We had a great time chatting with Michael Rooker at Wizard World Comic Con. He was almost more interested in chatting with my kids and getting to know them than getting interviewed. He’s that kind of guy. He’s a bit of a wild card, to say the least. He so versatile and does some really unexpected work, and has come a really long was since his film start as Henry in Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer in 1986.
Michael Rooker loved playing Yondu in Guardians of the Galaxy. He loves his “work,” which he doesn’t even want to call a job, because he loves his job so much. He told my girls that they should pick jobs they love because the want to go to work every day loving what they do, like he does.
On being Yondu Udonta
Rooker: “Guardians was such a cool thing for me. I loved it.
James Gunn wrote the role with me in mind. I read the comics, I knew a little bit about Yondu. But James told me the character was different and he told me to stop reading the comics because he was doing some different things. I didn’t know a lot about it, so I asked a lot of questions at first. I was thrilled to be a part of it. It was such a cool role. I was intrigued by the fact that this guy had an accent, and the sort of father-son relationship with Peter Quill, and that he loved all these Earthling things. He collects all these trinkets.”
On make-up
Rooker: “Yondu’s make-up took 3-and-a-half to 4 hours, including prosthetics. Zombie make up is only about 2 hours. Yondu was so intensive and detailed compared to zombie make-up. Both had heavy use of contacts, too, and that was a big part of it. I don’t get to do a lot of make-up in most of my character roles so I enjoyed that. It was different, intriguing.”
On what’s next for Rooker
He just finished filming a movie called Bolden! about a jazz coronet player who winds up in an insane asylum, and is working on Guardians of the Galaxy 2. He also recently finished The Belko Experiment, a thriller written by James Gunn with a yet to be released date, but likely later this year.
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Wow!! what a dream come true to meet Michael Rooker!! He gave such a meaningful advice to your kids too. How humble he is!