Sam Rockwell lost THIS movie to Michael Imperioli: 'Got to pay'

Sam Rockwell just got candid about landing a breakout role in Lean on Me.

The 56-year-old American actor appeared on the latest episode of the Happy Sad Confused podcast by Josh Horowitz, where he opened up about giving auditions for Lean on Me with Kevin Corrigan and Michael Imperioli after they all travelled to New Jersey for a single life in the film.

The Iron Man 2 star said, “I still get residual checks for that even though I'm not in it.”

However, they all got their respective roles but they “never got to my scene” as production considered paying Rockwell for a day instead of a week and ended up firing him because he had only one line in the movie. Also, they chose Imperioli to play George instead.

“They never got to my scene. So, they had to let me go because they didn’t want to pay me for a week. So, they got to pay for a day player or pay for a week. So, they… let me go. They fired me… And because they were like, ‘Ah, we can’t pay them a week for one line.’ And then they hired Michael, and Michael [Imperioli] got it. Michael’s in the movie, but I still got residuals," Rockwell explained.

Notably, Imperioli stepped into the world of entertainment through Lean on Me, as it was his debut film but the overall experience made him feel how “horrible” his acting was.