Emoting through a mask was a difficult task, and Haley admits he was initially unsure how to approach acting beneath a mask for the majority of his scenes. "It was kind of a challenge or concern, like, 'Wow, how am I going to go about this kind of acting with the sock on my head?' First, you’re kind of nervous because you’re taking away your main tool, which is your face as an actor," explained Haley at the film's LA press day. "But at the same time, you’re playing this character Rorschach, so there was something incredibly motivating by putting this thing on. I think I struggled with it for a little while, just internally, and then I think as time went on all of that was just kind of reconciled in here, and just becoming Rorschach was a much easier process as time went on."
It also helped that visual effects supervisor John 'D.J.' Des Jardin showed Haley a taste of what Rorschach's mask with its ever-changing inkblots would look like while the film was still in production. "We had some fixed Rorschach masks for stunt work and stuff that was further away from the camera, so obviously we could see an exact still representation," recalled Haley. "And then one day DJ showed up on the set, he opened his computer, he said, 'Check it out.' It was the first [scene] of Rorschach, like in the window kind of looking up, it was the very first test that was done, and that was incredibly motivating because it was early on. We thought, 'Oh that’s what it’s doing.' What they did with the blots I thought was incredible. I mean, it just looks really cool."
Haley also adopts a different voice for Rorschach, very unlike his normal speaking voice. Haley says that voice came to him when he read the book. "I think it was pretty similar on my audition tape. I think it’s probably shifted a little bit, but it was just the first thing that I heard," said Haley. "I remember kind of talking to Zack [Snyder], 'What do you think? Should we work on it? Should we try some different stuff?' We were always kind of, 'Well, geez, maybe,' and we just think it just seemed to work so we never re-examined it. And it’s this weird process too, because everyday and I still to this day, I’ll do some ADR or something and we’re always like, 'Oh, let’s check a reference. Does that sound the same?' And then we’d play the reference. Every time I check a reference it was like, 'Oh yeah, that sounds like what I was doing."
Unmasking Rorschach reveals a man with a troubled childhood who's battling more than his share of demons. Without the mask, we see Rorschach as a freckled, unimposing man named Walter Kovacs. But Haley didn't approach Walter Kovacs/Rorschach that way. "To me, it’s just the guy is Rorschach. Walter is long gone, and I think he’s Rorschach with or without the mask. So I’ve pretty much kept it in the same world. I don’t think that he throws on his mask and he completely changes his identity. But I think when he’s in the middle of an interrogation or something, it might pump up his adrenaline and his syntax, you know what I mean? Just like I think anybody would."
A Career Lift and an Unlikely Role
After taking a 13 year break from films, Haley returned with All the King's Men as well as an Oscar-nominated performance in Little Children. Reflecting on these last few years of his career, Haley said, "It’s just been incredible. To have been a child actor and to kind of watch that stuff slowly drift away and to struggle for a few years and kind of find my way in this world, and then to have this kind of comeback… When Steven Zaillian called to put me in All The Kings Men, it just opened up this door again and I was invited back into this world. And it really seemed like an impossibility - like that just would never happen again. I can’t describe how incredible it’s been to get to practice this craft, which is something that means a great deal to me. And to get to do it at this level again, it’s really just been a pinch yourself experience over the last few years, with the Academy thing, and just getting to do the work with Todd Field in Little Children and with Patrick Wilson and Kate [Winslet], it was just phenomenal. And then for that to lead to getting to play this iconic character…I was absolutely flabbergasted when Zack called and offered me the part to play Rorschach. It’s just been a trip."Asked to explain why he was flabbergasted to get offered the opportunity to play Rorschach, Haley replied, "I wasn’t fully aware of Watchmen prior to getting the role, but after hearing that the movie was going to be made and prior to getting the role, I became aware of what Watchmen was, and who Rorschach was, and what the material meant to the fan base, and immediately kind of started getting sucked into it. I mean it’s an amazing piece of work. And Rorschach is an incredible character and an iconic character. I mean he’s a beloved psychopath of Comic Con. And so I recognized that it was something I really wanted to do and the more I learned about Rorschach and the material, it was just like, 'Wow.' I mean, 'Wow!'"
