Matchstick Men is an acting tour de force with a few of the best American actors working today. Its story of phobia-addled con artist Roy [Nicolas Cage] and his protege Frank [Sam Rockwell] are on the verge of pulling off a lucrative swindle when the unexpected arrival of Roy's teenage daughter Angela [Alison Lohman] disrupts his carefully-ordered life and jeopardizes his high-risk scam.
It's a story that keeps you guessing but at the same time plies you with a great father/daughter relationship, humor and high tense drama sometimes within minutes of each other. Cage's Roy has so many quirks and ticks that you sometimes think his skin is going to twitch right off his face.
Sam Rockwell has made a career out of playing villains, con men, psychotics and idiots. He made his biggest splash in Hollywood when he played Gong Show host/CIA agent Chuck Barris in George Clooney's directorial debut Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. He also played wanna be con artist in David Mamet's Heist and sexed up Hollywood royalty Drew Barrymore as the villain in Charlie's Angels.
Sam seemed like the kind of guy you want to knock back a few beers with. When he first showed up in the hotel room for our interview, he ducked into the bathroom and came out wearing a shower cap and promptly ignored everyone's look with a sly smile on his face.
Check out the website for Matchstick Men.
Daniel Robert Epstein: Why the shower cap?
Sam Rockwell: What are you talking about?
DRE: Are you obsessed with hats?
SR: I like hats but I don't get to wear them enough in the movies.
DRE: A lot of people are considering you the new Nicolas Cage because of your quirky roles.
SR: That's nice. That makes me feel really good.
DRE: What was it like to work with him?
SR: It's great. He's a really fascinating guy and a great actor. He colors outside the lines, y'know what I mean. He's kind of a nonlinear person and actor. He likes to be a little off balance. That's what makes his work really special.
DRE: Do con artists have a lot of similarity to Chuck Barris?
SR: Not this character Nic plays. I don't think he's anything like Chuck Barris. I play a lot of conny guys. Chuck has a lot of problems in that movie. Conning is just part of it.
DRE: Did you find any script similarities between this and Heist?
SR: Yeah except in Heist that guy, Jimmy Silk, is much more greasy. That guy doesn't reveal a lot. Frank is very revealing. He's like Oscar Madison [the messy one from The Odd Couple]. He lets it all hang out but the guy in the Heist, doesn't say a lot.
DRE: You and Ridley Scott both made references to The Odd Couple. Is that something you talked about?
SR: Yeah. It's immediately apparent in their relationship. Roy is this really neat obsessive compulsive guy so the obvious thing is to contrast that and that's the best thing as well. That makes more conflict in their relationship.
DRE: Are you worried about being typecast as the guy who turns out to be the bad guy?
SR: You've got to be careful. Hopefully I'll find different ways to do it. But how many times have I done that now? Three times. I better watch out.
DRE: Is there a sense in your mind, especially in your mind, that the work is still important. After the Clooney film people may be telling you, that you may the next hot thing. Does that concern you at all or are you just going to do the work and whatever happens, happens?
SR: Yeah you know. The big temptation is to do stuff for money. That's the tough thing. I'm buying an apartment this year and that's the first time I've ever done that. That's different for me. It's an adult thing. There is the temptation to just take a job for money but it's almost physically impossible for anyway. I don't know about other people, to do that. If you read a part and it doesn't sing to you, you can't force it. You're not going to be good in it and not bring anything to it. So what's the point of doing it. So it's almost like I'm allergic to that. I haven't worked in a year. That's how picky I've been. That's probably going to bite me on the ass but I got to work soon.
DRE: If this is your first time you're going to own an apartment, where have you lived before?
SR: I've lived all over [New York City]. East side, west side, sublets. I didn't have my first lease rental apartment until five years ago. I did sublets up until then.
DRE: Do you have people telling you to do this and that?
SR: No my people are pretty good. They let me decide. They know I'm not going to do certain things.
DRE: Is there any analogy between acting and being a con artist?
SR: I don't think so. I maintain the idea that actors are truthful to a fault. Acting training is meant to teach to you to be exceptionally truthful. It can hurt you in real life. That's what you do in a story. Movies and theatre are condensed and heightened life so it's really where you are at you're most truthful. So I think good actors are bad liars. Alison Lohman is a good example, she's a very sincere person and her acting is so authentic.
DRE: So a bad actor might be more of a con artist?
SR: Yeah. Someone like Meryl Streep I think of that scene in Adaptation where's she's stoned. It's so real. That's somebody at their most truthful. They say being drunk is always a truth barometer. She's so real and it's like she's stoned. That's what makes her so good is that she's truthful.
DRE: If you stand back and look at your pickiness. Is it picky to an obsessive degree?
SR: I don't know. So far everything has gone great. I feel good about all the decisions I've made. I don't mind not working but it's a money issue sometimes like I said. You're just waiting for something you care about. I just wish I could go and cobble like Daniel Day Lewis. There was a metaphor Daniel Day Lewis used in some article about the soil and how it's being reaped of all its minerals. Reaped, is that a word? The soil has nothing left in it and you have to replenish it. What are you supposed to give out if you don't take in any real life. if you don't have any life experience what kind of human behavior are you supposed to mirror if you aren't taking in anything.
DRE: Did your walk-on for Charlie's Angels 2 make it in?
SR: No it didn't make it in. I looked for it too. There was a scene where they are dancing on the couch like a Gene Kelly thing. I walked through the back. Even if they put it in you wouldn't have been able to recognize me.
DRE: What's the biggest con you've ever pulled?
SR: I did some shoplifting as a kid. But that was to get attention. I don't remember conning anybody.
DRE: Did you want to get caught?
SR: Yeah I did get caught. You know what Freud would say about getting caught?
DRE: That you hate your mother?
SR: [laughs] No he would say you are trying to get caught. I haven't been conned either. Living in New York City for 15 years people are going to try.
DRE: What was it like between takes with Nic?
SR: He's really fun. We just made each other laugh a lot. He's got a really good sense of humor, we just joked around a lot and that informed the relationship in the film. it really makes it funnier and I think you see it in the film. In real life Nic isn't uptight like that. He's like a beatnik, loose and kind of looks at life form a different perspective. He's very consistent with his twitches and turning it on.
DRE: Would he turn it off between takes?
SR: Between takes he would relax. That's a lot of energy you've got to exert to do Tourette's Syndrome. He was exhausted. Between takes he would just sit there and smoke those non-nicotine cigarettes or whatever.
DRE: Did those ticks he had remind you of what you had to go through to play Chuck Barris?
SR: Chuck didn't have Tourette's but all the mannerisms and stuff yeah. I certainly do have a little bit of knowledge of how hard that is from doing somebody like Chuck. He's got all these ticks. Plus all these accents you do in movies and plays. It's great but its hard work. You can never let that stuff completely go.
DRE: Are you happy about the re-release of Confessions of a Dangerous Mind?
SR: Yeah I am because it's good to promote the DVD. That's Harvey Weinstein. He really likes the film.
DRE: Is there anything on the DVD you want to people to see?
SR: There were some scenes that were cut that I'd love to have on there. That's up to George. But I love to see the bellhop scene. Fred Savage plays the bellhop and that was cut.
DRE: Do you still keep in touch with Chuck?
SR: Yeah I just had pizza with him about a week ago.
DRE: What's he up to?
SR: He just finished writing a sequel and he's just hanging out. He plays music.
DRE: When you're with do you start mimicking him?
SR: No but it does happen. That happened when we started making the film. But not anymore. I've let it go.
DRE: You worked with one of the great unsung character actors in Matchstick Men, Bruce McGill. He will never be a big star but he will always be working in great movies. What's it like to see a character like him work? He's been doing it since he played D-Day in Animal House.
SR: He's amazing. [Taps his throat] He did that for me. It was great and he still does it the same. He was so great in The Insider [released in 1999] when he gets all mad in the courtroom.
DRE: Is that the kind of career you would like to have?
SR: I think playing different characters is important. Having versatility in your career is good. I think that's the best thing an actor can have.
DRE: Do you have a favorite Ridley Scott movie?
SR: Oh yeah. Alien [released in 1979] that's my favorite. The acting is amazing in Alien.
DRE: Well you mentioned the acting in Alien and that's not what people usually think when they mention that movie.
SR: I'd love to talk about that. If you watch Ridley's movies, Thelma and Louise [released in 1991] is an acting film. That's an acting extravaganza. It's wonderful. In Alien stylistically it's beautiful they have these aliens popping out of the stomach. That was revolutionary violence on film at the time. It was like the Russian Roulette scene in The Deer Hunter [released in 1978]. People had not seen that kind of violence on film and it started a whole new genre. But the acting is so real. It's like Cassavetes real. You got Yaphet Kotto and Harry Dean Stanton just adlibbing under their breath all this realistic breakfast banter around the table. They were just these blue collar workers discussing their paychecks and then all of sudden there is this sci-fi element there. The movie could stand alone just watching these people hang out before the alien gets on the ship because the actors are so real. You know Ridley had to contribute to that. that's what pulls you in so when the alien does show up you care about these fucking people which is what's wrong about a lot of horror movies that have followed.
DRE: Just something outside Hollywood.
SR: I'm a Hollywood phony. That's all I care about. I try to read the paper if it doesn't depress me too much. I don't know. I'm not a normal person and I don't do normal things [laughs]. I have coffee, read and take a walk. I don't know.
DRE: Where were during the blackout?
SR: I was here [in New York City]. That was fun. Everyone was having a party.
DRE: When you're not working what do you do?
SR: I don't do anything. I go see movies and see a lot of pretend stuff. I don't have a real life, that's the problem. That's why I'm smoking. I don't know. I roll cigarettes. I have coffee.
DRE: I should have gone there [laughs]. What are you reading now?
SR: I'm reading My Wicked Wicked Ways which is Errol Flynn's autobiography. I'm going to be playing a character like him maybe. Swashbuckling, fucking and drunk.
DRE: He wanted to call that book In Like Me but his publisher wouldn't let him.
SR: That's fantastic. Good for him. That's hysterical.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
It's a story that keeps you guessing but at the same time plies you with a great father/daughter relationship, humor and high tense drama sometimes within minutes of each other. Cage's Roy has so many quirks and ticks that you sometimes think his skin is going to twitch right off his face.
Sam Rockwell has made a career out of playing villains, con men, psychotics and idiots. He made his biggest splash in Hollywood when he played Gong Show host/CIA agent Chuck Barris in George Clooney's directorial debut Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. He also played wanna be con artist in David Mamet's Heist and sexed up Hollywood royalty Drew Barrymore as the villain in Charlie's Angels.
Sam seemed like the kind of guy you want to knock back a few beers with. When he first showed up in the hotel room for our interview, he ducked into the bathroom and came out wearing a shower cap and promptly ignored everyone's look with a sly smile on his face.
Check out the website for Matchstick Men.
Daniel Robert Epstein: Why the shower cap?
Sam Rockwell: What are you talking about?
DRE: Are you obsessed with hats?
SR: I like hats but I don't get to wear them enough in the movies.
DRE: A lot of people are considering you the new Nicolas Cage because of your quirky roles.
SR: That's nice. That makes me feel really good.
DRE: What was it like to work with him?
SR: It's great. He's a really fascinating guy and a great actor. He colors outside the lines, y'know what I mean. He's kind of a nonlinear person and actor. He likes to be a little off balance. That's what makes his work really special.
DRE: Do con artists have a lot of similarity to Chuck Barris?
SR: Not this character Nic plays. I don't think he's anything like Chuck Barris. I play a lot of conny guys. Chuck has a lot of problems in that movie. Conning is just part of it.
DRE: Did you find any script similarities between this and Heist?
SR: Yeah except in Heist that guy, Jimmy Silk, is much more greasy. That guy doesn't reveal a lot. Frank is very revealing. He's like Oscar Madison [the messy one from The Odd Couple]. He lets it all hang out but the guy in the Heist, doesn't say a lot.
DRE: You and Ridley Scott both made references to The Odd Couple. Is that something you talked about?
SR: Yeah. It's immediately apparent in their relationship. Roy is this really neat obsessive compulsive guy so the obvious thing is to contrast that and that's the best thing as well. That makes more conflict in their relationship.
DRE: Are you worried about being typecast as the guy who turns out to be the bad guy?
SR: You've got to be careful. Hopefully I'll find different ways to do it. But how many times have I done that now? Three times. I better watch out.
DRE: Is there a sense in your mind, especially in your mind, that the work is still important. After the Clooney film people may be telling you, that you may the next hot thing. Does that concern you at all or are you just going to do the work and whatever happens, happens?
SR: Yeah you know. The big temptation is to do stuff for money. That's the tough thing. I'm buying an apartment this year and that's the first time I've ever done that. That's different for me. It's an adult thing. There is the temptation to just take a job for money but it's almost physically impossible for anyway. I don't know about other people, to do that. If you read a part and it doesn't sing to you, you can't force it. You're not going to be good in it and not bring anything to it. So what's the point of doing it. So it's almost like I'm allergic to that. I haven't worked in a year. That's how picky I've been. That's probably going to bite me on the ass but I got to work soon.
DRE: If this is your first time you're going to own an apartment, where have you lived before?
SR: I've lived all over [New York City]. East side, west side, sublets. I didn't have my first lease rental apartment until five years ago. I did sublets up until then.
DRE: Do you have people telling you to do this and that?
SR: No my people are pretty good. They let me decide. They know I'm not going to do certain things.
DRE: Is there any analogy between acting and being a con artist?
SR: I don't think so. I maintain the idea that actors are truthful to a fault. Acting training is meant to teach to you to be exceptionally truthful. It can hurt you in real life. That's what you do in a story. Movies and theatre are condensed and heightened life so it's really where you are at you're most truthful. So I think good actors are bad liars. Alison Lohman is a good example, she's a very sincere person and her acting is so authentic.
DRE: So a bad actor might be more of a con artist?
SR: Yeah. Someone like Meryl Streep I think of that scene in Adaptation where's she's stoned. It's so real. That's somebody at their most truthful. They say being drunk is always a truth barometer. She's so real and it's like she's stoned. That's what makes her so good is that she's truthful.
DRE: If you stand back and look at your pickiness. Is it picky to an obsessive degree?
SR: I don't know. So far everything has gone great. I feel good about all the decisions I've made. I don't mind not working but it's a money issue sometimes like I said. You're just waiting for something you care about. I just wish I could go and cobble like Daniel Day Lewis. There was a metaphor Daniel Day Lewis used in some article about the soil and how it's being reaped of all its minerals. Reaped, is that a word? The soil has nothing left in it and you have to replenish it. What are you supposed to give out if you don't take in any real life. if you don't have any life experience what kind of human behavior are you supposed to mirror if you aren't taking in anything.
DRE: Did your walk-on for Charlie's Angels 2 make it in?
SR: No it didn't make it in. I looked for it too. There was a scene where they are dancing on the couch like a Gene Kelly thing. I walked through the back. Even if they put it in you wouldn't have been able to recognize me.
DRE: What's the biggest con you've ever pulled?
SR: I did some shoplifting as a kid. But that was to get attention. I don't remember conning anybody.
DRE: Did you want to get caught?
SR: Yeah I did get caught. You know what Freud would say about getting caught?
DRE: That you hate your mother?
SR: [laughs] No he would say you are trying to get caught. I haven't been conned either. Living in New York City for 15 years people are going to try.
DRE: What was it like between takes with Nic?
SR: He's really fun. We just made each other laugh a lot. He's got a really good sense of humor, we just joked around a lot and that informed the relationship in the film. it really makes it funnier and I think you see it in the film. In real life Nic isn't uptight like that. He's like a beatnik, loose and kind of looks at life form a different perspective. He's very consistent with his twitches and turning it on.
DRE: Would he turn it off between takes?
SR: Between takes he would relax. That's a lot of energy you've got to exert to do Tourette's Syndrome. He was exhausted. Between takes he would just sit there and smoke those non-nicotine cigarettes or whatever.
DRE: Did those ticks he had remind you of what you had to go through to play Chuck Barris?
SR: Chuck didn't have Tourette's but all the mannerisms and stuff yeah. I certainly do have a little bit of knowledge of how hard that is from doing somebody like Chuck. He's got all these ticks. Plus all these accents you do in movies and plays. It's great but its hard work. You can never let that stuff completely go.
DRE: Are you happy about the re-release of Confessions of a Dangerous Mind?
SR: Yeah I am because it's good to promote the DVD. That's Harvey Weinstein. He really likes the film.
DRE: Is there anything on the DVD you want to people to see?
SR: There were some scenes that were cut that I'd love to have on there. That's up to George. But I love to see the bellhop scene. Fred Savage plays the bellhop and that was cut.
DRE: Do you still keep in touch with Chuck?
SR: Yeah I just had pizza with him about a week ago.
DRE: What's he up to?
SR: He just finished writing a sequel and he's just hanging out. He plays music.
DRE: When you're with do you start mimicking him?
SR: No but it does happen. That happened when we started making the film. But not anymore. I've let it go.
DRE: You worked with one of the great unsung character actors in Matchstick Men, Bruce McGill. He will never be a big star but he will always be working in great movies. What's it like to see a character like him work? He's been doing it since he played D-Day in Animal House.
SR: He's amazing. [Taps his throat] He did that for me. It was great and he still does it the same. He was so great in The Insider [released in 1999] when he gets all mad in the courtroom.
DRE: Is that the kind of career you would like to have?
SR: I think playing different characters is important. Having versatility in your career is good. I think that's the best thing an actor can have.
DRE: Do you have a favorite Ridley Scott movie?
SR: Oh yeah. Alien [released in 1979] that's my favorite. The acting is amazing in Alien.
DRE: Well you mentioned the acting in Alien and that's not what people usually think when they mention that movie.
SR: I'd love to talk about that. If you watch Ridley's movies, Thelma and Louise [released in 1991] is an acting film. That's an acting extravaganza. It's wonderful. In Alien stylistically it's beautiful they have these aliens popping out of the stomach. That was revolutionary violence on film at the time. It was like the Russian Roulette scene in The Deer Hunter [released in 1978]. People had not seen that kind of violence on film and it started a whole new genre. But the acting is so real. It's like Cassavetes real. You got Yaphet Kotto and Harry Dean Stanton just adlibbing under their breath all this realistic breakfast banter around the table. They were just these blue collar workers discussing their paychecks and then all of sudden there is this sci-fi element there. The movie could stand alone just watching these people hang out before the alien gets on the ship because the actors are so real. You know Ridley had to contribute to that. that's what pulls you in so when the alien does show up you care about these fucking people which is what's wrong about a lot of horror movies that have followed.
DRE: Just something outside Hollywood.
SR: I'm a Hollywood phony. That's all I care about. I try to read the paper if it doesn't depress me too much. I don't know. I'm not a normal person and I don't do normal things [laughs]. I have coffee, read and take a walk. I don't know.
DRE: Where were during the blackout?
SR: I was here [in New York City]. That was fun. Everyone was having a party.
DRE: When you're not working what do you do?
SR: I don't do anything. I go see movies and see a lot of pretend stuff. I don't have a real life, that's the problem. That's why I'm smoking. I don't know. I roll cigarettes. I have coffee.
DRE: I should have gone there [laughs]. What are you reading now?
SR: I'm reading My Wicked Wicked Ways which is Errol Flynn's autobiography. I'm going to be playing a character like him maybe. Swashbuckling, fucking and drunk.
DRE: He wanted to call that book In Like Me but his publisher wouldn't let him.
SR: That's fantastic. Good for him. That's hysterical.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
VIEW 8 of 8 COMMENTS
anton:
Anyone who has seen Lawn Dogs should adore Sam Rockwell. And I have. And hence I adore him.
serillian:
mmmmmm sexy sexy sammy!!! wish u were a member here! so i could send you love notes.