[IMG:L]You can be a cleaned-up coke-ster or a rehabbed alcoholic, and folks won’t even blink twice, if they see you huddled in a group of your recovering fellow-addicts. But what about a huddled group of recovering sex addicts? Some would say a possibly orgy, Choke says possiby messy, in this darkly comic feature directorial debut for actor Clark Gregg (The New Adventures of Old Christine) and starring Sam Rockwell (The Assassination of Jesse James), about the far-reaching tentacles of extreme family dysfunction.
To make a living, sex addict Victor Mancini works in an Irish 18th-century theme park. But to make money, in an effort to pay for his once-radical, now demented mother’s expensive care in a private hospital, he engages in a brazen scam. While dining in upscale restaurants, he deliberately chokes on his food, allowing himself to be “saved” by good Samaritans who grow so close to him in the wake of their heroic Heimlich Maneuvers, they lavish him with checks.
Based on the novel Choke by Fight Club‘s Chuck Palahniuk, the tale also stars Angelica Houston as Ida, Victor’s fiery, memory-challenged, dizzying mother; and Kelly MacDonald as the hospital doctor with a secret. Like floating chaos, one can never tell where Victor feels most at one with himself: visiting his mom’s private mental instution, screwing in the bathroom at his S.A. meetings; re-enacting a bawdy, period Gallic scene, or being cradled–after choking–in the arms of someone he’s just scammed.
Similarly, the ever-changing Sam Rockwell shared, “Well, I’m a unconventional guy so people don’t necessarily know where to place me. Maybe that’s a compliment? I don’t know.” We’re happy he can occupy many spaces. It’s good to have an unpredictable actor on hand these days, when so much is stale.
READ MORE from our chat with Sam Rockwell on Choke:
Photo(s) © 2008- Fox Searchlight Pictures- All Rights Reserved
[PAGEBREAK]
Hollywood.com: Have you turned down a lot of unconventional films?
Sam Rockwell: I have. I don’t empathize with the white collar protagonist. I don’t usually go for the yuppie pieces. Like, this couple and this couple are having problems and we’re going to make a romantic comedy. I don’t really get into that or understand what is the conflict.
Keep Reading More on: Choke
Photo(s) © 2008- Fox Searchlight Pictures- All Rights Reserved
[PAGEBREAK]
Hollywood.com: I know actors shouldn’t judge characters they play. But how do you see your sham-man character on a moral level?
Sam Rockwell: I see him like Hamlet who has all these issues with women because of his mother. He’s stunted in his relationship with women. It’s really the psychological breakdown of a ladies man, of a Casanova, it’s funny because it’s not glamorous. If you meet a real ladies man, and you actually hang out with them for a while, you realize it’s only fun for a little while and it becomes this empty pit, this empty hole. I think in that way you can empathize with him.
Keep Reading More on: Choke
Photo(s) © 2008- Fox Searchlight Pictures- All Rights Reserved
[PAGEBREAK]
Hollywood.com: Although she plays a waaaay off-balance woman, the super talented Angelica Houston is so alluring onscreen. Is she that compelling in person?
Sam Rockwell: Yeah, she is all that. And a big of chips. She’s amazing. She’s everything. She’s visceral and lovely and she’s very present and committed. She’s glamorous. And wise. And funny. She is everything that she seems to be and more.
Keep Reading More on: Choke
Photo(s) © 2008- Fox Searchlight Pictures- All Rights Reserved
[PAGEBREAK]
Hollywood.com: It’s debatable that you weren’t the most outstanding performance in The Assassination of Jesse James. I just had to say that, and that your work was sort of overlooked.
Sam Rockwell: Oh, thank you, thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah, he’s kind of the ‘Fredo’ of that Jesse James movie, that character. You know, [Fredo] in The Godfather–he’s kind of the whatever.
HW: With mega-watt star Brad Pitt, and emerging Casey Affleck, what would you say you took away from that ensemble team and experience?
SR: That was really amazing. That was [laughs]…it felt like we were doing Apocalypse Now sometimes…that [experience] was really crazy … The conditions were tough. Even though it was a $32 million dollar movie, it felt like we were doing a low-budget movie sometimes. We were in the cold–a lot–and waiting around in the cold and the dirt. It was long but it was a bonding experience. I got really close to Casey Affleck and Brad, Jeremy Renner, Paul Schneider and all these people … It was a lot of waiting around. Where Frost/Nixon was more condensed and you do less waiting around. It’s tough, you get spoiled doing ‘me’ [lead] roles–and then [all of a sudden] you’re waiting around; it’s hard, it’s hard. It was such a nice movie and such a beautiful film, it was worth it.
Keep Reading More on: Choke
Photo(s) © 2008- Fox Searchlight Pictures- All Rights Reserved
[PAGEBREAK]
Hollywood.com: What stood out to you when initially read the script?
Sam Rockwell: I think it’s very edgy material. It’s a tough tone. It has to be sort of dramatic and comedic. He’s (Victor) not your typical Casanova. It’s a difficult part to cast because you don’t want to cast a really super handsome guy because it’s not really right. I heard about the plot…and then I heard Clark (Gregg) had written it [the script] and I thought it was about a colonial theme park and a sex addict and that was enough for me. I thought, “That sounds funny.” For me, after that, it was a no brainer and I just called Clark.
Keep Reading More on: Choke
Photo(s) © 2008- Fox Searchlight Pictures- All Rights Reserved
[PAGEBREAK]
Hollywood.com: Chuck [Palahniuk] is known to write books that should be un-filmable–but they are made into movies.
Sam Rockwell: Yeah, it’s tough to make a movie out of his material. It’s so psychological. There’s a lot of subtext. So, how do you put that on film?
HW: Did you read the book before hand?
SR: Some people don’t want to read the book but whenever do a movie [based on a book] like the Green Mile or Snow Angels, I always read the book religiously.
Keep Reading More on: Choke
Photo(s) © 2008- Fox Searchlight Pictures- All Rights Reserved
[PAGEBREAK]
Hollywood.com: Did you use the book as an aid or is it somewhat of a hindrance trying to reenact what’s already been put into print?
Sam Rockwell: I think it was Meryl Streep who said, “It’s good for a lazy actor to do a film based on a book.” Which is ironic coming from Meryl Streep who is the most un-lazy actor on the planet earth. It’s very self deprecating of her to say that. She says it’s great because you can just refer to the book and if you’re like, “What the hell am I doing?” You can basically turn to the book and it tells you what you’re thinking in between the lines. Then you communicate that.
Keep Reading More on: Choke
Photo(s) © 2008- Fox Searchlight Pictures- All Rights Reserved
[PAGEBREAK]
