Rory Cochrane makes a supporting character seem occupied with thoughts nobody else can quite follow. We like him most when a director gives that odd concentration time to register, as Richard Linklater does in Dazed and Confused.
Fi1m perspective
Rory Cochrane’s Slater seems to require a little extra time for a thought to arrive. In Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused (1993), the waiting becomes part of the comedy, and Cochrane makes it worth staying for. We laughed at his slack concentration, because he gives such serious attention to a mind proceeding so slowly. Linklater lets him keep that pace while the film moves between its groups of teenagers.
That patience matters in a cast whose members have different ways of getting through the evening. Jason London’s Pink gives us someone more settled to return to; Wiley Wiggins’s Mitch is more exposed, while Cochrane seems in no particular hurry. The wandering does occasionally wear thin, but the characters remain good company. Cochrane benefits from a director who allows differences between actors to become entertaining without insisting that each appearance must interrupt the film.
Empire Records (1995), in which he plays Lucas, followed that breakthrough. He then spent three seasons playing Tim Speedle on CSI: Miami between 2002 and 2004. The subsequent film work included a reunion with Linklater as Charles Freck in A Scanner Darkly (2006), with thrillers and crime dramas becoming a substantial part of his supporting work. We see no reason to regard a career largely built in support as an unfinished attempt to become a leading man.
His Lee Schatz in Ben Affleck’s Argo (2012) belongs to a film whose rescue plot provides more of the pleasure than its character writing. We recommend the thriller with reservations about its contrivances and underwritten hero, rather than as a particular demonstration of what Cochrane can do. Stephen Flemmi in Black Mass (2015) continued that run of supporting parts. For the clearest pleasure in his acting, start with Slater and give Linklater’s wandering some patience.
Biography
Rory Cochrane is an American actor. He was born on 28 February 1972 in Syracuse, New York, and trained at the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York City.
His breakout role was as Ron Slater in Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused (1993). He later appeared as Lucas in Empire Records (1995), Tim Speedle in the television series CSI: Miami (2002–2004), Charles Freck in A Scanner Darkly (2006), Lee Schatz in Argo (2012), and Stephen Flemmi in Black Mass (2015). Other credits include roles in Public Enemies (2009), Oculus (2014), Hostiles (2017) and the series Yellowstone (2018–).
