EXCLUSIVE: Rich Sommer's Mancrush On Chris Messina: 'He Feels A Little Bit Like Brando'

Rich Sommer was singing Chris Messina’s praises during an excluse interview with Uinterview about their new movie, Fairhaven, also starring Sarah Paulson and directed by Tom O’Brien. Sommer and Messina had worked together in the past on The Giant Mechanical Man, and Messina’s involvement in Fairhaven (he also helped write the screenplay) was instrumental in Sommer signing on to the film.

“Chris and I were chatting about how he was off to do this other movie in Massachusetts, but that one of the lead guys had just been forced to drop out and just kind of said, ‘Would you read the script?’” Sommer told Uinterview. “So I read it and I not only loved the story, but I also had a deep crush on Chris Messina and wanted the opportunity to work more closely with him than I did in Mechanical Man, so it was a sort of a no brainer.”

In the past Sommer had even shared a bit of an acting rivalry with Messina. “I mean, for me, the first time I saw [Messina] act in person – I’d seen him in movies playing many roles that I had auditioned for – and I was like, ‘Oh!” Sommer said. “I mean, when someone else gets a role, you’re like, ‘What? Why did I not get the part?’ With Messina, it happened a couple times and each and every time, it was like, ‘Oh! Of course I didn’t get the part because this guy is amazing and he’s completely doing it the way it was supposed to be done and not the way I did it in the audition.' ”

“The first time I got to see him act in person was in The Giant Mechanical Man. [It] was a day where I wasn’t working so I just went to watch what they were doing and I said to the person next to me, ‘He feels a little bit like Brando. You don’t know whether he’s going to punch you or f–k you’. Like you’re either going to make love or you’re going to get the shit kicked out of you. This is sort of what he brings to every [role] and I really find that exciting.

For the full interview, in which Sommer talks more about Fairhaven as well as the upcoming season of AMC’s Mad Men, click here.