HOLLYWOOD -- Sam Rockwell's career is blasting off.

He is currently starring in two major holiday movies.

In The Green Mile, the 31-year-old New York actor plays the crazed killer who taunts his fellow Death Row prisoners and their guards.

In Galaxy Quest, he's Guy Fleegman, a TV bit player who suddenly finds himself battling aliens in outer space.

"I know I'm the most hated person in The Green Mile, but it was exhilarating playing him. Everyone else in the film is so restrained and reserved. I get to scream and rant every moment I'm on screen," says Rockwell, who admits he almost lost his voice by the end of each day.

He says his Galaxy Quest character is "a snivelling coward. The look they came with for me is Burt Reynolds on a bad hair day."

Rockwell says the most hilarious thing about filming Galaxy Quest is that co-star Sigourney Weaver "wasn't allowed to annihilate the aliens. That's the huge joke in casting her because everyone knows Sigourney is every alien's worst nightmare."

Rockwell is in Los Angeles filming the new Charlie's Angels movie.

"I play Drew Barrymore's boyfriend," he says.

"Because of the role reversals, I end up being the damsel-in-distress character. I get kidnapped and the girls have to rescue me.

"I get to be tied up and Lucy Lui comes in to kick some major butt to free me."


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