William Sadler is a versatile actor that you’ve most likely seen in many films and TV series, like Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey, Shawshank Redemption, Roswell, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and many more, but he hasn’t had a role as difficult as the one in The Green Mile, and he recently opened up about the experience to our friends over at Cinemablend.
In a visit to the set of Sadler’s most recent film, The Grudge, Dirk Libbey of Cinema Blend got to catch up with the actor about the toll of working in such emotionally heavy scenes like the ones he witnessed on set. Sadler referred back to his role in the 1999 film The Green Mile, in which he played the father of two young girls who had gone missing, and having to act in the scene in which they are found murdered. He recalled:
The hardest scene I think I’ve ever done on film was that little scene in The Green Mile where I come upon Michael Clarke Duncan and he’s holding my two little girls. And I was a young father at the time we shot it. I had a little girl about that age. And just to even go there was horrifying. But, to spend a whole day going there, seeing them, it was just awful.
And the worst part of it was that he couldn’t just prepare, shoot the scene, and let it go. It was a full day shoot, and he had to stay in character the whole time. He said:
I just couldn’t snap into it and snap out of it. The scene required something else and the thing that it required meant that I needed to keep one foot in that all day long.
He said he had never taken the idea of method acting as seriously as he did once in this role. But the feelings he had to invoke were just awful. He had to even wonder if it was all worth it. He added:
I just kept thinking they’re not paying me enough to feel like this all day long.
I’m sure that would run through your head. I can’t imagine having to play a role that emotionally taxing. I could never fathom imagining something happening to my kids, so it would be awful to feel that way for a long period of time on purpose. It made the film that much more incredible though. I don’t usually go back to watch that film because it is filled with scenes that make you cry. If you haven’t seen The Green Mile, it’s definitely worth a watch. It’s just a tear-jerker.