Michael Rooker Quotations

I think all the roles I've done have been very passionate people who go to absolute extremes to make their points.

'Cliffhanger' got me in the best shape of my life, working at 10,000 feet up in the mountains. And everybody was great. I lived in Italy for seven months doing that movie. It was a great vacation.

If the character is getting mad, getting upset or getting turned on, you're getting to see that in the facial tones and the skin tones. That's what I enjoy about acting. It can be very subtle, like that.

Actors are actors. They're all buddies. I've done so many movies and TV that you get to be friends with everyone. And the ones you don't get to be friends with, you simply don't work together with them again.

I was pretty confident that I'd be playing something, if James Gunn could convince Marvel Studios and Disney to cast me. He's involved with the casting too, but if he could convince them to go along with him and agree with getting me on the roster, then yeah, I would have voiced Groot. Not a problem. Groot is an awesome character.

You forget about it, after awhile. You forget that you even have it on. It becomes part of you. You get used to it, even the teeth and the contacts, which bothered the hell out of me. It ends up being something that is part of the role, and part of the thing that you're doing. After awhile, it just feels pretty damn awesome.

There's always room. That's what the directors usually want. They want the performer to bring themselves and give what they have to give for the role. The smart ones allow that to happen because then it becomes even more organic within the performer's imagination. It becomes even more real. It's not always a given in other films, but when Gunn works, and we all work together in a collaborative way like that, it becomes a given that you bring it. It becomes a lot of fun.

As the actor, you can't be worried about the scene that you're going to playing two days from now. You think about what's going on, right now and in the moment. That's what you worry about. Everything is right then and there. In the end, all of the pieces come together, thanks to the editing and James Gunn.

Actors basically do their thing on the set, and then you put all the pieces together, switch them around, and maybe put them a different way that looks better. We just give him everything he needs, and then he goes in and does his thing.

Yeah, my role is gonna be a character by the name of Yondu. And there's gonna be more of Yondu. Yondu is gonna be even more handsome. Perhaps maybe Yondu will add some more bling to his teeth and wear some more jewelry. I don't know. It's gonna be a lot of fun. I've got my fingers crossed that we'll flush out the character even more.

I learned how to turn it on and turn it off. You learn that in theater, too, but for film work, I learned from doing 'Henry,' I learned how to leave work at work and go home. There's always spillover. Actors speak of this.

I already survived one apocalypse, I don't need another.

Every time I was cast in a role, the director put a gun in my hand, so I figured I’d better learn how to use one. Then I found out I really liked it.

That's very cool. Absolutely! You want to know where this guy came from, but you also want to know about the relationship between him and Quill, and how they ended up living together, for the last 18 or 19 years, without killing one another. He's a strong young man, and it's because of Yondu.

Horror fans need horror, okay? They don't need little worms squirming around going down your throat. To them, that's not horror.

I don't approach a role by saying I'll be unsavory or unlikable.

You know how it is, somebody will see your work and like it and remember it, then decide to make it a role in their film.

I've always wanted to play a teacher.

Cliffhanger' got me in the best shape of my life, working at 10,000 feet up in the mountains. And everybody was great. I lived in Italy for seven months doing that movie. It was a great vacation.

I got my training here in Chicago at the Goodman School Of Drama, and a lot of my personal work is usually internal work and stuff. Everything else that goes on is icing on the cake - your wardrobe, your makeup, whatever else you have to do.

Don't mess with me! I'm a black-belt!

Well, I think that's been my career. I always choose stuff that's the same, yet different. These projects just happened. I didn't plan it out that way. I just happened to be free, and the director, Dan Pritzker, decided to do his film again. I say again because we did it seven years ago. A lot of the actors were not available, so he just couldn't wait anymore and he recast everything. Me and two other characters are the only people involved with the new one, who were involved with the previous one.

I don't approach a role by saying I'll be unsavory or unlikable. I think all the roles I've done have been very passionate people who go to absolute extremes to make their points.

It's a super super strange world when the actors are the less weird ones.

When you think of it I haven't really done a lot of horror. It's amazing: I have done some really good ones, but I haven't done a lot of them.