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Crave Online: Did you research sex addicts?

Sam Rockwell: We actually did. We both went to a few meetings. I went to five or six meetings.

Crave Online: Did you know Brad William Henke before?

Sam Rockwell: No.

Crave Online: How did you build the chemistry?

Sam Rockwell: I think Clark was really smart about the casting process and Mary Vernieu who cast Bad Santa, some Mike Judge movies, she's a great casting director. When you're casting a movie, an actor/director, Clark [Gregg]'s very smart about casting. Not unlike George Clooney is good. When an actor casts, he's looking at it from who do I want to act with? I want to act with somebody who has training, who has experience. You could tell, actors have a vocabulary with each other. Just like I would think writers do to, it's like you know this person's the real deal. It's no coincidence. Clark's looking for the best people for the job so he finds Brad, Kelly [MacDonald]. We're all really serious about acting I think. We've done the same kind of training so it's a work aesthetic I think too, with me and Brad.

Crave Online: How do you tackle the character?

Sam Rockwell: You do maybe a little research and watch a documentary. Then you read the book. Then I have my own references. Clark and I talked about Harold and Maude as a tone and The Fisher King was talked about. I think of other things. I go to my acting coach and we work on the material. You reference things like the mother and son, like The Glass Menagerie or Hamlet even. Then I'm always constantly referring to my 1970s cinematic encyclopedia which is movies like Five Easy Pieces or Harold and Maude where you have antiheroes, or Tom Jones with Albert Finney, Alfie. So you have these antiheroes, a Casanova or somebody. Five Easy Pieces is a real template for this guy I think.

Crave Online: Did any of that research include Colonial Williamsburg, where Victor works?

Sam Rockwell: You know something, we never had time to get into that. We saw some pictures I think.

Crave Online: You said in another interview that kissing scenes were harder than sex scenes. What did you mean?

Sam Rockwell: Oh yeah, I think that's true. Well, the sex scenes are fake. You aren't really having sex. When you're kissing, you're really kissing. So I think that kind of says it all. Sex scenes are just kind of silly. You've got these women coming in for a day. You just want to make them feel comfortable. It's a weird job so you try to tell a joke and keep it relaxed.

Crave Online: What about choking? Did you ever come close?

Sam Rockwell: No. It's like you hold your breath for a little bit and make your face red. It was just pretend.

Crave Online: So you were never in any danger.

Sam Rockwell: I don't think so. It's probably not the healthiest thing to stop yourself from breathing for a couple of seconds.

Crave Online: Did you know some theaters are refusing to show Choke because of the sexual content?

Sam Rockwell: That’s cool. I like that. That means we did something right. It's a romantic comedy. It's just a couple of breasteses. We showed the ass. I show my ass. That movie's so tame compared to the book.

Crave Online: Have you been in audiences and heard them gasp at the end of the movie?

Sam Rockwell: Yeah, I did. A couple I did. It was pretty wild. Chicago there were some college kids. They loved it. It was great. Really cool reactions.