A bizarre film like Choke may be a bit of a tough sell to audiences, but it’s a slamdunk for the actors involved. Who wouldn’t want to play an eccentric, neurotic, needy, lusty, manipulative, disillusioned yet charming sex addict with mommy issues? (Sam Rockwell got that part). Or his egomaniacal, dementia-suffering, paranoid, pudding-spewing mother (that part went to Angelica Huston). While the plot of Choke may be complicated, the reasons for signing on were simple.

Sam Rockwell, who is known for his wildly unconventional roles like that of Chuck Barris in George Clooney’s Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and “Wild Bill’ the insane double-murderer in The Green Mile, couldn’t resist. “I think it was really unique among the screenplays I’ve read,” he explains. “I saw Victor as kind of an amalgam of all the great movie Anti-heroes. He’s just a fascinating guy and almost like a modern Hamlet with this whole weird Oedipal thing going on. He’s a real piece of work, but I like that his story is about a man trying somehow to become and adult and that it’s a love story, too—a love story that creeps up on you.”

Huston, an Academy Award winner for Prizzi’s Honor, felt equally enthralled when she read the script. “I read the script and I found it very off-the-wall and wild and also very amusing. When I read it again I liked it even better. And by the third go-round I thought: I obviously have to make this movie.” Huston, of course is noted for playing unusual mothers, from John Cusack’s con-artist parent in The Grifters (for which she received an Oscar nod) to her recent turn as the mother (turned nun) of Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwarzman in Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited.

Just what is so weird about Choke?  Well, it’s based on a book by Chuck Palahniuk, who also wrote Fight Club, and tells the tale of Victor Mancini (Rockwell) is a sex-addicted med-school dropout who keeps his increasingly deranged mother, Ida (Huston), in an expensive private medical hospital by working days playing an Irish indentured servant in a colonial-era theme park.  At night Victor runs a scam by deliberately choking in upscale restaurants to form parasitic relationships with the wealthy patrons who “save” him.  When, in a rare lucid movement, Ida reveals that she has withheld the shocking truth of his father’s identity, Victor enlists the aid of his best friend, Denny (Brad William Henke) and his mother’s beautiful attending physician, Dr. Paige Marshall (Kelly Macdonald), to solve the mystery before the truth of his possibly-divine parentage is lost forever. How’s that for a creative premise?

Palahniuk worked on the screenplay with Clark Gregg, who also directed the film and stars in it. Gregg also wrote the screenplay for What Lies Beneath, but he is probably best known now for the milquetoast ex-husband in the TV series The New Adventures of Old Christine. This was quite the project for him to tackle as his directorial debut.

Gregg knew Huston would be perfect for Ida from the very beginning. Once a fierce revolutionary whose mothering skills left something to be desired, she has now vanished into a haze of fantasy-driven dementia. “Ida’s a combination of someone very tough and crafty with someone quite vulnerable and sensivitv,” notes Huston. “She really called for quite a large range—and I like that. There was also a wonderful opportunity with this role to pay Ida in both younger and older guises.”

Huston was excited to work with Sam Rockwell, commenting, “Sam reminds me of Humphrey Bogart, but in a modern way. I think he’s a very inventive, energetic and interesting actor.”

In Hollywood, it takes one to know one, and to appreciate a fascinating, yet controversial script. Everyone associated with the film has their fingers crossed about its box office performance, but regardless of whether it makes a fortune or not, no one will regret their involvement.