Patrick:
Evil Awakens’ is
available today on VOD and starts in U.S. theaters
Dance has racked up a series of genre credits that should make him familiar to Fangorians and all other sorts of film enthusiasts. His more prominent roles include turns in ALIEN 3, LAST ACTION HERO and UNDERWORLD: AWAKENING, and he’s appeared in GAME OF THRONES, done shorts and lent his voice to this year’s video game THE WITCHER 3: THE WILD HUNT. He describes himself as “a working slut,” but has no prior knowledge of the original PATRICK—a situation he intends to maintain. “It would serve no purpose,” says the actor, whose own take on the ruthless Dr. Roget, owner of the clinic housing the comatose, telekinetic Patrick, seems rock-solid. “He’s misguided and driven by his quest for scientific glory, but not as clever as he thinks he is. He believes in the whole process of electroconvulsive therapy, and doesn’t believe in this telekinesis. He believes that the waking up of dormant neurons will let the brain repair itself.
“Running out of
money is something else that drives him,” Dance continues. “He’s got to come up
with something pretty special; otherwise, there isn’t going to be any more
funding for his clinic. It’s all pretty much in the script, which impressed me.
If it poses questions, I try to get answers to those questions, but it’s pretty
clear who this guy is. I don’t need to know what school he went to or what his
relationship with his mother was like. None of that is important at all.”
Indeed,
Dance welcomes the presence of scripter Justin King on set, while acknowledging
that it’s rare to have the writer around while filming. “One reason is that a
lot of the time, writers are not treated with the respect they should be given.
But there’s a great collaborative feel on this film, which is as it should be.
Film is a collaborative art, when it rises to the heights of art. And that
comes down from Mark [Hartley]; he creates an environment where people are
encouraged to contribute. He knows exactly what he wants, but he’s amenable,
and so is Justin. And that’s great, because we’re all trying to put something
on the screen.”
Dance
claims to be a serious fan of horror movies as long as they’re genuinely
frightening, a category he has no problem placing PATRICK in. “Mark is a very
clever guy. I’ve seen a little bit of an assemblage he did, and it puts the
hairs on the back of your neck up. The set has a great Gothic atmosphere, and
that helps get me in the mood for Dr. Roget.“
While
Dance observes that Patrick spits in his presence, following the original
film’s lead, he won’t go any further in describing Roget’s relationship with
his dangerous patient, other than to say that frogs are involved. “Every film
presents some kind of challenge. It’s a grave mistake to get blasé and
complacent about this strange job we do. Whether we’re doing Chekov or
something of this nature, we have to make it as believable as possible. Horror
is a serious business, so you have to take it seriously. It’s not a challenge
like going down a coal mine for 12 hours a day, or doing brain surgery; we’re
pretending, but we hope we pretend with a degree of credibility.”
http://www.fangoria.com/new/exclusive-patrick-evil-awakens-set-visit-part-two-the-veterans/
