Bringing the Hammer down on Iron Man

Along with several other schools, WEEKEND staffers Brian Welk and Chad Quandt recently participated in a conference call with “Iron Man 2” star Sam Rockwell to talk about the film. Rockwell stars as Justin Hammer,one of the villains.

NOTE: Below is a transcription of the interview. Portions ran in this week's WEEKEND section.

Question: My question is actually about Jon Favreau and what distinguishes him as a director from the Edward Allesee’s out there making a movie work.
Sam Rockwell: Yes.  I think Jon is just – well, he’s a good writer, although you know Justin Theroux wrote the script, but he’s a great writer you know. He wrote “Tropic Thunder” with Ben Stiller and he really wrote an amazing script.
But I think what makes Jon so special is he’s an actor.  He’s a really good actor, and he understands how to make things fresh and real.  He’s got a big bullshit mirror and he kind of – he knows when it doesn’t feel real.  I think that’s what is so unique is that he wanted to really make it seem like this could really happen, you know what I mean?  I think that’s sort of the key to Favreau’s technique.

Q: My question really is how did you get involved with the project to begin with?  Are you a fan of the comics? 
Sam Rockwell: It was a series of events. I knew Justin Theroux who wrote the script and we went to the theater at Williamstown together.  We were friends.  He’s an actor as well. 
And then Jon Favreau and I had done “Made” together with Vince Vaughn and Jon had called me once about screen testing for Tony Stark and then it didn’t come together, and Downey, of course, got the part and was amazing. Then my girlfriend was in the first one and we sat down and had dinner with Downey and we ended up doing a guinea pig movie together, and so it all sort of came together.

Q: You seem to have dancing in a lot of your movies, Sam.  What is the (inaudible) a personal choice or do directors just love seeing you dance?
Sam Rockwell: I think sometimes they know I can dance and I ham it up a little bit.

Q: Alot of people make movies to do hero things, how was it playing the villain?
Sam Rockwell: It’s fun to play bad guys.  You get to break all the rules and stuff.  It’s a really fun challenge.  It’s really good.  It’s really fun.

Q: Was there anything particular about the film that you liked in terms of, I guess, filming, any things that really were a lot of fun?
Sam Rockwell: I think the scenes with Mickey Rourke were very fun for me to do.  There’s a lot for me to do in the scenes, and it was a really – it was a good time.

Q: How much did you know about Justin Hammer and “Iron Man” in general before taking the role?
Sam Rockwell: I guess I knew very little.  I knew nothing. I got the comic books as soon as I got the part and looked at it a little bit, and it was described to me by Justin Theroux and Jon Favreau.

Q: You go last year from one of your more notable works as working in “Moon”, a small budget, simple set kind of indie movie. What was the change of pace like going to working at this big budget high tech action super hero movie?
Sam Rockwell: Well,  you get up to your dressing room and you’re getting paid a little more money, and but the experience, the actors, director experience, I don’t know, it’s more exhausting and challenging in different ways, but I found “Iron Man” pretty challenging as well. It’s a different experience, obviously more time and money with “Iron Man”.

Q: It was said in an interview that the first “Iron Man” that there was a lot of improvisation going on with the first script, and I was wondering if you saw a lot of that going on. Was there any of you guys kind of creating it live on the set for this one, and if so, was there any that you thought were really memorable?
Sam Rockwell: I have to say most of it was Justin Theroux who wrote the script and Favreau would come in with various ad libs.  I think most of it was the two of them and really Justin Theroux writing a great script.  I did very little improvisations, actually.

Q: Do you usually try to stay away from that or it was just for this film?
Sam Rockwell: No.  I mean, I’m pretty good improviser, but I’m not a writer, so I like to have some structure, and I think Theroux provided that and Favreau provided that in a big way and that I prefer it.