Sam Rockwell says he’s still cashing checks for a movie he never actually appeared in. The Oscar winner recently recalled on the Happy Sad Confused podcast that he had driven to New Jersey more than three decades ago to audition for a one-line part in the 1989 drama Lean on Me, which stars Morgan Freeman and Beverly Todd. The White Lotus star said he landed the gig, but “they never got to my scene, so they had to let me go because they didn’t want to pay me for a week.” He added, “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.’” He said he had driven to New Jersey with fellow actors Kevin Corrigan and Michael Imperioli, known for his role in The Sopranos. Imperioli ended up getting cast in Lean on Me, but “I still get residual checks for that, even though I’m not in it,” Rockwell said. He might have missed out then, but Rockwell more than made up for it, earning an Oscar nearly 30 years later for his supporting role in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
Read it at Deadline
