St. Patrick, Mathew (Alien Raiders)
Steve Barton
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It’s amazing how much the landscape of film has changed. It used to be that direct-to-video features were where all the junk was sent; now it’s where all the good stuff is! Such is the case with Ben Rock’s Alien Raiders.
Aside from being a damned good film, it sports a damned fine cast. Recently I sat down with one of the movie’s stars, Mathew St. Patrick, to talk the movie and horror in general. Listen to the interview below, or just scroll down and read it for yourself!
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Uncle Creepy: Hey everybody, Uncle Creepy here for Dread Central, and joining us today is Mathew St. Patrick, one of the stars of Ben Rock’s Alien Raiders. Matthew, how are you, buddy?
Mathew St. Patrick: I’m going great, my man, how you doing?
UC: Pretty good, man. So hey, Alien Raiders, what a kickass little movie.
MSP: [laughter] You know, I thought so as well. I got the script, they sent it to me on a Saturday and said, hey, you know, would you like to be a part of this, and I said, well, let me check it out, take a read. They told me it was kind of a horrorrish film, and I was familiar with some of Ben’s work with regards to other projects that he’d done and Blair Witch and stuff like that. And I have wanted to do a horror movie and I got my chance.
UC: Yeah, I mean it was it was a little bit different than I expected it to be because what was cool about Alien Raiders is if it weren’t for the title, for the first few minutes of the movie, you don’t know what the hell is going on.
MSP: Exactly! And that, I got to tell you, that was the thing when I read the script that I was hooked on. I kept thinking to myself, what the hell is going on, and that’s good for me because that’s the kind of guy I am. I like to go to the movies and think about, you know, what’s going on, who’s done what and how. I liked to take it apart so that was good for me.
UC: Yeah, I mean the movie was a lot of fun from start to finish, you know. There was a lot of guesswork, and man, when the shit hits the fan, the shit really hits the fan.
MSP: [laughter] Yeah, kind of goes haywire all at once.
UC: Yeah, you know it. Number one, it was great seeing you in a movie because I haven’t seen you in anything since “Six Feet Under” which was, I was a huge fan off.
MSP: Oh, thank you very much, man, thank you very much. We had a lot of fun. That was definitely an honor and a blessing to be able to be a part of that.
UC: Oh, that show, I’m still pissed off your character went out the way he did, man.
MSP: [laughter] You know, I am too. I kept thinking, wait a minute, how come I got to catch the hot lead? [laughter]
UC: Keith was a little bit too smart for that, for me, man.
MSP: What’s that?
UC: Keith was a little bit too smart for that.
MSP: Yeah, exactly. I kind of felt the same way. I’m like, wait a minute, he owns the company, why is he out there with his fat ass wobbling around in his gray hair, delivering money by himself? It didn’t quite work, but you know, it is what it is and you know….
UC: You ought to call up Alan Ball and be like, “Listen, let me be a vamp in ‘True Blood’, so I can bite you on the ass, man.”
MSP: Yeah [laughter], I think he’s got enough calls going on over there. They’re doing a good job with that show.
UC: Yeah, it’s good stuff.
MSP: A really good job.
UC: But let’s get back to Alien Raiders ‘cause I can talk about “Six Feet Under” for like years, and that’s not where we’re here to do. [laughter]
MSP: All good with me.
UC: You know what is cool, too? I mean, I got this movie, I really was expecting nothing from it, right, and I popped it in and all of a sudden, there was you who I’ve said I totally dig for ‘cause I’m a big fan of “Six Feet Under”, and not only that, but you’re starring opposite motherfuckin’ Tony Almeida! You know, Carlos Bernard from “24”. Dude, I’m in geek heaven at this point.
MSP: [laughter] Yeah, that was, you know, that was a lot of fun, it was a hell of a shoot. It felt like, you know, we slammed it all together in two weeks. It took longer, but it was a heck of a shooting schedule, you know, and the cast … the ensemble was really great, you know, really great. I wanted to be a part of it and just kind of jumped in, man.
UC: Yeah, when you had your scene with Carlos, it was like two worlds coming together when you finally went face to face, it was …..
MSP: Yeah, yeah, I kind of [laughter], I kind of felt like I was getting my chain pulled, and he was calling all the shots and I finally had him. I got to say wait a minute, listen asshole, you know, this is the deal. I’m here to get my daughter and all the rest of this nonsense is great, but I need to see my daughter. I need to see her now and I’m not doing nothing else until that happens.
UC: [laughter] Now, is this the first kind of horror movie you’ve been in?
MSP: Ever.
UC: What was it like working in a genre movie? ‘Cause, I’ve got to tell you, I’ve been on a lot of sets, man, and horror movie sets, they’re always so much freaking fun.
MSP: Yeah, it was, it was creepy because you never knew what you were going to see when you came to work. [laughter] No idea and because, you know, I love what we do, as actors, a lot of times, when I’m not shooting, I’ll just show up and watch, really kind of sink my teeth in and spend some time with the directors and the DP and check out how they’re setting up shots and why they have chosen to do that, those kinds of things, and just kind of watch the whole process because I’m interested in the entire process. But you know, it was my first time and I loved it; that’s what drew me to it. It’s like a horror movie, absolutely. You know, give me the script, I’ll take a look at it. For me it was about expanding my foundation and doing something completely different. I would watch these shows and go, wait a minute. I’d like to jump in, you know, sink my teeth into something like this, and then this thing came along, and it was a great time. We were just about doing a strike and I got a call from these guys and read it and called them back and said, “I’m in.”
UC: You know what’s really cool about your character in the movie, and also, it could either be you’re a real good actor but I kind of get the feel, your personality as well, you’re a very rational guy.
MSP: Yeah. I would definitely say that
UC: You know, and your shit is crazier shit. In the movie, you know, things are going on in the supermarket, it’s out of control, but outside, you’re like the voice of everyone else going, what the hell is going on in there?
MSP: Yeah, I mean because, you know, when you think you hear all these crazy noises, you hear screams, you hear stuff that doesn’t sound like it’s from this world, and you can’t even imagine, I mean you really, you know, it takes your imagination on the wild ride. Sometimes you think it’s out of control in there, and other times it seems like things are under control and it’s just, it makes you think a great deal about the potentials. And until you start to talk to, you know, people on the inside, and start to try to put the pieces of the puzzle together, you are completely in the dark about what’s going on in there, you know, some people are kind of taking it serious, other people aren’t, and you know, my thing is that, my daughter is in there. You know, in the midst of this craziness, so it was a pretty wild ride.
UC: Yeah now, speaking of wild — Ben Rock. This dude is a madman.
MSP: [laughter] You hit the nail on the head, my man; he is definitely a wild one, and I’ve gotten a chance to spend some time with him off the set. I mean, he is a really, really great guy, and I look forward to working with him in the future. We’ve definitely talked about that, but he’s a wild man. He’s very humble as well because I didn’t know, you know, what he had done before until I kind of started digging a little deeper. I knew that he was associated with Blair Witch but to what degree I didn’t know, and it was only because of other people that have worked with him and his wife actually…
UC: Alicia, yes, she’s a sweetheart.
MSP: Alicia told me, you know, what he had done, but he’s very, very humble. And he’s got really a good eye, is patient….
UC: He knows exactly what he wants.
MSP: He does, very creative, very, very creative, yeah, and he knows what, you’re right, he knows what he wants. And you know, he likes to collaborate, which is really great. Anytime you get a director who really has a certain idea for what they want, but at the same time, they’re really willing to open up and get your opinion and let you kind of go to the places your own way, I think there’s a great future for those types of directors.
UC: Yeah, and I’m totally with you on the humble thing ‘cause I was talking to my girlfriend Debi, and I’m a huge Blair Witch fan … I love that movie, and she says, you know, he made the stick man, right?
MSP: Yeah, how about that, right? [laughter]
UC: I went, what? [laughter] Really? And then I called him. I’m like, Ben, you made the motherfucking stick man? [laughter]
MSP: Yeah, he’s very humble, man, he’s really, really humble, but what a great guy and really creative, you know, he really is. I’m just happy for him. I talked to him the other day, and I just told him, I said, you know, I’m glad that you’re happy with your first feature piece, that it was all you, you know what I mean? I mean that’s a big accomplishment.
UC: And you know what? I sit through a lot of movies as you could well imagine, but this movie I think it easily could have gone theatrical and what he did was fine.
MSP: You know, thank you for that, and I hope you told Ben that. I haven’t had the chance to see it at all. I haven’t seen the finished product at all, but I will be checking it out, I think on Thursday, there’s a screening of it on Thursday, and I’m going to go and see it, and he’s going to be there. Looking forward to checking out some of the cast members, Samantha Streets, you know, Rockmond, I don’t know if he is going to be around, but some of the other actors. I’m looking forward to seeing them again and checking this thing out. But I’ve been hearing nothing but great things, you know, in terms of reviews, and I look forward to it, man.
UC: Yeah, I mean it’s really well done, and the second it was over, I was like, you know, I could easily have gone to see it in the theatre and even gone again, to just take it in again, you know.
MSP: Wow! Okay, now you’re getting my expectations way up, you know that, right?
UC: Well, as long as you could see it…
MSP: Great things, but you’re really pumping this up. [laughter]
UC: Well, don’t blame me if you don’t like it, man. I don’t want the angry phone calls at three a.m. going, listen bitch, you know.
MSP: Of course, I’ll like it, come on now, come on, I’m sure I’ll like it. You know, we talked about the whole theatrical thing, and you know, we just said, listen, go knock them out. It’s a video, but then that will open up the doors for the other possibilities. It’s nice, too, as a director, of course, as an actor, you want to be a part of the big dance, you know, the theatres, and you know, I respect that a great deal, I understand it. We’re passionate, we love what we do and we want our pieces and whatever we do to be seen by the biggest audiences, but I think, for Ben in this particular case, I think it’s really great, I think this is going to give him a real opportunity to do something in the feature world that he really, you know, that is looking forward to. And he will have this to say he’s proven himself, he’s not, you know, it’s not like he’s doing a feature and then they say, oh , you know what, it was terrible, why don’t we give you this straight to video type deal, you know what I’m saying? He’s shown, as far as I’m concerned, he has really shown what he can do with the budget and the time period, the time constraints and all those things, I mean, I don’t know that that guy got two hours of sleep the entire time we were shooting, I mean, he was just…
UC: I don’t think he’s slept yet, man.
MSP: No, I don’t think so at all. [laughter] I don’t think so. I hope he is getting some sleep now. [laughter] I hope he is getting some sleep now.
UC: So hopefully, I think it will open the door for Ben, but also I really dug seeing you working within the horror genre. Would you do another one?
MSP: Absolutely, absolutely. I’m actually looking at a psychological thriller right now that we’ll have some idea about on Monday, whether it’s going to happen or not, but yeah, I would love to do a horror project, man, I would love to. And just for the people out there that are fans, when I first read the script, I wanted to play the character that Bernard got, you know, that was the character, but he was already there, they already had the offer out to him. He was like, “I want to be something different, not only do I want to do it in a different genre, but I want to play a different character.” But you know, if you want to be a part of it, and that’s already offered, you still get to be a part of it and then you get to pick something on the next project.
UC: Well, we look forward to seeing you ….
MSP: Part of the building blocks, man.
UC: Totally, dude, we look forward to seeing whatever you got cooking, brother.
MSP: Oh, thanks a lot, man. You know, I have been working, I have been working, definitely. I did a project with Jet Li and Jason Statham for Lionsgate called War, and that was, you know, that was pretty good. I’ve done a couple other TV shows, written a one-hour drama, and I’m doing rewrites on something right now, and I’m trying to take that out during the buying season in July, and I’ve got a documentary that I’m producing, so I’m busy.
UC: Wow, good for you, man. Sounds like your plate is pretty full.
MSP: Yeah, but I always make room. [laughter]. I always make room. This has been great, man. Thank you very much.
UC: Totally, dude. We’re just about out of time, but really, thank you so much for taking time out of your I’m sure real busy schedule to just bullshit with us for a little bit.
MSP: Nah, man, this has been great. I’m just, you know, I’m glad that we could make some time to get it in.
UC: Yeah, man.
MSP: Thanks for your opinion about the film. We definitely appreciate it, man. We put a lot of hard work in. It’s really nice, you know, I’m really happy for Ben. I can’t say that enough, the willingness of the guy to be under the pressure and all of those things of making the project in the time period. When you set goals, when you have to get it together … I mean, all of those things … for him to come through the way he did, I never saw that cat lose his temper, not once, not once. And that’s a hell of a, you know, that’s a hell of a situation to be in and not blow it once. And I was there pretty much, you know, every day, but even simpler, even when he was frustrated, he’d just kind of carry through and got it done, and you know, I look for more things that come from him.
UC: God bless. [laughter]
MSP: Absolutely.
UC: Matthew, thank you so much for your time, brother.
MSP: You got it, man; have a great weekend.
UC: You too. This is Uncle Creepy for Dread Central signing off.
Categorized:Interviews News
