Of his many memorable performances, Sam Rockwell is outwardly nonetheless getting paid for one which by no means occurred.
The Oscar winner not too long ago recalled when he, Michael Imperioli and Kevin Corrigan “drove in a van to New Jersey to audition for one line in Lean on Me” early of their careers, in addition to how he nonetheless will get paid regardless of not showing within the 1989 movie.
“After which I acquired it,” stated Rockwell on the Blissful Unhappy Confused podcast. “After which, they by no means acquired to my scene, so that they needed to let me go as a result of they didn’t need to pay me for per week. So, they gotta pay you for a day participant or pay you for per week. So, they let me go. They didn’t hearth me, they only kind of let me go as a result of they had been like, ‘We will’t pay him per week for one line.’ After which Michael acquired it.
Rockwell added, “And I nonetheless get residual checks for that, despite the fact that I’m not in it.”
Credited within the movie as ‘George’, Imperioli’s line was finally minimize as nicely, however his “first expertise on a film” nonetheless made an impression after working with director John G. Avildsen on the biographical drama.
“He was very impatient,” Rockwell’s fellow White Lotus alum Imperioli advised The New Yorker final yr. “He was not very good, to be sincere. I feel he was overwhelmed as a result of there have been, like, a thousand high-school children on this. He made me audition within the cafeteria through the lunch break with, like, a whole lot of children. It was horrible. I had one line.”
Written by Michael Schiffer, Lean On Me stars Morgan Freeman as Joe Clark, an inner-city highschool principal in Paterson, New Jersey, tasked with turning across the college’s take a look at scores to maintain it from being positioned into receivership of the state authorities.
