Sam Rockwell born November 5, [ 1 ] is an American actor. He was nominated in the same category the following year for portraying George W. Bush in Adam McKay 's political satire Vice Rockwell was born November 5, , in Daly City, California.
After their divorce when he was five, he was raised by his father in San Francisco and spent his summers with his mother in New York City. Rockwell explained, "I just wanted to get stoned, flirt with girls, go to parties. After appearing in an independent film during his senior year, he moved to New York to pursue an acting career. After his debut role in the controversial horror film Clownhouse in , which he filmed while living in San Francisco, he moved to New York and trained at the William Esper Studios with teacher William Esper.
He also appeared as the title character in The Search for One-eye Jimmy During this time, Rockwell worked in restaurants as a busboy and delivered burritos by bicycle.
The turning point in Rockwell's career was Tom DiCillo 's film Box of Moonlight , in which he played an eccentric man-child who dresses like Davy Crockett and lives in an isolated mobile home. The ensuing acclaim put him front and center with casting agents and newfound fans alike, with Rockwell himself acknowledging that "That film was definitely a turning point I was sort of put on some independent film map after 10 years in New York. He also received strong reviews for the film Lawn Dogs , where he played a working-class lawn mower who befriends a wealthy year-old girl Mischa Barton in an upper-class gated community in Kentucky ; Rockwell's performance won him Best Actor honors at both the Montreal World Film Festival and the Catalan International Film Festival.
At the time of the film's shooting, Rockwell explained why he was attracted to playing such unlikable characters. He said, "I like that dark stuff. I think heroes should be flawed. There's a bit of self-loathing in there, and a bit of anger But after this, I've really got to play some lawyers, or a British aristocrat , or they'll put a label on me.
