Exclusive Interview: Sam Rockwell on The Way, Way Back

Do you think Owen is only cool around these kids during the summer?

Good point, yeah, probably. Probably, yeah.

 

Did you create a backstory for his relationship with Caitlyn (Maya Rudolph)?

A little bit. We talked about it just enough that we’re on the same page, but I think mostly it was left up to our own imagination.

 

Did you fight for this role?

You know, I didn’t have to. This came to me. I didn’t have to fight for this but it just came my way. I was lucky.

 

Is there a “Sam Rockwell type” that you find they come to you for a lot? Because I don’t know if there is.

I don’t know if there is either. I hope not. They come to me for gregarious characters sometimes, bad guys I’ve done. They’ll always try to get you to do your last trick, but hopefully you can change it up a little.

 

But when you have three or four movies in a year, what counts as your last trick?

Yeah, exactly. You try to keep changing it up.

 

Because it’s Jim Rash and Nat Faxon, did you get to improvise any?

Yeah, a little bit but not a lot. It was all there on the page, most of it.

 

Do you remember any lines you came up with?

I think I came up with clown fighting maybe. It was a lot but they came up with most of it.

 

Since you were in the Marvel world with Iron Man 2 is there any chance of appearing on “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.?”

I think I’ll stick to maybe The Avengers or something. I don’t even know if they’ll put me in The Avengers. Maybe that’s done for me.

 

Are you hoping to be back for Avengers 2 or 3?

I would be open to it but I think I’ve done that.

 

Or you could show up in Guardians of the Galaxy or Ant-Man.

You could, you could. Are they doing Ant-Man? That’s cool.

 

There was even talk that Galaxy Quest is still in play.

A sequel?

 

The producer said his dream would be to do a TV series based on the movie about a show that never existed.

They should do that. They should do that. I don’t know if I would revisit that but they should. It could be fun. 

 


Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Shelf Space Weekly. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.

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