.

Alison Lohman, incredible, Bruce McGill.

Ridley Scott, you know?

[Interviewer] How is Ridley Scott?

That's pretty cool.

He's really cool.

He's really cool.

We went to Disneyland with his wife.

We did the Disneyland kinda like cut the line thing.

It was really cool.

But, Ridley's just great.

He just kinda says shit out of

the side of his mouth.

He's got a cigar and he's just,

he let us really go with that.

He let us kinda fuck around on that.

[Interviewer] Ridley Scott's obviously

directed some huge movies...

Yeah.

[Interviewer] With major set pieces.

This film is much smaller.

Much smaller.

[Interviewer] How was that working with him

on something that was like so small?

Literally three actors, real life.

It was really cool.

I mean, they would never make that movie

for that amount of money now.

You know, we had nice trailers

and we got paid and it would never happen like that,

a little character piece like that

would never happen like that

unless it was on TV maybe.

He's a nice man, Ridley.

He's a very, very cool guy, yeah.

[Interviewer] The Assassination of Jesse James.

Oh yeah.

[Interviewer] By the Coward Robert Ford.

Yeah.

[Interviewer] Who was the most method

about living in the time period out of the cast?

Casey Affleck because he didn't brush his fucking teeth

and I said, you know they've got makeup for that.

You could like, get somebody to just do makeup on ya.

But I love Casey.

[Sam laughing]

But yeah, he didn't brush his fucking teeth.

I didn't wanna do that movie initially

and then I was glad I did it

'cause it's such a great movie

but I met Jeremy Renner on it.

We were doing a train robbery scene

that went on forever.

It was very hot and it was night shoots in Edmonton

and we were going a little crazy.

The heat, people were getting like heat stroke

and we had these potato sacks on our heads

so you couldn't tell it was us

so it didn't really matter.

So, like Sam Shepard was,

in the background out of focus

and you couldn't tell it was him.

So, it was like 4 in the morning

and they're like where's Sam?

He took off, he went home.

[Sam laughing]

It was really funny.

[Interviewer] Welcome to Collinwood.

Oh man, oh boy.

That's how I met George Clooney.

[Interviewer] If you Sam Rockwell

were to commit a heist,

what would your job be on the team?

That'd be like the guy

who gives the pep talk or something.

I guess Ruffalo would be on my team.

Scarlett, Patty Clarkson, late great Michael Jeter.

[Interviewer] No George Clooney?

[Sam] George would definitely be on the team.

He'd probably be the head of the team.

[Interviewer] If he's the head of the team

and you're just giving the pep talk?

Yeah, I'll let him do all the hard work, yeah.

[Interviewer] Richard Jewell.

Yes.

[Interviewer] What is a Clint Eastwood set like?

Incredible.

The fact that more people don't do it like that

is kind of insane because I once did a 4 hour day

on a Clint Eastwood movie.

I did often 8 hour days, sometimes 6 hour days

which is unheard of.

In fact, we got into trouble

because we had so much time on our hands

'cause we were shooting so fast

and we would get off early.

He's really prepared.

He knows what he wants

and then he's also very free,

lets you do what you want

and he gets what he wants and he's outta there.

There's no bullshit.

There's no like, nonsense and you don't waste time.

You just don't waste time.

[Interviewer] Gentlemen Broncos.

Oh my god.

[Interviewer] How was the Lynx as a scene partner?

The Lynx as a scene partner.

The Lynx was kinda scary.

We were all a little terrified of the Lynx.

I stayed far away from the Lynx.

I was not messing with the Lynx.

No, the worst part was the salt lake actually.

When I was in the scuba outfit in the salt lake

and you realize why they call it a salt lake.

The gnats attacked my face

'cause I had this fake beard and glue.

They loved the glue

and the whole crew had these like nets on

to protect them from the bugs and I did not.

Mike White and I met on that.

We did a juncate together

and then I did The One and Only Ivan with Mike White also.

Yeah, it's full circle.

[Interviewer] Mr. Right.

I was studying your filmography

and I realized this is actually a very rare role for you

as a love interest.

Yes.

[Interviewer] Why do you think that is?

Why is that?

That's not right.

And even that guys a little weird, right?

He's kind of a, he's a killer, he's a psycho.

I think it was sort of a perfect match

with me and Anna at that time.

We were just the quirky enough couple to be together.

[Interviewer] So, you're not turning them down?

I'm not turning them down but you also

don't wanna do a bad movie

just because you wanna be a leading man.

You wanna do a good movie

so if that means you're gonna play the weirdo

but you got, you're doing it with Ridley Scott,

that's better than doing the lead role

where you get to kiss the girl and shoot the gun

but the movie's bad.

That led to Argyle because

I had done some fighting on that.

Fake fighting is a lot like dancing.

It's really fun, you know, if you don't get hurt.

[Interviewer] Laggies.

Laggies.

[Interviewer] Another great movie.

Well, that's a normal guy.

That's more, a little more of a quirky leading man

who, yeah gets the girl kind of.

[Interviewer] How is it playing a normal guy for once?

I got really sick when I got to Seattle.

I had Lyme's Disease and I didn't know I had it.

I got bit by a bug and I had to go into the hospital

and I think, I was worried Keira probably thought

I was a heroine addict or something

but I got out and she was like, you okay?

I was like, yeah yeah.

Lynn was just really special, really cool filmmaker.

I think she'd be doing like big stuff right now,

you know what I mean?

If she was around.

[Interviewer] See How They Run.

Yeah.

[Interviewer] I read that you briefly worked

as a private detective.

Oh yeah.

[Interviewer] Did that inform this character?

Kinda.

I was more of an assistant to a private detective.

I was an apprentice.

It didn't last long.

Somebody in my acting class told me

I'd get 50 bucks if I helped him out with this thing.

We trailed somebody.

That was it.

I was broke.

So, we went, yeah.

[Interviewer] Frost/Nixon.

Yes.

[Interviewer] What's Ron Howard like?

He's great.

I mean he's, he's really smart.

You know the play had been on Broadway

and they said you wanna go meet Ron Howard?

I met him and we hit it off

and I think I told him what he wanted to hear

and he cast me and that was it.

Rebecca Hall was like yeah, just a kid.

We were all kids.

[Interviewer] Trolls World Tour.

Yes.

[Interviewer] Is this the first time

that you've sang for a film?

Yeah, it might be.

Hopefully it's not the last time.

That wasn't very good.

♪ Come to peace ♪

You know, I'm a crooner.

I can croon a little bit.

I crooned in a couple of movies

but nothing crazy.

Nothing operatic.

[Interviewer] Cowboys & Aliens.

Long, it's long but fun.

[Interviewer] Long.

Met some cool, met Walt Goggins on that.

[Interviewer] Olivia Wilde too.

Olivia Wilde, yeah, Daniel Craig.

[Interviewer] What do you enjoy about doing Westerns?

I don't love horses but I did learn

how to do the lasso eventually for a play

so that came in handy.

Horses are tricky, you know?

Those old guns are interesting.

I like cowboys, I like, they're a great archetype.

They're not easy to shoot.

You know, you're in the desert

and the horses are not, it's not power steering, you know?

[Interviewer] Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Yes.

[Interviewer] You have a line in this film

that for some reason has stuck in the brains of '90s kids.

Do you remember what that line is?

Uh, something about cigarettes, right?

Um, menthol or what?

[Interviewer] Regular.

Regular or menthol, yeah.

[Interviewer] Regular or menthol?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Regular or menthol?

[Interviewer] You have any idea

why people love that line so much?

I have no idea.

It's a good commercial I guess, yeah.

[Interviewer] Heist.

Yes.

[Interviewer] I've heard you reference Gene Hackman

as a favorite of yours.

Yes.

[Interviewer] How was it working with him?

Amazing, he was phenomenal.

He was phenomenal.

Delroy Lindo, Ricky Jay, Danny DeVito.

Yeah, Gene Hackman I learned a lot from him.

He was really, he was one of the greats.

He was really nice to me.

[Interviewer] Do you get intimidated

when you're working with someone

that you have looked up to?

Absolutely, yeah.

But at the end of the day

they want you, usually they want you

to kinda bring it, you know?

And that was certainly true with Gene Hackman.

[Interviewer] Blaze.

Oh yeah.

[Interviewer] Why did you take this part

as oil man number one?

I tell you the real reason,

I was doing a favor for Ethan

but I also wanted to see my old pal Steve Zahn.

I knew I'd see Josh but I also

really, really, really wanted to see Steve Zahn

and I never get to see him.

We did Safe Men together.

[Interviewer] Let's talk about Safe Men.

[Sam] Yeah, let's talk about it.

[Interviewer] I spoke with Mark Ruffalo about this movie.

Okay, what did he say?

[Interviewer] I'm gonna ask you the same question.

Sweet stash, man.

[Interviewer] Almost all of the actors in this film

soon after it came out became big names.

Did you see that coming?

Yeah.

Hell no.

No.

[Interviewer] Um, that is not what Mark said.

What did Mark say?

[Interviewer] He said he did see it coming.

He did.

Well, good for him.

What is he, an agent?

[Interviewer] Box of Moonlight.

Yeah.

[Interviewer] How did this film

change the trajectory of your career?

It really helped a lot.

People saw it at Sundance

and it got me a lot of attention.

[Interviewer] Was this your first Sundance?

Yes.

It led to Lawn Dogs and Safe Men

and Jerry and Tom.

[Interviewer] F Is for Family.

Oh yeah.

[Interviewer] What's it like

playing the same character for nearly six years?

God, was it six years?

Well, it was fun.

We go in a booth, that was really,

that made animation kinda fun for me

'cause Bill Burr and the head guy was fantastic

and then Bill Burr became a friend from that.

[Interviewer] In The Soup.

What was it about working with Alexander Rockwell

that made you wanna work with him

on three more films?

Alex gave me my first start.

I went to acting class with Jennifer Beals

and I met him through her

and he got me started in independent film, yeah.

[Interviewer] G-Force.

Oh boy.

[Interviewer] When this came across your desk

what made you wanna do it?

I don't know.

It seemed like a cool job to do at the time.

Zach Galifianakis is in it.

[Interviewer] It's super fun.

Yeah.

[Interviewer] I'm, I'm not a G-Force hater.

Yeah.

Good, good, don't be a G-Force hater.

[Interviewer] Clownhouse.

How was it being on your first film set?

It was great.

We shot at Coppola's house.

I didn't know anything about acting.

I learned how to sort of,

my first initial film acting job, you know?

It was fun.

[Interviewer] Glory Daze.

How do you take Ben Affleck seriously

with that goatee?

Well, I thought he looked quite rakish with the Mohawk.

I liked his Mohawk.

Yeah.

He should try that again.

[Interviewer] Now, we're gonna do the rapid fire round.

Okay.

[Interviewer] I'm gonna list,

basically as many movies as I can get through

and you're just gonna tell me

the first thing that comes to mind.

Celebrity.

Hung out with DiCaprio.

I remember sleeping in the back of a van

from Atlantic City with Leo.

We were like coming back from Atlantic City one time.

He showed me this poster to this movie

and I was like, what's this movie?

He says, I think this is gonna be really good.

And it was the Titanic.

I was like yeah, yeah, yeah good luck with that, buddy.

[Interviewer] Yeah, kind of an underground movie.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Interviewer] The Best of Enemies.

Oh, Taraji Henson.

Babboo.

Yeah, beautiful.

[Interviewer] Joan Crawford's Children.

Oh my gosh, full circle, yeah.

Well that was a, that was based on the Mommy Dearest book.

It was an improv show.

It was the first thing I ever did when I was 10 years old

with my mom, yeah.

[Interviewer] Choke.

Clark Gregg, just what an experience.

God, you know, Angelica Houston.

[Interviewer] The Search For One-Eye Jimmy.

My god, everybody was in that.

Steve Buscemi, Sam Jackson, I mean it was incredible.

Anne Meara, incredible.

[Interviewer] Blue Iguana.

Blue Iguana a lot of fun.

Ben Scwartz, good time.

[Interviewer] Basquiat.

Jeffrey Wright, David Bowie, Chris Walken,

I mean you know, incredible.

Michael Wincott, yeah.

[Interviewer] The One And Only Ivan.

Really fun, Bryan Cranston,

I spent a lot of time with Danny DeVito.

Really, really fun to be around him.

Smartest guy I know.

Can drink you under the table.

[Interviewer] A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Did you overlap with Christian Bale at all?

Yeah, I did.

We lived in a house together.

Calysta Flockhart, really fun to do Shakespeare.

[Interviewer] Your costume's fun in this one too.

Yeah, yeah, I play Thisbe.

[Interviewer] You were on two separate episodes

of Law & Order.

I was, yeah.

[Interviewer] Two separate characters.

They were both like scumbags, right?

Think one was a cop, yeah one was a long shoreman, yeah.

It's a right of passage.

[Interviewer] Digging For Fire.

Yeah, that was interesting.

I never did something like that before.

We drank alcohol on set

which is not something I recommend.

We had six hour days.

It was really weird.

It was weird.

We'd start at like 6 p.m. and stop at midnight.

It was a very interesting process.

[Interviewer] Is that typical of Joe Swanberg?

Yeah, that's kind of his bag.

You know, it's like an improv thing.

It's a weird, it's an interesting process.

But I love Drinking Buddies.

I thought that was a cool movie.

[Interviewer] Light Sleeper.

I ruined my voice for that then we had to dub it.

[Interviewer] Strictly Business.

Halle Berry's first film I think.

Sam Jackson.

Sam Jackson and I have done four movies together

but we've only worked together once in Argyle.

So, there you go.

[Interviewer] Great.

That's it.

[Interviewer] We got through quite a few.

Yeah.

[Interviewer] There are still 20

that we didn't cover but...

20?

[Interviewer] Yeah.

Wow.

[Interviewer] But I don't, we're out of time...

Yeah.

[Interviewer] And energy, so I think we'll call it there.

Good lord, what are the 20 movies?

That's insane.

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