MTV Movies Blog › fight club

First rule of working on a Chuck Palahnuik flick: Don't talk about working on a Chuck Palahnuik flick. Unless it's to MTV News, of course. "It's a very strange, strange film," Sam Rockwell said of his new movie "Choke," based on a novel from the acclaimed author of "Fight Club."

"It's about a sex addict and he's got this thing," Rockwell revealed about his character, Victor Mancini. "He goes into restaurants and makes himself choke on food so he can get someone to come up to him and give him the Heimlich maneuver and save his life. It's a way for him to get this strange, unconditional love, this childhood memory. He gets stirred up every time he does this choking thing."

But Mancini's dementia goes deeper than being just a sicko who gets his jollies from near asphyxiation, Rockwell asserted. Like all the great Palahnuik protagonists, Mancini has hidden motives. "Anybody with a little bit of money -- he'll look at their watches and stuff -- and then he corresponds with them and says, 'Oh, how are you doing?' They feel like a hero," Rockwell contended. "And then he says 'Oh, but I have to go to the periodontist, my gums hurt,' and they say, 'Let me send you some money.'" So it's a bit of a scam he does, with his choking thing."

Tags choke, chuck palahnuik, fight club, sam rockwell