Sam Rockwell opens up about his 'Lean on Me' residual cheques

Sam Rockwell, an Oscar winner American actor, was not in the cast of 1989 film Lean on Me but, he gets paid for the role he almost had he's just revealed.

Rockwell recently appeared on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, where he shared that he, Michael Imperioli and Kevin Corrigan drove together to the audition for a one liner in the movie Lean on Me, where he initially landed a role.

While speaking to the podcast, he admitted, “They never got to my scene. So they had to let me go because they didn’t want to pay me for a week. They were like, we can’t pay him a week for one line.”

Imperioli was then cast for the role, but Rockwell reveals that he still gets paid, “And I still get residual checks for that, even though I’m not in it.”

However, Imperioli’s line was cut as well, but the experience still had a lasting impact on him, as he had the chance to work with director John G. Avildsen on the biographical drama.

Last year, Imperioli told The New Yorker while recalling his experience with the director, “He was not very nice, to be honest. I think he was overwhelmed because there were, like, a thousand high-school kids in this. He made me audition in the cafeteria during the lunch break with, like, hundreds of kids. It was horrible. I had one line.”