Why Sam Rockwell still gets paid from a movie that cut his only scene: “They fired me”
If Sam Rockwell turns up in a movie, chances are it’s going to turn out just fine. The California-born superstar is always a welcome presence on screen, seemingly able to get the tone and disposition of a character correct 90% of the time.
Whether in dramatic roles like his Oscar-winning turn in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, or as a funnyman for Taika Waititi or Adam McKay, you can always count on Sam to both ‘Rock’ and do ‘Well’ (sorry!).
It’s hard to imagine any director or studio saying no to having the Moon star appear in their film, but it has happened. He read for the role of the ‘Schofield Kid’ in Clint Eastwood’s iconic western Unforgiven, but flubbed the audition so badly that they gave it to somebody else. He also revealed that he was offered the chance to be in Pixar’s The Incredibles, but turned it down. He didn’t specify which part he was supposed to play, but my money is on either Edna Mode or Jack-Jack.
During an interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Rockwell revealed that he missed out on another notable role early in his career. In 1989, the same year that he made his big screen debut with the oft-forgotten slasher flick Clownhouse, the young thespian was supposed to be a part of the biographical drama Lean on Me. Rockwell would have played a young man being taught by famous real-life educator Joe Louis Clark, played by Morgan Freeman. He would have had one line, “Hey, I’m gonna be a star”, but alas, things didn’t go his way.
“They never got to my scene,” he said, “So they had to let me go because they didn’t want to pay me for a week. So they got to pay for a day player or pay for a week. So they…let me go. They fired me… And because they were like, ‘Ah, we can’t pay them a week for one line’.”
Rockwell then revealed that his friend Michael Imperioli, who had actually travelled with him to audition for the movie, was given the line instead, as he was already playing a more substantial character. “Michael’s in the movie, but I still got residuals,” he divulged. “I still get residual checks for that, even though I’m not in it”.
Lean on Me, which was helmed by Rocky director John G Avildsen, told the story of Clark, a high school principal charged with bringing up test scores for a group of inner city kids. While Freeman has spoken highly of it in hindsight, critical reviews from the time were more mixed.
This isn’t the only reason Rockwell may have dodged a bullet. According to a New Yorker interview with Imperioli, Advilsen was a tough taskmaster. Recalling a take of the ‘gonna be a star’ scene, the Sopranos actor remembered his director screaming at him, “And you with that ‘Gonna be a star’, you’d better give me something or you’re out of here!” That’s hardly positive reinforcement.
Though no actor wants to have their scenes cut, it sounds like Rockwell got a pretty sweet deal with Lean on Me. He didn’t have to do any work; he still gets money from the movie over three-and-a-half decades later, and he avoided getting yelled at. Win-win-win.
