Sam Rockwell Rocks the Indie Scene with Three New Films
by Anthony Kaufman

In the first, John Duigan's "Lawn Dogs" (Strand Releasing), Rockwell plays Trent, a sympathetic, dangerous loner. Next up is the farcical Rhode Island Jewish mafia movie, John Hamburg's directorial debut, "Safe Men" (October) which partners Rockwell with Steve Zahn as two suburbanite-turned-safecrackers.

And lastly, "Jerry and Tom" directed by actor, Saul Rubineck, features Rockwell in the title role of Jerry, a used car salesman and novice hit man. You can also see Rockwell as a goofy moving man in Alexandre Rockwell's latest, "Louis and Frank", which remains without domestic distribution.

Low-key and light-hearted, iPOP caught up with the charismatic actor during the madness of Sundance for a conversation about his three movies, the machismo of Steve Zahn, the depth of John Duigan and the problems of film school directors. Of his experience at Sundance, he said, "That's really the only reason to be here, that's what's it about. Let's face it, people just want to shag."

iPOP: Everyone's saying that you're the "It girl" of Sundance, this year's Parker Posey. . .

Sam Rockwell: Well, that's cool. I love Parker, as a person and as an actress. We worked together in this independent film "Drunks," me and her and Calista Flockhart who's Ally MacBeal, a lot of New York stage actors. "Drunks" is a really cool movie. Parker's great in it. Parker and I had this little thing at the very end, which was kind a cool. She yelled at me. I told her character to "fuck off" and she told me to "fuck off" and it was fun. That's about as much contact as we've had. I'd love to do something with her.

iPOP: Have you worked in theater a lot?

Rockwell: Yeah. I did theater since I was 10 years old. Theater is the real deal. It keeps you sharp. It keeps you honed. It's like a gem for acting.

iPOP: How did you manage to do these three films so close together?

Rockwell: We did "Lawn Dogs" a year and half ago. And we did "Jerry and Tom" right after "Safe Men," then I got terribly sick on Jerry and Tom, off and on through the whole filming. I couldn't do my normal. . . I was really off kilter when I was shooting Jerry and Tom. If it wasn't one fucking thing, it was another: food poisoning, flu. It was ridiculous. In the dog track scene, I had a terrible temperature. I almost fainted walking to the set.

"Safe Men" was exhausting, although I had a great time on it. I have a special place in my heart for "Safe Men." That was a true independent film. In a budget sense. There were no trailers. Steve [Zahn] and I were hanging out. It was guerilla filmmaking. But we had a blast. And such good actors. For such a low budget, we had top rate actors, Michael Lerner, Harvey Fierstein.

Steve Zahn, by far, one of the best actors I have ever worked with. He is a truly gifted actor. Skilled. He comes from the stage, he's from ART. He's a farm boy turned theater actor turned film actor. He builds barns and hunts deer, and drinks beer and drives a Chevy Nova -- he's a man, he's a real man. In "Lawn Dogs," I played this country, kind of macho guy and I'm so not that, I'm such a city kid.

iPOP: How come you're getting cast as thieves, and robbers and criminals?

Rockwell: But in "Safe Men," that character is kind of a middle class white guy, kind of a slacker. He turns safe cracker, but he's never really. . . I think Safe Men is actually one of the more normal characters.

I love "Safe Men." I can't figure out why it doesn't have distribution. I think it's the most commercial movie of all three of the movies. The other two have distribution. I don't get it. "Safe Men" is more straight out laugher. It's just a matter of time. My character in "Safe Men" is kind of fragile. He's kind of a Felix Unger, fragile is the key adjective, what's his name again?

iPOP: Sam.

Rockwell: It is Sam. Jesus, that's why I forgot it. Isn't it that weird? Samuel is actually his name. Samuel, which is not my name actually, I am just Sam. My birth certificate says, Sam. So anyway, the guy is very fragile, and almost bordering on hypochondria, kind of a weird little guy and he's afraid of everything. And Steve (Eddie) is his only strength.

So what's great about it is that Steve immediately made me feel like Samuel, because he's such a macho farm guy that I immediately felt just being in that relationship with Steve Zahn, I felt like Samuel was to Eddie, because Sam Rockwell feels that way towards Steve Zahn. Wow, this guy can build stuff, barns and stuff. And I'm just like scared of going skiing. He uses powertools and shit.

So, it immediately made me feel like I was the woman in that relationship. I'm the wife and he's the husband.

iPOP: Is "Lawn Dogs" the most serious film you've done?

Rockwell: Yeah, I would have to say so. I did an HBO drunk driving thing which was pretty heavy where he killed this guy and I have to live with the guilt and all of this, but yeah, this is my dramatic whatever.

This is my Spartacus meets whatever, Jeff Bridges, so kind of my chance to be Tommy Lee Jones in "Coal Miner's Daughter" and Martin Sheen in "Badlands," kind of mix those guys together and maybe a little Travis Bickle too and some John Voight thrown in there, and a little Duvall. Steal from all the best.

He's the man. Did you see "Lonesome Dove"? His performance is, man, it's like they went back in time in a time machine and got a Texas ranger and brought him back and said okay, we're going to have you do this movie. And he's a Texas ranger from that period.

iPOP: Who else would you want to work with?

Rockwell: I really want to work with Gary Oldman. I want to play his brother or something. Or have him direct me or I just want to get inside that guy's head, you know, and I know, I just feel that I know the guy even though I don't know him. I feel like I know him.

If he reads this, it's going to freak him out, he's gonna want to stay away from me, "Oh, Jes, this guy's a psycho." I love his ballsiness. Whether you agree with his choices or not, the guy's got 'cajones' -- he's got balls. And you know, he goes for it. I just think he's great.

iPOP: What about directors?

Rockwell: Kubrick, Scorsese, but the future Kubricks and Scorseses -- who are those guys, where are they coming from? The Sidney Lumets or . . . See, it's hard because a lot of guys come out of film school and they haven't done theater.

Sidney Lumet came from the theater, Pollack came from theater, they directed plays. They know about structure. They know about acting. That's what Saul Rubinek knows, he knows about theater, that's why he was great for "Jerry and Tom." I don't know where those guys are going to come from.

That's why I like it when actors become directors and even though they're not good directors, at least, the process is easier with them. You can talk to them. These guys that come out of film school, these young guys with money in their pocket, it's scary, hopefully that time is going to fade.

I'm pessimistic.

iPOP: You get these tough guy roles. I'm still trying to figure out why you get these tough call roles?

Rockwell: Yeah, I'm doing a play in New York. It's called "Goosepimples," an old Mike Leigh play. But it's great. It's a very deep play. I'm playing a really scary guy in this play, a street guy who's wants to be posh, who's a car salesman and terrible racist and kind of a thug who wants to be an aristocrat.

So that's a weird part, an angry guy. I'm definitely not a tough guy. "Safe Men" is more like the real me, probably, scared of everything. Or Jerry, I'm kind of a goofball like Jerry.