When Sam Rockwell gets a role, he’s all in, dancing or whatever needs to be done.
But when asked about the “most ridiculous role” he’s ever committed to, there’s a clear winner: Guy Fleegman, whom he played in Galaxy Quest, the 1999 movie about the cast of a former sci-fi TV series having to assume their roles in real life in order to save the universe.
“Well, I think Galaxy Quest comes to mind, as far as taking it very seriously,” Rockwell said of the sci-fi parody on Thursday’s episode of Hot Ones. “I was walking around, [having] a lot of coffee, getting really hyped up and trying to have a nervous breakdown on camera, so that people would laugh at it, which is totally ridiculous. People were like, ‘What are you doing, man? It’s a comedy.’ But, you know, you have to really break down or it’s not funny.”
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Sam Rockwell looks back at ‘Galaxy Quest’
He pointed to Gene Wilder’s performance as Leo Bloom in Mel Brooks’ iconic 1967 movie The Producers as proof.
Wilder, who died in 2016, is “a perfect example of that,” Rockwell said. “He has a real anxiety attack, and it’s hilarious.”
Wilder was nominated for an Oscar in the category of Best Supporting Actor for his work in the iconic film, although it’s unclear how much of it was acting and how much was at least inspired by real life. The veteran of movies such as Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and Young Frankenstein told Time in 1970 that he’d always had “a reservoir of hysteria,” although he’d grown out of it.
As for Rockwell, he’s previously described his transformation for the spoof that he costarred in with Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, and the late Alan Rickman in a similar way.
“You have to play that for real!” he told HuffPost in July 2013. “I’m really crying in the spaceship when I’m freaking out.”
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He also said then that he’d done “full emotional preparation.”
“I had had four cups of coffee, and I was doing it as if it was a drama for me,” Rockwell explained. “Knowing that the outcome is going to be a funny outcome, that people will be laughing at my tragedy. I was pacing, and I think Bill Paxton did the same thing in Aliens — knowing he’s the funny guy, but he’s got to be freaked out. He has to be legitimately scared — and that’s what makes it funny. That’s what great farce is: raising the stakes.”
Watch Rockwell’s full Hot Ones conversation above.
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