Sam Rockwell Says He Still Gets Paid for a Role He Never Got Decades Ago
Rockwell’s single line never made it to the movie, but that never stopped residual checks from coming — here’s what the actor said about the matter.
An Oscar winner with tens of prominent titles under his belt, Sam Rockwell likely had quite many of his movies paid off — including a film that he actually never got into.
The whole thing occurred back in the 1980s, when Rockwell, alongside his pals Michael Imperioli and Kevin Corrigan, “drove in a van to New Jersey to audition for one line” at the very start of their respective careers.
Despite things going well at first, Rockwell was eventually never seen in the film he got the role in, though it came with an unexpected — and quite pleasant — financial bonus.
Sam Rockwell Still Gets Residual Checks for ‘Lean on Me’
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The actor recently recalled the matter during a conversation on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, revealing that the only scene he auditioned for was eventually cut from Lean on Me.
“And then I got it. And then, they never got to my scene, so they had to let me go because they didn’t want to pay me for a week. So, they gotta pay you for a day player or pay you for a week. So, they let me go. They didn’t fire me, they just sort of let me go because they were like, ‘We can’t pay him a week for one line.’ And I still get residual checks for that, even though I’m not in it”, Rockwell said.
The actor wasn’t the only luckless guy out there too, as his friend and colleague Michael Imperioli also got a minor role which was later cut from the movie as well.
‘Lean on Me’ Is a Fan-Favorite Drama Based on Real Events
- On Rotten Tomatoes, Lean on Me holds scores of 70% and 85% from critics and audiences
- On IMDb, the movie is rated 7.4/10
With Sam Rockwell eventually going separate ways with the movie, Lean on Me was doing quite well with critics and viewers despite that.
Starring Morgan Freeman and based on real events, the film recounts the story of Joe Louis Clark, an inner city high school principal in New Jersey whose school is about to be placed into receivership in case its students don’t improve their test results at the New Jersey Minimum Basic Skills Test.
The movie was released in theatres back in 1989 and eventually grossed around $32 million against its budget of $10 million.
