Interview: 'Silo' actor Will Patton and source novelist Hugh Howey
Whether playing the heavy or showing up to steal a few scenes in films like Minari, Will Patton has been a commanding screen presence for decades. But his status of “Hey, it’s that guy from that thing!” is changing to “Hey, it’s Will Patton!” due in no small part to his recent television work on Yellowstone, Outer Range, and now Apple TV’s Silo.
Taking a break from his numerous projects, Patton recently spoke with Asheville Movies about his audiobook voice work, trying to move away from tough guy roles for something more grounded, and his acting process.
Joel Winstead: I'm calling from Wilmington, North Carolina right now. I know you've kind of been around here shooting some stuff, but the publication is based in Asheville and I’m curious about your roots around there.
Will Patton: Well, my father's family, which I didn't know much about, came from Swannanoa, going way back. And my dad was a chaplain at Duke University when I was a kid, so I kind of knew about those mountains. And I kept coming down and now I do have a place down in that area, and I work in Wilmington.
JW: I know that Echo Mountain Recording Studio is in Asheville, too. Do you do audiobook stuff out of there?
WP: Yeah, that's my favorite studio. Oh, I love it. I love Echo Mountain. it means a lot to me. It's like my home.
JW: I know you do a lot of James Lee Burke novels and recently the Stephen King stuff. It’s kind of become a prolific part of your career. How did that start?
WP: I was always into good literature, and when they asked me to do it many years ago, I said, “It would be really fun to sort of inhabit books I like,” you know? I think the first ones they gave me were like Jim Thompson’s The Killer Inside Me and Pop 1280. I think they liked how that went over and I just kept getting asked.
The last two I did, one was a Dennis Johnson called Stars at Noon, and the other is Charles Frazier's new book, The Trackers. I like it. It's very challenging work, actually. Just you and the microphones. it's almost like one has to be more honest in that work than anywhere else because the microphone almost picks up the soul in a lot of ways.
JW: Right, and you have to inhabit — you know, it's not just one character. It's every character, and you have these deeply rich characters. I'm a huge fan of the Mr. Mercedes series and the way that you do Holly, you know, who's such a big character, that must be daunting.
WP: Yeah. Well, yeah, I think Stephen’s stuff is a little hard for me sometimes. He's so freaky. I'm not going to say anything more about that.
JW: Well, I think that's apt. Talking about kind of inhabiting characters and emotions, I'm particularly loving Silo, especially the episodes that you've been in with your role as Marnes. We've seen you play tough and bad guys, but this role — there's no denying he's strong, but he's also so human and grounded. In a show with such wild concepts, inhabiting that character and grounding that character is so important.
WP: Yeah, I liked it enough to go way the hell over there to England for months. When I read it, I liked the character and I think he is grounded. I haven't seen the final cuts of it. I really enjoyed that character. I really like the story, too. I really loved the people. I mostly worked with David Oyelowo and Geraldine James — they were wonder wonderful to work with, both of them. And of course Rebecca, but we all know that.
JW: Oh yeah, Rebecca Ferguson is on another level, for sure. One of the things I wanted to talk to you about, there was a movie you did a couple years ago called Hammer that I absolutely loved and was banging the drum for. That character, I feel like is very similar to Marnes in a way that he just kind of seems like a regular guy thrust into a situation. There's nothing heightened about it. He’s just a person that’s being asked, “What do you do in that situation?” When you approach a character like that, is it grounding yourself? Is it just finding an emotional core?
WP: I'm really glad you bring that up because that movie meant a lot to me. One of the things I was very interested in, and I think these days it's very important, is what would actually having to kill someone really be like, and the consequences for that and what that would really mean for a human being. I think we play around with violence in such a terrible way now. And I thought, “OK, yeah, what if I went out one afternoon and ended up having to kill somebody?”
I always think we need to really be aware of what that means, and I thought that was a perfect example of a guy who just goes out to get some milk. So, for me to explore what the reality of that would be, I think is important. Every time we shoot somebody or kill somebody in a movie, I think we need to accept a responsibility for that. Why? You know, what is it? Because, man, there's a lot of people that think that guns aren't really real and they're killing people with them, you know? That guy is probably a little closer to who I might really be, you know?
JW: There’s also the vulnerability of being a father and also knowing that your child is really messed up. But at the same time, it's your son. You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. I think it was brilliantly played. These roles you play, you could be like the sheriff in Halloween, but then you could also be Paul in Minari and really just own that character. Those little roles like Paul, are you seeking those out or are you getting offers?
WP: With Paul, I knew [writer/director Lee] Isaac [Chung]. I had worked with him before and we very much had kinship with each other. He probably knows a little bit about my true kind of nature. Not many people would write that kind of part for me. He knew me well enough to know that I'm maybe more interested in those kinds of parts.
I remember a long time ago, I said to my manager, “Well, ok, I want to just play tough guys right now.” Well, my wish came true. I've been trying to shift that up a little bit, find maybe people that are a little more fragile, maybe outside of society in a way that, you know, maybe a lot of people feel that way.
JW: I definitely feel that. I mean, even in Halloween, which is such a heightened genre movie, Frank is very vulnerable and his relationship with Jamie Lee Curtis has that feeling. I could feel that.
WP: Yeah. I mean, David Gordon Green doing Halloween, It was kind of hard to resist. David and Danny McBride.
JW: Starting with No Way Out and going on from there with your relationship with Kevin Costner, showing up in Yellowstone and The Postman, are you in Utah right now, maybe?
WP: Well, no, actually I'm in Santa Fe doing the second season of Outer Range while I shoot the second movie of [Costner’s] Horizon [: An American Saga]. So, I'm going back and forth between Utah and Santa Fe, doing two different characters, which is kind of intense.
JW: Yeah. One show has a spaceship.
WP: Outer Range, you know, is a western, but it's also kind of a metaphysical western. And Horizon is 1860s, 1870s. You know, we were out there on the wagon train for a long time.
JW: When you're doing both at the same time, how is it compartmentalizing these characters and moving between them but not losing them?
WP: I have to have a little bit of time in between. I have to have at least a couple of days to kind of meditate my way back into the other boat. I'm really deep into Outer Range right now, and next week I'll be back on Horizon. I'm just having to deal with it. That's all right. I'm just having to, I just got to do it. And I drive back and forth so there's kind of an interesting time to let the mind swing free when you drive.
(Photos: Apple TV)
