Dan Epstein: Ray [Liotta] mentioned that [Narc director] Joe Carnahan thought of you because he remembered Rush [released in 1991]. Did you think back to that film at all?
Jason Patric: No. I was 24 when I did Rush and I always look at something at how I would express it now. If anything I wanted to make sure that we weren't rehashing Rush. I don't see any parallels between the two. Just the fact that they are struggling with certain moral issues but most of the characters I play are doing that whether they are cops or not.
DE: Why are you attracted to characters like that?
JP: It interests me in books, movies. In Narc my character is an anti-hero. He's outside the bounds and strictures of the law and the nuclear family.
DE: Ray was talking about the chemistry between the two of you because he is kind of like his character and you are a little more laid back. How did you feel?
JP: I felt that we are very different as people and the characters are very different. My guy starts out like a cannon and I get to do the whole gamut. Ray and I didn't hang out together as friends at all because the characters meet for the first time in the movie and have suspicions of one another.
DE: The perfect scene that seems to define your character is when they are talking about how you killed the baby and then it goes to you in the shower with your baby.
JP: That scene strikes people a lot. Because it's got no dialogue and it's never been seen in a movie before. When you're doing a genre you try to find elements that remain in your mind. Joe had it written that he wanted me to shower with the baby. My suggestion was that we start on my face and then reveal the baby. There's movement to it and you inform the character without dialogue.
DE: What are the ground rules for two adults arguing in front of a baby in a movie?
JP: No ground rules. Joe and I specifically talked about how in most movies you establish the baby and then you frame them out. We wanted the baby in every frame because it showed an important side to my character. My hands are always with the baby. It's interesting to see those hands with the baby and then see those same hands slapping someone on the street. You can see the dichotomy with those hands. If the baby is crying then it's crying and at the end of the scene I actually calm it down. That makes Narc as much a [John] Cassavetes movie as it is a Friedkin film.
DE: You've had a very interesting career.
JP: That's a nice way of putting it.
DE: How do you see your career in the Hollywood scheme?
JP: It's probably a non-career in terms of Hollywood. I've done the opposite of the book. I haven't done filler movies where the role is good but I knew the movie was going to be bad just to keep my face out there. I really tried to make movies I wanted to see. Idealistically or naively so I thought that if I was good enough somebody would always need me. The business has changed radically since then so it hasn't been as easy.
DE: Do you regret not playing the game?
JP: I've had regrets in the downtime and struggles in between but I've made two movies in the past five years, Your Friends and Neighbors and Narc. I'm happy with them. Narc is rolling along as a small phenomenon so it makes all those choices worthwhile.
DE: Do you see Narc opening more doors for you?
JP: Probably just because I'm in a movie again. It will and it has. I was unemployed, it came by and I was going through some stuff in my life. I figured I could put something to this character.
DE: It's a great ambiguous ending. Do you want to know what happened?
JP: My mind goes to there but while filming it you don't think about it because the character doesn't know. I don't want to even subconsciously foreshadow what will happen.
DE: How do you occupy your time between films?
JP: I have a production company. I produced Your Friends and Neighbors. Then I get to spend alloy time with friends, read and I get to go to more ballgames than most people.
DE: I saw your episode of Saturday Night Live [originally aired 1/8/93].
JP: They play it like every two weeks.
DE: You're so funny in it. Why don't you do more straight comedy?
JP: I don't think comedies are well made. I did SNL because I wanted to work with Phil Hartman. I think it could have been funnier I shouldn't have listened to them so much. I would do it if I found it. I would do a romantic comedy if it were good. If it was what Woody Allen used to be able to do. I like Animal House it's a well made movie for that genre and American Pie is not. I'm trying to find real behavior.
DE: Why didn't you produce Narc?
JP: They already had a producer on set. But I certainly used everything I learned through the business to help and augment Joe. I won't just work gun for hire. I'm better as an actor if I have my hands in it. Joe was open to that. There isn't a scene in it we weren't able to work on together.
DE: Are low budget films easier to do that on?
JP: Easier to do but I don't think it's impossible on bigger budgeted films. The success of Narc is going to let people know.
DE: You've done your share of big budget movies.
JP: Not that many.
DE: What's your memory of Speed 2?
JP: It's a big fat bloated bad movie. At the time my movies weren't playing in foreign markets and the business had radically changed. I made three movies in one year I think 1995 and I was unhappy with all of them. Sleepers, Incognito and Speed 2.
DE: What didnt you like about them?
JP: I didn't like making them or the end product. Sleepers was a little bloated and removed. When I got it, it didn't have a lot of people attached. Ultimately when we were filming it I didn't buy the story either. Incognito they fired the director. Before Speed 2 I had been offered a lot of action movies. They're all sequels in my opinion. I did Speed 2 because I was told it was foolproof. Jan De Bont's first two movies had made a billion dollars. It had a billion dollars. They wanted me for some form of acting that I was not able to do. I wanted to make it sexy I like Sandy [Bullock] but I think she was in a different world.
DE: How do you look back on Lost Boys?
JP: I really don't. I was 18 or 19. When it does pop up on television I don't even recognize myself. At some hotel the other night After Dark My Sweet was on and I still like that.
DE: I talked with Neil Labute some months ago and he said he still suffers fallout from Your Friends and Neighbors. Have you suffered that?
JP: I think it's something that existed before so I don't really realize anything. Actors who say people come up to them on the street. Maybe dopey people who watch 12 soap operas a day actually believe you're the villain. I haven't experienced that. I brought Neil to Hollywood maybe to the consternation of others.
I think in Hollywood the idea that I played the role in Your Friends and Neighbors without winking but I refused to do that. But I know a lot of people think that is what I'm about.
DE: How old were you when you saw your dad [Jason Miller] in The Exorcist?
JP: I didn't see it until I was 16. I saw it again when they re-released it. I didn't like what they added. I think it's the best American horror movie ever made. Friedkin was at the top of his game.
DE: Thanks Jason.
Jason Patric: No. I was 24 when I did Rush and I always look at something at how I would express it now. If anything I wanted to make sure that we weren't rehashing Rush. I don't see any parallels between the two. Just the fact that they are struggling with certain moral issues but most of the characters I play are doing that whether they are cops or not.
DE: Why are you attracted to characters like that?
JP: It interests me in books, movies. In Narc my character is an anti-hero. He's outside the bounds and strictures of the law and the nuclear family.
DE: Ray was talking about the chemistry between the two of you because he is kind of like his character and you are a little more laid back. How did you feel?
JP: I felt that we are very different as people and the characters are very different. My guy starts out like a cannon and I get to do the whole gamut. Ray and I didn't hang out together as friends at all because the characters meet for the first time in the movie and have suspicions of one another.
DE: The perfect scene that seems to define your character is when they are talking about how you killed the baby and then it goes to you in the shower with your baby.
JP: That scene strikes people a lot. Because it's got no dialogue and it's never been seen in a movie before. When you're doing a genre you try to find elements that remain in your mind. Joe had it written that he wanted me to shower with the baby. My suggestion was that we start on my face and then reveal the baby. There's movement to it and you inform the character without dialogue.
DE: What are the ground rules for two adults arguing in front of a baby in a movie?
JP: No ground rules. Joe and I specifically talked about how in most movies you establish the baby and then you frame them out. We wanted the baby in every frame because it showed an important side to my character. My hands are always with the baby. It's interesting to see those hands with the baby and then see those same hands slapping someone on the street. You can see the dichotomy with those hands. If the baby is crying then it's crying and at the end of the scene I actually calm it down. That makes Narc as much a [John] Cassavetes movie as it is a Friedkin film.
DE: You've had a very interesting career.
JP: That's a nice way of putting it.
DE: How do you see your career in the Hollywood scheme?
JP: It's probably a non-career in terms of Hollywood. I've done the opposite of the book. I haven't done filler movies where the role is good but I knew the movie was going to be bad just to keep my face out there. I really tried to make movies I wanted to see. Idealistically or naively so I thought that if I was good enough somebody would always need me. The business has changed radically since then so it hasn't been as easy.
DE: Do you regret not playing the game?
JP: I've had regrets in the downtime and struggles in between but I've made two movies in the past five years, Your Friends and Neighbors and Narc. I'm happy with them. Narc is rolling along as a small phenomenon so it makes all those choices worthwhile.
DE: Do you see Narc opening more doors for you?
JP: Probably just because I'm in a movie again. It will and it has. I was unemployed, it came by and I was going through some stuff in my life. I figured I could put something to this character.
DE: It's a great ambiguous ending. Do you want to know what happened?
JP: My mind goes to there but while filming it you don't think about it because the character doesn't know. I don't want to even subconsciously foreshadow what will happen.
DE: How do you occupy your time between films?
JP: I have a production company. I produced Your Friends and Neighbors. Then I get to spend alloy time with friends, read and I get to go to more ballgames than most people.
DE: I saw your episode of Saturday Night Live [originally aired 1/8/93].
JP: They play it like every two weeks.
DE: You're so funny in it. Why don't you do more straight comedy?
JP: I don't think comedies are well made. I did SNL because I wanted to work with Phil Hartman. I think it could have been funnier I shouldn't have listened to them so much. I would do it if I found it. I would do a romantic comedy if it were good. If it was what Woody Allen used to be able to do. I like Animal House it's a well made movie for that genre and American Pie is not. I'm trying to find real behavior.
DE: Why didn't you produce Narc?
JP: They already had a producer on set. But I certainly used everything I learned through the business to help and augment Joe. I won't just work gun for hire. I'm better as an actor if I have my hands in it. Joe was open to that. There isn't a scene in it we weren't able to work on together.
DE: Are low budget films easier to do that on?
JP: Easier to do but I don't think it's impossible on bigger budgeted films. The success of Narc is going to let people know.
DE: You've done your share of big budget movies.
JP: Not that many.
DE: What's your memory of Speed 2?
JP: It's a big fat bloated bad movie. At the time my movies weren't playing in foreign markets and the business had radically changed. I made three movies in one year I think 1995 and I was unhappy with all of them. Sleepers, Incognito and Speed 2.
DE: What didnt you like about them?
JP: I didn't like making them or the end product. Sleepers was a little bloated and removed. When I got it, it didn't have a lot of people attached. Ultimately when we were filming it I didn't buy the story either. Incognito they fired the director. Before Speed 2 I had been offered a lot of action movies. They're all sequels in my opinion. I did Speed 2 because I was told it was foolproof. Jan De Bont's first two movies had made a billion dollars. It had a billion dollars. They wanted me for some form of acting that I was not able to do. I wanted to make it sexy I like Sandy [Bullock] but I think she was in a different world.
DE: How do you look back on Lost Boys?
JP: I really don't. I was 18 or 19. When it does pop up on television I don't even recognize myself. At some hotel the other night After Dark My Sweet was on and I still like that.
DE: I talked with Neil Labute some months ago and he said he still suffers fallout from Your Friends and Neighbors. Have you suffered that?
JP: I think it's something that existed before so I don't really realize anything. Actors who say people come up to them on the street. Maybe dopey people who watch 12 soap operas a day actually believe you're the villain. I haven't experienced that. I brought Neil to Hollywood maybe to the consternation of others.
I think in Hollywood the idea that I played the role in Your Friends and Neighbors without winking but I refused to do that. But I know a lot of people think that is what I'm about.
DE: How old were you when you saw your dad [Jason Miller] in The Exorcist?
JP: I didn't see it until I was 16. I saw it again when they re-released it. I didn't like what they added. I think it's the best American horror movie ever made. Friedkin was at the top of his game.
DE: Thanks Jason.