INTERVIEW: loop de loop with Sam Rockwell

"Most people come to Sam Rockwell sideways. Maybe they happen across one of his forays into the mainstream—his bad guy in Charlie’s Angels, say—and something snags their attention: the crackle of anarchy behind his eyes, the improvisatory scat of his line readings, or maybe just the way he seems to be grooving on his own badassness. So they start looking for him in other films. They might spot him in the sweetly inane Star Trek spoof Galaxy Quest, or as a con man in alligator boots in Ridley Scott’s Matchstick Men, gently stealing scenesfrom under Nicolas Cage’s nose. Now they’re ready to make a gesture of serious commitment. They rent Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Snow Angels, or Moon, all indie films in which Rockwell stars, giving transfixing performances as men slowly losing their minds. At which point, they know they’re looking at an actor with all the voltage of a young Gary Oldman plugged into a very American playfulness—gentle, puckish, lemurlike." — from my interview with Sam Rockwell in New York magazine