Below are the good bits of the interview, but you can CLICK HERE for the whole shebang, and be sure to check out CBM's interview of Sam HERE.
Q: What was it like working with Mickey Rourke?
Sam: He was great. The first scene that we did in the film, Mickey suggested that we not meet, until we shot that scene, because our characters meet in the scene.
Q: Had you ever spoken to him?
Sam: No, I'd never spoken to him. Jon Favreau relayed this to me. He said, "Mickey doesn't want to rehearse. He doesn't want to meet before that first scene." After that, we did rehearse and work, in a more conventional way. But, for that first scene, where our characters meet, we didn't meet until right before we started rolling camera.
Q: So, you had no idea how he'd perform the character?
Sam: I had no idea. I worked out my props and stuff, but we didn't rehearse. I got there a little bit early and worked it out because I had a lot of dialogue and stuff to deal with. And, the way the scene is, he enters and I'm already there. So, he came in, we shook hands and then they said, "Action!," and we got into it.
Q: With this role, what did you sink your teeth into, as an actor?
Sam: I watched Amadeus because the Salieri character is similar. It was being developed, and I wasn't sure where the character was going, so I watched a lot of actors, like Gene Hackman as Lex Luthor, George C. Scott in The Hustler and Bill Murray in Kingpin. I was trying to get a lot of different things to incorporate. And, I did some research on the guns, and learned how to handle and talk about the guns. That was really all I had to work on. I worked on it the way I work on everything. My acting coach, Terry Knickerbocker, and I worked on it together. I would get certain scenes and we'd work on it and do some homework, and then those scenes would change.
Q: How did you find your groove with Robert Downey, Jr.?
Sam: We had a great time. It was like we were gunslingers. The first day of shooting, we were trying to see who was faster. It was fun.
Q: In what ways did he surprise you?
Sam: He's very quick, so we were ad-libbing. It was a fun first day. It was very challenging and exciting.
Q: What did Jon do, as a director, to help your performance?
Sam: Jon and I worked together before, and he's really great because he's very much about being truthful in these imaginary circumstances, so that it's not just a bunch of sci-fi nonsense. When we talked about the scenes, he'd be like, "So, how would you really react in this circumstance?" That's how it evolves. It was like, "What's the truth of this event?," and that's a very actor-friendly way to work because we're just trying to be truthful and real.
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