Live From New York with Sam Rockwell (‘The White Lotus’)

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso

Lemonada Media

Society & Culture, Film Interviews, Tv & Film

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 22 June 2025

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Oscar winner Sam Rockwell has established himself as one of the most versatile actors of his generation. In our recent sit-down, recorded at the Tribeca Audio Festival, we trace the arc of that career culminating in his season-stealing turn in The White Lotus.

We begin with his bifurcated childhood, split between San Francisco and New York City (10:00), falling in love with the movies of the ‘70s and ‘80s (15:30), the cathartic release of performance (18:05), advice from the late Gene Hackman on the set of Heist (21:28), his career-defining turn in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (23:14), and how he gradually began to lean into vulnerability as an artist (33:47).

In the second half, a tribute to Christopher Walken (34:45) and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman (38:32), a dissection of that scene from season three of The White Lotus (44:06), why he tapped into his childhood to portray Bob Fosse in Fosse/Verdon (50:50), and the monologue from Death of a Salesman (52:49) that started it all.

If you’d like to know about our next live show, say hello at [email protected].

For more episodes, visit talkeasypod.com or our new YouTube page.

And a special thanks to actor Spencer Neville for the assist on today’s introduction.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Lemonada
0:02.0	Lemonada
0:04.0	This is Talk Easy. I'm Sam Forgo, so welcome to the show.
0:25.4	Today on the show is actor Sam Rockwell.
0:42.4	We taped this live at the Tribeca Audio Festival at the SVA Theater.
0:48.4	And I just been thinking about his work a whole lot lately, especially with his turn in the White Lotus. You remember the monologue
0:57.4	he did, which hopefully met him an Emmy. But to help me introduce him, I thought I'd call up
1:04.2	a pal of mine. This is Spencer Neville. You may have seen him in that movie Devotion with
1:09.8	Glenn Powell.
1:13.1	He was in a couple episodes of Ozarks.
1:19.1	He's one of these young and up-and-coming actors who, like, in five years, you'll see in everything.
1:25.3	He also, I should say, although we are friends and we tend to be transparent with each other,
1:30.9	he has no idea that I'm calling him to help me introduce Sam Rockwell.
1:34.8	Spencer?
1:36.0	It's me.
1:38.0	What are you doing?
1:40.4	We're doing a little experiment right now.
1:43.4	We're experimenting on the show, and you're on it.
1:45.5	I've called you because I need your help introducing Sam Rockwell. Okay. Obviously, like, in preparation for these, as you know, I try to watch
1:52.2	and read just about everything. And I was going through the movies, like, Moon, Confessions of a
1:58.2	Dangerous Mind, the Way Way Back, Seven Psychopass. They didn't totally hit when they came out.
2:05.2	But then now when I look back at that, I'm like, God, I wouldn't say he's underrated, but he's kind of gone unsung for a while until he got that Oscar for three billboards.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Lemonada Media, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Lemonada Media and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.