Veteran actor Sam Rockwell, whose early film credits include a role in The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as the head thug, to more mature films including Choke and Frost/Nixon in 2008, took time from promoting his latest role in the blockbuster hit Iron Man 2 as Tony Stark/Iron Man’s nemesis Justin Hammer, to take part in a conference call with college journalists and answer some of their questions. Rockwell, who has flown under the Hollywood radar, provides an insightful look into the production of Iron Man 2 and teases as to what might be coming up in theaters over the next few months.

How did you get involved with the project to begin with? Are you a fan of the comics?

It was a series of events, you know. I knew Justin Theroux, who wrote the script, and went to the theater at Williamstown together. We were friends. He’s an actor as well.

And then Jon Favreau and I had done Made together with Vince Vaughn and (Jon) had called me once about screen testing for Tony Stark and then it didn’t come together, and Downey, of course, got the part and was amazing. And then I mean, so many things, and my girlfriend was in the first one and we sat down and had dinner with Downey. I ended up doing a guinea pig movie (with Downey), and so it all sort of came together, you know.

Is it freeing for you, as an actor, to get to create your own version of the character because he’s so different in the comics? He’s a lot older and he’s British.

Yes. Yes, it was – I mean, it was very – I mean, you know, Favreau really let me kind of just be myself and do my thing, you know. We were never going to try to do the ascot British accent thing.

How much did you know about Justin Hammer and Iron Man, in general, before taking the role?

I guess I knew very little. I knew nothing. I got the comic books as soon as I got the part and looked at it a little bit, and it was described to me by (Justin Theroux and Jon Favreau).

Was there anything particular about the film that you liked about filming Iron Man?

I think the scenes with Mickey Rourke were very fun for me to do. There’s a lot for me to do in the scenes, and it was a really – it was a good time, you know.

I know there was a lot of secrecy around the production of the film. Were there any moments where that you had to check yourself and make sure that you didn’t slip out any crucial details?

Yes, you know, they give you the script pages, which have your name on it so that if you get them out you get sued because your name’s on them, you know. So it’s – yes, you’ve got to be careful what you say about it because they’re – it’s very top secret.

Was there any ad-libbing or improvisation that you thought was really you guys’ kind of creating it live on the set, and if so, was there any that you thought were really memorable?

You know, I got to say most of it was Theroux, who wrote the script, and Favreau would come in with various ad-libs. I think most of it was the two of them, you know, and really Theroux writing a great script. I did very little improvisation, actually. I mean, I’m a pretty good improviser, but I’m not a writer, so I like to have some structure, you know, and I think Theroux provided that and Favreau provided that in a big way and I prefer it.