By Pauline Adamek & Jeremy Nigro
Talented Aussie director, James Wan (Saw, Insidious), gave horror fans a treat with 2013’s The Conjuring, which focused on real life paranormal investigators, Ed and Lorraine Warren (played by Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga), most famous for their involvement in the Amityville haunting. In the film’s sequel, the action switches to Enfield, a borough in North London, where the Hodgson family are being beset by what appears to be an evil force, and single mother-of-four, Peggy (Frances O’Connor), is at her breaking point. Daughter, Janet (Madison Wolfe), is experiencing vivid visions, and could be suffering from demonic possession. Naturally, few believe the Hodgsons, so it’s up to the Warrens to once again save the day. The Conjuring 2 is the fourth film that American actor, Patrick Wilson and James Wan, have worked together on after first coming together on 2010’s Insidious. A veteran of stage and screen, Wilson heaps plenty of praise on the young Aussie director, who had initially opted not to return to direct The Conjuring 2. FilmInk chats to Patrick Wilson about his bromance with James Wan, his friendly relationship with co-star Vera Farmiga, and his reaction to the success of the Insidious and The Conjuring franchises.
When you heard that they were going to do the sequel, what was your reaction? “What I love about this franchise – I guess now that we’ve done two, you can call it a franchise – is that the structure allows for continuation. You have me and Vera, but there are so many different cases that Lorraine and Ed Warren were involved in. You’re finding out about Ed and Lorraine, but it’s always centred on a specific story, whether it was in Rhode Island for the first one or Enfield in this one. It didn’t surprise me that they’d do a sequel. We knew that from the get go. I think that there will be, knock on wood, more.”
Were you surprised by the success of the first film? “I had done Insidious with James, and I knew about the Warrens, so I had a feeling that he was going to knock it out of the park. But when you’re talking about the hundreds of millions of dollars that it made, I guess that was a surprise. I never really think of things like, ‘Oh, I think this is going to make this amount of money.’ I don’t look at a movie like that, so there’s never really a moment where I thought, ‘Wow, it’s much more successful than I thought.’ What you saw from the first one is that it crested over the initial horror fan base. I could start to tell that when I had women coming up to me, and people that weren’t the typical horror crowd, and the conversation starts with, ‘You know, I don’t like horror movies, but I loved The Conjuring.’ We’ve reached another demographic, and that’s exciting to me. That’s what makes movies like The Shining and Poltergeist become classic films, because they aren’t just pigeon-holed into one genre. That’s what the first one did, and I certainly hope that we did the same with this one.”
What was your reaction when James said in the press that he didn’t want to make another horror movie’? “I don’t want to speak for James, but I know that when you look at what everybody on Fast And Furious went through with Paul’s death, I can only imagine, and James did an amazing job with that movie. This was something that he felt very passionate about. He wants to make incredible movies, and we have a great time making movies together. We just kept thinking, ‘Okay, we know that you’re not going to direct the second one. Who do you think should do it?’ We were at that phase. I would ask him, ‘I know that you’re going to be involved somehow. I don’t expect you to direct it, but who do you think we’ll get? The first one was such a big hit, so I’m sure that we’ll get somebody great.’ So when he said, ‘I think I’m going to come back,’ I was like, ‘What, really?’ We had already decided, ‘Alright, we’ll get somebody else and make the most of it.’”
Are you one of the producers? You’re talking like you are… “God no, I’ve just done four movies with the guy. We text each other throughout the year. I call him, and we talk.”
You’ve worked on so many things from being on stage, to television, to film. Is there something about horror that draws you to the physicality? “No, it’s James really. It’s not that I don’t really like horror; I just don’t watch a lot of it. We formed a really good relationship on Insidious, and I like embracing the real theatricality of this. It’s not often in movies where you get to give exorcisms and just go at it. That’s fun for me as an actor. I’ve done a lot of roles, and I’ll be the first to say it where it’s so underplayed that it’s like, ‘Are you even doing anything?’ There’s just not a lot of colour to some roles. What I’ve found in the horror films that I’ve done with James – whether it was Insidious or particularly Insidious 2, where I was possessed – there’s stuff to chew on. It’s a great character; he’s a great guy to play and to sink your teeth into. It gets me out of my comfort zone: embracing the fact that today you have to walk around screaming Latin, trying to get a demon to come out of you! That’s as theatrical as it gets, and I embrace that. In theatre, it’s a very fine line. People always give melodrama a bad rap, but it’s filled with real passion. These type of horror movies, like Insidious or The Conjuring, embrace all of that. You cannot bullshit your way around, half giving an exorcism. You have to believe it, and eat it, and hold the cross out there. You’d better be passionate about it, or it’s not going to look good at all. I like pushing myself to do that.”
Your chemistry with Vera…is that something that comes organically? “We don’t like each other at all! [Laughs). We got along from day one. My wife was in her movie, Higher Ground. My wife [Dagmara Dominczyk] is Polish, and Vera’s Ukrainian. There’s a very similar Eastern European bond between them. So we came into the relationship with an understanding. We just got very lucky. It helped knowing her socially before knowing her as, ‘Hi! You’re playing my wife.’ That was nice. It’s a tricky thing. I’ve had a lot of wives…in movies! She and I just get each other, and we love it. We love working with each other. It doesn’t always work that way. Sometimes I’ve gotten along with people and you see it on film and you’re like, ‘Wow, that really didn’t translate.’ Sometimes it’s just the opposite, like, ‘Man, we didn’t get along, but that looks great on screen.’ With Vera and I, what you see is what you get. We have as much fun getting deep in a scene together as we do trying to make each other crack up.”
The Conjuring 2 is available digitally from September 14.
