ROCKWELL'S DREAM ROLE; INDEPENDENT FILM `BOX OF MOONLIGHT' COULD BE BIG BREAK FOR NEW YORK ACTOR.

Byline: Amy Dawes Daily News Film Writer

For Sam Rockwell, it's been the quintessential independent film experience, getting his first big break.

First he landed a lead role in a movie by well-known indie filmmaker Tom DiCillo (``Johnny Suede,'' ``Living in Oblivion''), only to learn in the same phone call that the financing for the movie, which would be called ``Box of Moonlight,'' had evaporated.

``I had to tell him, `The good news is you got the part. The bad news is we lost the money,''' said DiCillo, who was determined to cast the right actor for the role, rather than the actor whose marquee value would assuage the financiers.

Four years later, after checking in regularly with DiCillo before taking other parts, Rockwell, by then 26, learned that funding had been secured and that he'd be working opposite one of his acting heroes, John Turturro (``Quiz Show,'' ``Unstrung Heroes'').

But when ``Box of Moonlight'' was finished, distributors didn't bite. Even a standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival didn't lead to a cash offer. Then the film played strongly to crowds at Sundance in January and immediately landed a $3 million offer from Trimark, a small but well-established company that will open the film Friday.

For Rockwell, the Sundance experience was particularly successful. Festgoers were abuzz about his remarkably vivid and personalized portrayal of a character called Bucky, or the Kid, a loose-limbed, free-spirited Huck Finn-like character who scratches out a living in the woods of Tennessee and inspires Turturro's character, an uptight, over-programmed engineer, to allow a little more freedom into his own life.

Rave reviews

The New York Times' Janet Maslin gave him a glowing mention, pointing out that DiCillo, with his early ``Johnny Suede,'' cast another good-looking nobody named Brad Pitt. Suddenly Rockwell was deluged with scripts. Since then, he's completed two films, ``Safe Men'' and ``Tom & Jerry,'' that he says were a direct result of the reaction to ``Box of Moonlight.''

``Sundance was a life-changing thing for me,'' said the lean, sandy-haired Rockwell, now 28 and living in New York City's West Village when he's not on a movie set. ``I'm definitely working more now. Bucky was a dream role - the guy is so flamboyant, and I got to show off so many different colors.''

``Kid lives off the grid, has no responsibilities, engages in petty thievery, drives drunk, shoots off illegal fireworks and is kind of a mess,'' said DiCillo of the character he created.

``At the same time, he has a tremendous joy of life that I believe comes hand in hand with an extreme vulnerability and an innocence that makes him almost completely helpless in the real world.''

Rockwell said he was able to inhabit the role so fully because he'd spent so much time with it before he was ever allowed to do it for the cameras. But he claims he's not much like the Kid in real life.

``I guess I'm like him after a few shots of tequila, but the truth is, I need to learn how to have some more fun. My wild days were over pretty quickly, and now I just eat healthy and go to the gym and live a pretty boring lifestyle. I have an apartment, I pay taxes. Sometimes I wish I were more like the Kid.''

Free spirits

Still, Rockwell did have his personal background to draw on when it came to creating a portrait of a free spirit. Both his parents were actors, and his mother was also a painter who was part of New York's East Village scene in the '70s. Rockwell first acted in a play with her when he was 10, part of a ``gypsy'' childhood that involved moving back and forth a lot between arts scenes on both coasts.

``My childhood was a little weird and kooky. I was exposed to a lot of very bohemian people at an early age,'' he recalled.

At 18, he moved to New York to embark on his own acting career. While working odd jobs to support himself, he also found work in theater and commercials, and a string of small roles in movies, including ``Last Exit to Brooklyn,'' ``In the Soup'' and ``Light Sleeper.''

In 1990, he auditioned for the lead role in ``Johnny Suede.'' DiCillo says he very nearly cast him, then decided to go with Pitt, who'd been in a movie that was not yet released called ``Thelma & Louise.''

``Sam did a brilliant audition, so we stayed in touch, and when he read for `Box of Moonlight,' I immediately knew that he was the guy,'' said DiCillo. ``He's a very committed, intuitive actor with a great, goofy sense of humor, and he's willing to let himself go so far that you never know what he's going to do next.''

Now, critics are comparing Rockwell's quirky magnetism to Pitt's charisma, and with magazines including Interview and Details writing up Rockwell, it seems reasonable to wonder whether he'll find similar big opportunities.

But the young actor isn't entirely sure that the big time has that much appeal.

``Fame is a scary thing because it's out of your control,'' said Rockwell. And having made four movies back-to-back since ``Box of Moonlight'' wrapped, he can't think of anything he'd rather do than rest.

But there's a new offer to consider - he's got a shot at a part in ``The Thin Red Line,'' the film Terrence Malick (``Days of Heaven'') is shooting in Australia.

``Of course I'd love to work with Terrence Malick. What actor wouldn't?'' he asked. ``I'm probably gonna push myself that extra mile. After that, I'll just chill out for a while.''

CAPTION(S):

Photo

Photo: Sam Rockwell plays the free-spirited, Huck Finn-like Bucky in ``Box of Moonlight.'' The film, directed by Tom DiCillo, opens Friday.