I didn’t have my mother early on because she was in New York and I was with my father. We had less money than Dustin Hoffman.Ĭould you understand Dixon losing his father, though, and what that would feel like? My upbringing was more like a working class Kramer vs. It’s Shakespearean.Īfter your parents divorced, you were mainly raised by your father, weren’t you? It’s always fun to play in a drama or a comedy because it’s essentially Hamlet. In America we’ve got mamma’s boys, but I think every male goes through an Oedipal complex at some point in your life. Sam Rockwell: In the US? Is it easy to separate, not be co-dependent? Well, I think the Oedipal thing is interesting and it’s all over the world. What are men’s relationships with their mothers like in the US? I just did another film ( The Best of Enemies) where I play a Ku Klux Klan leader (Clairborne Paul Ellis), it’s a true story, who became friends with a civil rights activist - Taraji Henson plays the civil rights activist (Ann Atwater) – and now with what just happened in Charlottesville, it’s very timely.ĭixon lives with his racist mother and the film touches on the idea of how mothers influence the kind of men their sons become. It’s a good time to be talking about this. But I think the racism part of it is obviously going on in America and it’s very scary. I did a ride-along a couple of nights and that was interesting. Sam Rockwell: I didn’t meet any racist cops but I did see a lot of assertiveness from them. That was interesting.ĭid you meet any cops who you felt weren’t so lovely and actually racist? I went down to southern Missouri and met some lovely police officers. It’s not where I’m from so it’s interesting to examine it. I’ve actually been playing a lot of racists recently and it’s an interesting world. This character taps right into that, doesn’t it? There’s a lot of talk in America about police brutality and racism. I think he’s initially a bit of an idiot, and then he goes through a transformation. Your cop character, Jason Dixon, begins as a violent, racist dimwit, but grows in stature. You’re like, wow! You’re blown away by it. Sam Rockwell: It’s like a Christmas present. It must be thrilling to get something like this. Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards screenplay is flawless. Bush, and what made his late friend Phillip Seymour Hoffman the greatest actor of his generation. We met Sam Rockwell at the Venice Film Festival, where the amiable star discussed playing racists, violence, his upcoming film appearance as George W. Instead of drifting, though, he rediscovered his love of performing. Thankfully this changed when Rockwell moved to a school that suited someone who, in his own words, just wanted to “get stoned, flirt with girls, go to parties”. He often appeared on stage with Hess, but when he dropped out of a performing arts school, it looked like a future in acting wasn’t for him. The child of divorced parents, he lived with his father, Pete, in San Francisco, and spent summers with his mother, Penny Hess, in New York. However, he almost never became an actor. If Rockwell does win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, it will be well deserved.
As the stakes rise, Dixon plausibly evolves from thug to hero-in-the-making, thanks to McDonagh’s skilful writing and Rockwell’s intelligent, compassionate acting. As Jason Dixon, Rockwell plays a racist who finds himself up against a vengeful mother prepared to do almost anything as she vents her fury against a police force she blames for failing to find her daughter’s killer. The buzz around his complex performance as a violent cop, in writer-director Martin McDonagh’s anticipated Oscars shoo-in, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, suggests this could now be about to change.
A scene stealer in supporting roles, and a compelling lead in films including Moon, Choke and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, the California-born Rockwell has thrilled critics and audiences, but been overlooked by the Academy.
Three billboards outside ebbing missouri sam rockwell movie#
Since making his movie debut in 1989’s Clownhouse, Sam Rockwell has been building an impressive body of work on screen and in the theatre.