The Hollywood Reporter brought actors Hugh Grant, Sam Rockwell, Billy Porter, Diego Luna, Stephan James, and Richard Madden together for a “drama actor roundtable” to talk about their respective careers. Grant hijacks a lot of the conversation with his typical charming self-deprecation, saying that “because I’ve gotten too old and ugly and fat to do” romantic comedies anymore, “now I’ve done other things and I’ve got marginally less self-hatred.”
When asked what types of roles he’s sick of, Sam Rockwell offers,
Yeah, I could take a break from racists. A long break. (Laughter.) And I played a lot of rednecks—“country” is probably a better way to put it. It’s funny, I’m a city kid, and they’re always trying to throw me on a horse or get a lasso or something. That’s not my thing.
Rockwell is likely referring to his Oscar-winning turn as a racist police officer in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and has appeared in Western-themed films like The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford and, unfortunately, Cowboys & Aliens. Now he’s fresh off of an impressive turn on the FX mini-series Fosse/Verdon as legendary director and choreographer Bob Fosse. Although Rockwell has shown some impressive moves in movies like Charlie’s Angels and has appeared on The Tonight Show dancing with Jimmy Fallon, he admits, “I fancied myself a hoofer and I was cocky about it, but I realized quite quickly that I was not a dancer and I had a lot of work to do.”
Throughout the article, the other actors also get a chance to get their say about the modern state of Hollywood, like Billy Porter remembering that “being black and gay and out came with a lot of unemployment” and Stephan James stating that “it meant a lot that I had this character in Homecoming who didn’t say ‘African American’ on the breakdown.” It all makes for an interesting read over at THR today.