The Deadbolt Exclusive - Sean Patrick Flanery Talks Boondock Saints II, Boondock Comic, Fonda and Fighting

Sean Patrick Flanery Talks Boondock Saints II, Boondock Comic, Fonda and Fighting
by Troy Rogers

Although Sean Patrick Flanery has a long list of acting credits to his name in film and TV, from The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Powder, Suicide Kings, Stargate SG-1, C.S.I., Masters of Horror, and his six season run on the TV adaptation of The Dead Zone, it was the 1999 role of butt kicking Irish twin brother, Connor McManus in Boondock Saints that fans have been talking about for a decade.

After years of rumor and speculation that Boondock Saints director Troy Duffy would eventually reunite Flanery with actor Norman Reedus who plays Connor's brother, Murphy McManus, for a sequel to Boondock Saints, the long and winding road to Boondock Saints II will soon be here when Sean Patrick Flanery is back to kick more hail-of-gunfire butt in Boston in Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day.

With the real Boondock brothers not too far removed from their appearance at Comic Con, and Sean Patrick Flanery getting pumped to see how fans react to the long awaited Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, we went on an exclusive Boondock hunt of our own to get the sequel story straight from Sean Patrick Flanery and an update on what he knows about the upcoming Boondock Saints comic book, the possible video game direction, what he'd like to see in a Boondock video game version of Connor McManus, and if there's already been talk about a potential Boondock Saints III.

THE DEADBOLT: Troy Duffy recently said that you and Norman were calling him for years about getting the Boondock sequel going? Was it to make sure it didn't become a missed opportunity?

SEAN PATRICK FLANERY: No. It was more of calling because we kept hearing that it was going. I mean, you hear it through the grapevine, "Oh man, they got Boondock going?" So we call and go, "Look, dude, is this going, because I'm leaving town to go film something else? Let me know." It was more like that. I mean, it's not that we didn't want to do it, we absolutely did. But nobody was ringing Troy's phone off of the hook. We're all professionals and you figure if he's got something going, he's going to call us. We kept in contact with him anyway, so ...

THE DEADBOLT: Do you think Boondock gives people an outlet to have some of their feelings played out on screen as far as the more brutal things we see in society?

FLANERY: Well, I don't think it gives people an opportunity to play out just random brutality. I think people plug into it because they see people doing what they wish they could be doing every day. For example, that f**ker that raped a four year old girl and he got sentenced to a year in prison, I don't think there's anybody out there that doesn't want that guy's testicles ripped off. And the Saints are the guys to do it. They go out there and they sort shit out.

It's just like in the courtroom speech at the end of the first one. I think everybody wants to live by that code, realistically. I mean, you can be the most bleeding heart person on the planet. But as soon as your daughter gets raped, I think you're going to wish a fairly harsh sentence on the guy, if not outright death. It's easy for everybody to say, "Come on, let's give him a fair shake." Until it happens to somebody that's related to you, or somebody that you care about, all that goes out the window, because at the end of the day, stuff like that does have to be eliminated from human genealogy. If you're out there duct taping four year old girls to trees and raping them, you need to be exterminated. You just do.

Too much in today's society, everybody's bleeding, "Oh well, maybe he was mistreated as a kid." It doesn't matter. It's unfortunate if he was. But unfortunate as well, right now he's incapable of existing in society. His existence is incompatible with the present order. So he needs to be eliminated and the Saints actually do that, which makes people think that's what needs to be done.

THE DEADBOLT: So how did Julie Benz change the dynamic for you guys on set as compared to [Willem] Dafoe in the first one?

FLANERY: It really didn't change the dynamic at all. She didn't play Dafoe's character, she plays a similar type character. I'm not going to give anything away. But it didn't change the dynamics at all, because the Saints are the Saints, and you'll just have to wait and see. But she's got a great character and I think her role will be a real breakout role, I do.

THE DEADBOLT: How did Peter Fonda fit in with you guys? When you think of Easy Rider, it feels like he'd fit right in with you guys?

FLANERY: Yeah, he was a super cool cat. I mean, having he and Billy Connolly on the set, between both of those guys, I think they knocked off more acid in the '60s and '70s than everybody else combined. Those cats just laid waste to partying back then, so they just fit right in. It's weird for me to say that they fit in. It's more like I hope I fit in with those kind of classic, huge stars.

THE DEADBOLT: Since you're so heavily into Jujitsu and martial arts, what do you think you bring to Boondock and the character now that you couldn't a decade ago?

FLANERY: Well, I've been in martial arts since I was nine years old, so it's really no different. These guys aren't technical fighters, they're street fighters. They're guys that learned everything just from natural instinct and a commitment that ensures might is right [laughs]. You know, when you're on the side of a correct way of thinking, which, I think, when you play those characters you have to commit to.

THE DEADBOLT: Have you and Norman given any input into the characters of the Boondock Saints comic?

FLANERY: The characters are kind of set in stone. Everything is based off of each movie. So it tries to parallel as closely as possible that personality, that ideology, that rapport between two brothers. So it's kind of in concrete.

THE DEADBOLT: Have you heard any news on the direction of the video game?

FLANERY: No, I haven't heard anything at all. But that would be super cool.

THE DEADBOLT: No kidding.

FLANERY: Wouldn't that be cool to have a video game with you in it? That would be so cool [laughs].

THE DEADBOLT: Yeah, it would be awesome. What would you like to see in a video game version of Connor?

FLANERY: I'd like to see myself f**king up all of the people that deserve it out there [laughs], all of the criminals. I would play that video game, and I would buy that video game, and I would just go and ransack all of the thugs and the drug dealers and rapists and child molesters, you know?

THE DEADBOLT: It would be a great stress reliever since you could do it over and over.

FLANERY: [laughs] I know, exactly.

THE DEADBOLT: Not too long ago we featured a clip of you, Billy, Norman, and Troy outside of Comic Con, and you guys looked more like you were about to hit a strip club than a geek fest. What surprised you most about Comic Con and Boondock?

FLANERY: [laughs] Realistically, I don't get a chance to do big films, so I felt like Mick Jagger. It was pretty weird. It was just like, "Holy shit!" You release the sequel, but the first was kind of an underground, culty hit. I thought people would like it, but you never know how many. You don't know if people are going to show up to Comic-Con. I didn't know. Then we went into that press thing and it was full. It was mind-boggling, man. So I really hope that people get to go and see the movie. I hope they like it. It was really eye opening. It was really cool. It really gave me a glimpse of what it must be like to be an actor that does movies that come out all of the time [laughs]. Without sounding ridiculous, that was really cool, man. It really was.

THE DEADBOLT: Do you think all of you will take a break before doing a Boondock III, or have you guys talked about jumping back in right away?

FLANERY: Well, I mean, obviously all of that is contingent on Boondock II. I don't even know if there are plans to do a Boondock III. I would imagine that it's totally contingent on if people go to see part two, you know? So if people go to see part two, because Hollywood is run by the box office, and nobody is going to make a part three if about fifteen people want to see it.

THE DEADBOLT: Good point. So you'd be up for it?

FLANERY: It's one of the funnest two films I ever made, and I think everybody on it agrees we all had a blast doing that movie. We'd all love to entertain the idea. Of course, man. I would do it in a heartbeat. We've got to wait and see if people go to see this one, which I hope they do, because I really liked making it, man.

-- Troy Rogers