Under the Hood: Patrick Wilson on “Watchmen”
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – Patrick Wilson has a deep laugh and a movie-star charm. As such, he wasn’t necessarily online fans’ first choice to play Dan Dreiberg, the nerdy nebbish who is secretly Nite Owl, one of the superheroes at the heart of “Watchmen,” the Zack Snyder adaptation of the graphic novel.
“I remember being cast pretty early on, even though the deal wasn’t known,” Wilson said at the recent press junket for the film. “So I remember when I’d be … hearing randomly about people want this person cast, I would just sort of laugh and I thought, ‘Aw man, but I already have the part!’ There was no chance for these other actors and I felt like I just wanted to put it in an e-mail: Guys, I got news for you. I’m nowhere in your wish list, but, I’m going to be him.”
Wilson put on weight and donned 1980s-style glasses to play Dreiberg, who’s floundering after the government-mandated superhero shutdown. The hero has gadgets and accessories like Batman, but his motivations are different.
“Dan was so far from Bruce Wayne; it’s more Clark Kent than anything,” Wilson said. “I think you don’t run from that, that’s the point, really. The similarities.”
Wilson said he grew up watching Batmans from Adam West on through Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer and George Clooney, and even loves Christian Bale’s current incarnation. Wilson said the similarities with Batman, and Blue Beetle, and “Moon Knight, a couple of other characters thrown in there” didn’t detract from his performance as Nite Owl.
“I don’t know what it’s like to play Batman, but knowing Nite Owl now, it was exciting to act like what Dan would think playing Nite Owl,” Wilson said. “That’s sort of the point of this, is how Dan feels in the suit, not just how Patrick does.”
Dan’s need to be Nite Owl even plays into the film’s romance between Nite Owl and Silk Spectre (Malin Akerman), which culminates in a graphic-for-superhero-movies sex scene.
“You wanted all the passion, the weird fetish-ness, every bit of that was intentional, on purpose,” Wilson said. “And when you have those parameters of what you set out to do, then it gives you a freedom to just go, OK, let’s go for it.”
Wilson re-unites with his “Little Children” co-star, Jackie Earle Haley, in “Watchmen.” The two play former superhero partners. Wilson said he and Haley hung out together more than worked together on “Little Children,” because Haley’s Ronnie, a suspected child molester, had only a couple of scenes with Wilson’s Brad, a stay-at-home dad who falls into a short-term love affair.
“When I heard (Haley) was being considered, I got so excited, and I just kept crossing my fingers that he was going to get it,” Wilson said. The first day of filming together on “Watchmen,” the pair were breaking into an office in full superhero gear, seeking evidence as to who is trying to kill the former Watchmen.
“It was really funny between takes,” Wilson said. “Before we started, we were sort of looking at each other, saying ‘Here we go again.’ It’s Brad and Ronnie in some very weird sequel to ‘Little Children.’”
Despite the trappings, Wilson developed a reverence for the source material. When he told a friend who was a comics fan about being cast in “Watchmen,” Wilson realized that he was on “hallowed ground” for comic-book fans.
“So for not growing up within that world, I always admired it, if that’s odd to say,” Wilson said. “I felt like vicariously through my friend I knew their importance. Funny thing was, I’ve actually gotten more into it the past year. The problem is, (my friend would) give me other comics and graphic novels, and I’d say, ‘It’s not that great,’ and he’d say, ‘Yeah, you started with “Watchmen.” Most of them will pale in comparison.’”
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