On Tuesday afternoon, I had the opportunity to chat by phone for about 30 minutes with the veteran character actor Sam Rockwell, who has generated some of the best reviews of his career — and not inconsiderable buzz for a best supporting actor Oscar nod, which would be his first in any category — for his performance in Tony Goldwyn’s “Conviction.”
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO AUDIO OF OUR CONVERSATION!
Rockwell, 42, portrays Kenny Waters, a real person with a checkered background who was sentenced to life in prison for a murder that he — and, to an even greater degree, his sister (Hilary Swank) — insisted he did not commit. (It’s a part, he tells me, that Eric Bana, Colin Farrell, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and John C. Reilly all passed on!) Though some have argued that the film plays like a Lifetime TV movie or an extended episode of “Law & Order,” precious few have had anything but kind things to say about Rockwell, who convincingly portrays Waters as both a young and carefree rabble-rouser and 18 years later as an aged and hardened convict whose will to live is slipping away.
Rockwell’s name and face look familiar to most moviegoers, even if they can’t quite place it. That’s because they’ve been on screens since the late eighties, in parts and movies both big and small. Indeed, one of the defining characteristics of the Christopher Walken-esque actor is his ability and willingness to take on both leading and supporting roles, and to do so in both the grandest of popcorn flicks and the tiniest of indies. Rockwell’s work in “Conviction” falls right in the middle of both of those descriptions — it’s a large supporting part, almost a co-lead, in a $12.5 million film from the boutique division of a big studio — but even just a brief glance at some of the rest of his filmography illustrates just how much range the guy has, and how many top-notch people he has worked with over the years.
As I was reminded by revisiting about a dozen of his films prior to our conversation, he has been: a young free spirit in Tom DiCillo’s “Box of Moon Light” (1996); a street thug in Julian Schnabel’s “Basquiat” (1996); a landscaper in John Duigan’s “Lawn Dogs” (1997); a belligerent prisoner in Robert Zemeckis’s “The Green Mile” (1999); the evil villain in McG’s “Charlie’s Angels” (2000); a game show host-turned-C.I.A. hitman in George Clooney’s “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind” (2002); a con artist in Ridley Scott’s “Matchstick Men” (2003); an alien in Garth Jennings’s “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” (2005); a member of the James Gang Andrew Dominik’s “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” (2007); the father of a disturbed boy in George Ratliff’s “Joshua” (2007); a troubled husband/father in David Gordon Green’s “Snow Angels” (2007); a sex addict in Clark Gregg’s “Choke” (2008); a journalist/researcher in Ron Howard’s “Frost/Nixon” (2008); and not one but two astronauts in Duncan Jones’s “Moon” (2009). Fun fact: he was strongly considered for the lead role in Jon Favreau’s “Iron Man” (2008), but was beaten out for the part by Robert Downey, Jr., and instead accepted the supporting role of a weapons manufacturer in Favreau’s “Iron Man 2” (2010).
Over the course of our conversation, Rockwell and I discussed most of the above, and much more.
Photo: Sam Rockwell in “Iron Man 2.” Credit: Paramount.
RELATED READING: “‘Deep Vote’ on ‘Black Swan,’ ‘Conviction,’ and ‘I Am Love’” (1/4/11); “VIDEO: 2-time Oscar Winner Hilary Swank on Her Remarkable Journey” (12/4/10); “Prison Exonerees Endorse ‘Conviction’ During Moving Q&A” (9/28/10)