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There is nothing in Jason Patric's psychology that demands love, adulation, fame or fortune. Respect he might cherish. All of which gives the 32-year-old maverick the freedom to play the bad-ass anti-hero of a tough new romantic drama called Your Friends & Neighbors, which opens in Toronto theatres on Friday. Patric also produced the film, which is the second effort from controversial writer-director Neil LaBute of In The Company Of Men infamy.
"Be a bad guy?" Patric asks rhetorically in an interview. "I could give a shit!"
I suggest that people coming out of preview screening were spitting his name out and calling his character -- an unapologetic womanizer who also lovingly describes a homosexual rape incident as a highlight of his life -- "a rat bastard."
Barely, just barely, Patric smiles. "Actually, I think that's too simplistic," he says, warming to the subject. "Rat bastard, I wouldn't call him that. You have to define evil. You have to define fear. And you have to define perversion.
"This character is far too complex and far too well-written just to dismiss him as a jerk or an asshole or a bastard. But I think it would be a lot easier for people if I was wearing a swastika. He is the only one in the movie who never lies. He is the only one who says exactly how he feels. There is actually a rationale for every piece of his behavior.
"I'm not defending him, by the way. I'm talking about the pathology that exists in someone like that. Because I think that's much more interesting and much more chilling."
The performance is also revealing, says Patric. There are elements of his own dark, complex soul reflected in the character. "You can only play yourself," he reflects. "I've learned that through the years and I think I've done that in roles that I've played and I felt good about that."
Patric is the prickly, perfectionist son of playwright Jason Miller, who wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning play That Championship Season, and the maternal grandson of comedian Jackie Gleason, whom he knew only remotely before Gleason died. Born as Jason Patric Miller, Patric dropped his last name to separate his public acting self from his famous father. Patric did not want nepotism to be a factor.
Rarely granting interviews, Patric has been in the jaws of a celebrity feeding frenzy in the past, an experience which soured him on papparazzi and gossip journalism. He was the former boyfriend who took Julia Roberts back into his bed when she fled the altar only days before her impending marriage to Kiefer Sutherland.
On another occasion, he filed a complaint against an NBC-TV camerawoman whom he alleged bit him on the wrist during a confrontation over stalking. Patric also has been singled out at Hollywood events because his girlfriends have included celebrities such as actress Robin Wright and model Christy Turlington.
Early in his career, especially after the drug film Rush pushed him to the brink of stardom, Patric learned how not to give a damn about playing bad guys or being perceived as one by the Hollywood establishment. He rebelled.
"They try to sell you from the get-go how important all these little things are, whether it be the cover of Buzz magazine or walking down some aisle on a red carpet, as if that's not only important but that's the ultimate goal you're looking for. But it's not. It's all about the process," Patric says. By process he means seeking out quality films, avoiding formula blockbusters and working independently of the major studios if that is necessary.
"So, if you're really clear about that, you do whatever you can to protect the process. From early on, I tried to do that. Probably, career-wise, I think that's a detriment because I had to enclose myself to keep whatever that stuff is as clear as possible." He even admits that his "protectionist" attitude "is too extreme" and generated an unwanted reputation. "That's where I would be difficult, without question."
What he did not anticipate was the backlash against him. Patric almost smiles again. "I know there will always be mediocrity and the problems and the bullshit, but I never expected resentment for not wanting to be a big deal.
"I never talked out against Hollywood or bemoaned things. I just wanted to make the movies I wanted to make. These questions about: 'What is your problem?' were surprising."
Partly because Sandra Bullock talked him into it and partly because the system wore him down enough to make him put aside his intuition, Patric agreed to co-star with Bullock in the Speed sequel, Speed 2: Cruise Control. It was an artistic fiasco and a box office bomb last year. Patric apologies only because it was such "a waste" of time, money, talent and energy. He could care less that it bombed because, even if it had made $100 million, it was still disappointing.
"There are a lot worse movies than Speed 2 that made a lot more money that summer. There were a lot of crap movies. So I wouldn't feel better if it had been a more successful movie.
"It was a departure for me to do something that was romantic or an adventure. But it was a waste. To me, that's the worst. I've always stayed away from those movies instinctively and I was right."
But he does not regret his new friendship with Bullock, whom he calls "like a sister" to him. And the Speed 2 fiasco affected her career more than his.
"I felt more bad for her. It didn't affect me. I don't compete on that level. I'm not looking to be in the next $100-million blow-up fest. Whenever you feel you waste anything -- part of a relationship, a summer weekend, a vacation -- it's a hassle."
His dual job as actor-producer on Your Friends & Neighbors is not a vanity deal, says Patric, who developed the project with LaBute, nurtured the director and got involved in everything from casting to scouting locations. Patric needs both control and collaboration and has found a way through producing to get it.
"I have to think about it in my most selfish way," says Patric. "I make movies that I want to see. I read (LaBute's script for Your Friends & Neighbors) and said: 'I'd like to see that.' Well, if I want to see that, I'm probably going to have to make it."
So he did.
THE JASON PATRIC FILE:
FIRST SCREEN ACTING GIG: As Bruce Dern's son in 1985 TV movie called Toughlove.
FIRST MOVIE: The Sci-fi disaster Solarbabies.
FIRST BREAKTHROUGH: As teen vampire in Lost Boys, during which he forged a friendship with co-star Kiefer Sutherland that was strained later when he took up with Julia Roberts on the rebound.
BEST-REVIEWED FILMS: The Beast; After Dark, My Sweet; The Journey Of August King And Sleepers.