Michael Rooker on Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2

Returning as Yondu, Michael Rooker plays an expanded role in Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2, becoming a fully-fledged member of the team. We spoke to him to get his thoughts on working with CGI characters, working with Stallone, and the accuracy of Wikipedia when it comes to Infinity War…

Obviously this is your second time around. Did you ask for anything specific for your character in this movie?

Nope! I get the script and Gunn’s style is well-thought out. It leaves very little work for me to do!

From what he says it sounds like he keeps a tight rein on the actors sticking to the script. Is that your experience of working with him?

He likes the script to be followed, but he’s not adamant about it. You have the freedom to improvise. I did at least! I don’t know about any of these other guys. I felt like I could say things any way I wanted. His writing is so well thought-out and the part was written for me, so I didn’t need to come up with anything. It was easy!

What was it like having so many scenes with a CGI character, and having to act off them?

They become real to you man! It’s intriguing. My friend Sean Gunn does the Rocket stuff on stage, so that’s great fun. It’s a tough way to shoot stuff because you’re doing it over and over again, even if you nail it first time. You’ve just done it as well as it can be done but you’ve got to do it four more times from different angles so they can layer all the CGI and digital stuff on it. It’s a tough way to make a movie!

What was it like working with Stallone?

Oh, beautiful. He came in, was dead on. Very professional. Just a great experience.

Without giving spoilers away, how do you feel about the way Yondu ends the movie?

I thought it was a great way. Yondu killed it, Gunn knocked that sequence out of the part. In the middle of all that CGI… the challenges were maybe not what you think. You don’t know how loud it’s going to be, or how to project your performance. It’s a very technical sequence, and Gunn was great at helping me get the best of that. I was very happy with how it played out.

So let’s see if we can clear up a Wikipedia matter, if we could…?

Oh, Wikipedia ALWAYS has it right. [Laughs]

Ha, quite. So your Wiki page says that you’re in Infinity War. Anything you’d like to say about it?

Well… I don’t know! I think it’s too soon to say. You’ll have to wait and see…

That was good, wasn’t it? I don’t think we cleared anything up!

You can’t blame me for trying!

No, no. Thank you, man!

Michael Rooker, Thank you very much.

Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 is on DVD, Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray now.