Thomas Haden Church

Trivia

• Won the Emmy Award for "Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Movie: for his role of Tom Harte on AMC's Broken Trail (2006) (TV).
• Began working on a cattle ranch at age 13.
• Director Sam Raimi thanked him for doing Spider-Man 3 (2007) by giving him a copy of Amazing Spiderman #4, the comic book issue that featured the first appearance of his Sandman character.
• Turned down the role, which eventually went to Greg Kinnear, in Little Miss Sunshine (2006), a decision he later regretted.
• Engaged to actress Mia Zottoli. They have a daughter, Cody (b. 2004).
• In the last episode of "Ned and Stacey" (1995), he said that he intended to spend the next time on a farm in Texas -- which he did in real life.
• His breakthrough was Sideways (2004), which led to a role in Spider-Man 3 (2007).
• At director Sam Raimi's request, Church worked out in a gym for more than six months and put on more than ten pounds of muscle to play the lead villain Flint Marko/Sandman in Spider-Man 3 (2007).
• He was Invited to join AMPAS in 2005.
• Says he had pretty much retired from acting and was spending most of his time on his ranch in Texas when Alexander Payne asked him to star in Sideways (2004).

Quotes

• "I made a comfortable living for several years. I invested, and I protected myself, so I enjoy that freedom."
• "I would say 95% of the time, because you just can't remember your lines if you're drinking alcohol. I would say about 95% of the time it was grape juice or this fake wine, which was horrible."
• "I'm not so proud to think that anything is unworthy, and I don't think I was that way 10 years ago."
• "It's one of those scenarios where no, I never imagined that I'd be directed in a love scene - not even a love scene because it's kind of a hard-core sex scene because it's kind of just purely played for this carnal venting."
• "Last summer when we were preparing for the movie, I actually kind of wanted to stay fairly uninformed about it. As we went through the process that we do in the movie, I wanted to be a little wide-eyed."
• "The title of the movie is open to interpretation."
• "Their lives have been largely defined by failure and you would think the prospect of marriage, which is supposed to be bountiful and hopeful, it's just really another kind of tangential thing in his life."
• "To some extent I could identify with that because I kind of just made my money and got out."
• "When I moved to L.A. in 1989, the very first thing I did was this horrific pilot called To Protect And Surf."
• "I am always wondering, 'Am I doing as much as I can do?' But then my wife reminds me I run four cattle ranches, a commercial beef operation, and I have an acting career. I think I have made the effort, and it has paid off. I mean, I think I have made the effort. And that effort has paid off...to some extent."