Rooker: Portrait of a character actor

Michael Rooker does not want to kill you. But if the role requires it, he'll oblige.

The character actor has made a career of playing the heavy, the blood-thirsty psychopath, the bad hombre. Unlike many of his journeymen contemporaries, who toil in the background for years until they snag a big break, Rooker earned one of his meatiest and most dangerous, roles straight out of the gate, playing the title character in 1986's Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, his debut feature performance.

As the pitiless, terrifying Henry, Rooker immediately grabbed audiences by the throat, his eyes holding a particularly brutal intensity that hinted at untapped reservoirs of darkness. It was a role that sparked both instant acclaim and controversy – Henry was rated X by the Motion Picture Association of America and struggled for years to find a distributor – but it also imprinted the Alabama-born actor's filmography with all manner of men whom you wouldn't want to cross paths with.

Until a few years ago, that is. Today, the 62-year-old is blockbuster-certified with Marvel's cash-cow Guardians of the Galaxy franchise and a household name among children whose parents would be wise to keep them a mile away from Rooker's previous projects.

The career pivot can be traced back to, of all things, an extraordinarily gross horror movie. Back in 2005, Rooker auditioned for a role in Slither, a genre-mashup from James Gunn, a hungry filmmaker who'd sold a few high-profile scripts to studios but earned his chops working in the ultra-low-budget world of Troma Entertainment (responsible for such vulgar curiosities as Tromeo and Juliet and Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV). Gunn was looking for someone with the appropriate mix of menace and world-weariness to play Grant, a car salesman who gets infected by an alien parasite, quickly transforming into a mutated space monster – albeit a mutated space monster who still loves his wife.

"It was a straight audition for him, but I knew there was only a short list of people James wanted to see," Rooker says now. "I went in and James and I instantly hit it off. We found we have that same off-kilter sensibility. He learned his craft very early on with [Troma's Lloyd] Kaufman and those guys. He knows how to do everything, from the posters to the post-production. We bonded quickly."

Slither proved to be a challenging role, requiring not only a subtle balance of empathy and malevolence, but also 7 1/2 hours in the makeup chair every single day. "That actually turned into a nice, relaxing thing for me – it wasn't too stressful at all," says Rooker, his southern accent edging nicely against his trademark rasp. "It can be draining, getting to work four or five hours before anyone else, but it helped me prepare, to think to myself."

Rooker's hours spent getting slathered with all manner of pus and gore turned out to be time well spent. Although it didn't set the box office on fire, Slither solidified the most fruitful working relationship of Rooker's career, pushing him out of the shaky world of fly-by-night villains and into the terra firma of the mainstream blockbuster. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which opens pretty much anywhere with a movie screen on Friday, marks the actor's fifth collaboration with Gunn.

To take a glance at the marketing materials for the highly anticipated superhero sequel, though, you'd be forgiven for thinking Rooker might just be making a cameo this time as Yondu, the alien outlaw who popped up in the first Guardians as a quasi-rival to hero Star-Lord (Chris Pratt). But make no mistake – GOTGV2 is Yondu's show (okay, it's his show when talking-tree Baby Groot isn't around hogging screen time).

"This was a true treat, because I've been given such a great opportunity here," Rooker says of his expanded role, which finds Yondu less a hammy side villain and more an antihero in existential crisis. "With the first film, I was just excited to play this iconic figure from the comics. I was happy. But as you know from seeing the new film, there's a lot more stuff for me to do here now, and it was a big challenge. But James has always done a great job looking out for me."

For his part, Gunn exploits the creative partnership well: He uses Rooker in a way most audiences aren't used to and gains a loyal partner who he can put through the wringer. "I consider [GOTGV2] a charity for Michael Rooker," joked Gunn at a red-carpet premiere the other week, "because otherwise, how is he going to make a dime unless he has my movies to work for him?"

Rooker is, naturally, just as quick to shoot back, gently blasting Gunn on a rash of topics, including his side gig as a performer ("As an actor, James should continue directing," he says).

Still, Rooker knows just how fortunate he is to be getting a new, tonally different career arc so late in the game. Combined with the lingering fan-boy affection he earned for his supporting role during the first three seasons of AMC's The Walking Dead, Rooker is arguably the most well-known character actor of his generation.

"I do count my lucky stars. … You can be miscast so often, but when people start to see who you are and what you can do," he says, "then you can really make your career your own."