Tom Fitzpatrick - Insidious (Retrospective Interview)
Tom Fitzpatrick has been a prolific TV, stage and movie actor for over forty years, with many scene stealing appearances including The Real Husbands of Hollywood, New Girl, American Horror Story and NCIS. After recent memorable roles in Doom Patrol and Modern Family as well as Nickelodeon favorites like, I-Carly, Ritchie Rich and The Haunted Hathaways, Project Louder thought it was time to revisit the Insidious series most twisted on screen phantom, The Bride in Black. Taking over the role for Insidious: Chapter 2, Tom fleshed out the series’ most haunting apparition and brought new life (and death!) to a spectre loved by fans, before reprising the character in Chapter 3, ending The Bride’s reign of terror on cinema screens.
PROJECT LOUDER: So how did you get the part in Insidious 2?
TOM FITZPATRICK: It was just a casting call, and they were looking for somebody within my age range. I went in, and I had gotten the script [pages] beforehand and I’d learned it, as I always do. And I was reading for a role called “Philip”. It was about two pages long, which is a long scene for me. I’m a character guy and if I get one page of dialogue I think: “holy mackerel, it’s a leading role”. So, two pages. It was beautiful. It was a scene with an old man, who was talking to a young lady. I didn’t know quite what the relationship was and there were no clues. And she says: “I’m so sorry about what my little boy did. I’m sorry you’re upset”. And I say: “No, no, no. I’m extremely highly strung. My fault entirely, I’m so sorry that I frightened your boy. I was a little startled and I over reacted.” So that was how it started, and we were talking about how a fine young boy he was, and how much I admire him. Then my character started getting nostalgic about being a little boy again, which was a little bit weird. Then it really got into envying the kid… his life, and my character kept recounting more and more details, and then at the end he said; “and his beautiful little bedroom with framed finger paintings on the wall”. And his Mom’s mouth drops open, “how the fuck did he know that!?”, you know. That was the end of the scene. It went from this polite banter to this weird thing where it sounded like he was sneaking around in places where he couldn’t possibly get. It was very mysterious. And I thought; “What a sad little man”. So, I kind of went for the sadness. Two, maybe three weeks went by and I completely forgot about it. I was at another audition and the phone rang and she says; “You got it!”. I say; “That’s great, what? What did I get?” “That thing you auditioned for, what was it called? Insidious, you got it!” “Oh that thing, oh cool!” I’d long ago written it off. So, I booked it, and they call you and have you over for costume fitting. And I guess that’s when I went in and realised I was going to be in DRAG! I didn’t know anything about it, I hadn’t seen Insidious 1! I go in and the costume was really kind of cumbersome. They had basketball sized falsies, I think you hung them around your neck. They were on a string, like two balls!... they were the boobies. And for some reason the costumer had given him huge rubber soled platform wedges, they were like eight inches tall. Impossible to walk in. They gave them to be and I’m clumping round in those, and that made the skirt the right length, and it fit me perfectly. But it was something they obviously had before, they took it right off the rack. I didn’t know I was replacing somebody, having never seen the picture. Then I went to set that day, and I still had my speech memorized, and they didn’t send me any new dialogue, so I thought well it’s probably not going to be much of a part, but I’ve got that one nice speech. I get to set and they say: “you’re not going to be doing that speech after all”. Oh, how sad. “And we have a new scene for you. You’re not going to be in the costume in the first scene. You’re going to be in a hospital bed, and you’ll be comatose. And the boy’s gonna come around by a table next to you and sorta look through the pill bottles, and he gets to such and such a pill bottle you are to sit bolt upright in bed, scream, and grab him, and shake him, and try to strangle him, and people will pull you off.” So that was my first order of business. We did several rehearsals, and I wound up having to have somebody hold my feet down. I can do a pretty good sit-up, but the bed was so squishy that when I sat up my ass would go down into the softness of the bed and my legs would shoot up.
PROJECT LOUDER: That’s hilarious!
TOM FITZPATRICK: So, a man would hold my feet out of camera range, and I would sit bolt upright really fast and grab the little kid and shake the hell out of him and hold on for dear life, then I’d have two orderlies descend on me to pull me off. And I gave them a fight, I wouldn’t let go. And there was this little Asian dude off in the corner who I’m not sure if he even spoke to me once, or introduced himself to me.. and that was James Wan! At least some of them will come up and shake your hand and say; “Hi, I’m James”, I don’t think he even did that. Maybe he told me I didn’t have to scream so long. That was my only direction from James. Then all of a sudden, he’s vanished, and I think I asked somebody: “Was that the director?” and they said: “Yeah, he’s gone. He had to go to get all his tests so he can go overseas on his next picture”. That’s all I ever saw of James. That was it baby. That’s how important I was to the show.
PROJECT LOUDER: What other memories of Insidious: Chapter 2 do you have?
TOM FITZPATRICK: Actually, I had more in Part 2 than I thought I was going to do. I shot everything that was described in the script, and then they must’ve gotten a brain storm that it needs a little bit more, because then they had me back in for a day to come to the old house where they shot a lot of the other stuff, and I had the scene where I put on the makeup and the wig and the gown and everything. And that wasn’t James of course because he was gone and it wasn’t Leigh because he wasn’t directing that. It was the DP, he just directed it. I was discovered in a wife beater and a pair of really unflattering boxer shorts, and I had to go through the whole bit of putting on the dress, the skirt and the blouse, and doing most of the whole makeup myself. Eleanor Sabaduquia did some of the basic makeup but basically, I had to do the lipstick and some of the white paint - so I got to put the mouth on. And I put it on the way she always hated it. Pretty. I put the mouth on attractively. She hated that. She wanted the mouth beat up, the lipstick to go into the cracks of my lips and stuff like that, so it looked like I’d been eating a turkey leg or something like that. She wanted it all messed up, so for that scene I got to put it on just the way I liked it. Then I got to pick up the pretty chromium saw, cross the room and look like I was gonna cut the poor little girls neck. So that was all directed by the DP, because James was off shooting his automobile picture. And what was interesting is that the character – when I read for it – was called Philip. Hello! What was the name of the man I replaced?
PROJECT LOUDER: Philip Friedman!
TOM FITZPATRICK: Yeah. So, after I found out Philip played the part I thought: “What the fuck happened?” I never saw number one.
PROJECT LOUDER: He’s in part 1, but only for a couple of moments really. He has a couple of shots in The Further then at the end it cuts between him and Josh strangling Elise. In the first film the Bride wasn’t the main villain. Bizarrely the Bride seems to be a bit of a secret. Even the Blu Ray extras don’t cover her, and none of the publicity materials featured her for the sequels.
TOM FITZPATRICK: It seems to me the Bride in Black is the one that caught the peoples fancy, which is kind of nice. But I think that makes them nervous that she seems to have a life of her own.
PROJECT LOUDER: There’s plenty of spin off’s surrounding Wan’s Conjuring franchise now. I’d love the see a Bride in Black movie.
TOM FITZPATRICK: It’d be a very interesting character actually, when he was alive and kind of dangerous. A weird old man living in a mansion, prowling around in the flesh, before he killed himself, trying to castrate himself. That would be a good scene, the self-castration scene. That’d be interesting. Then life as an unruly ghost, that would be fascinating. And maybe they’ll do it. The thing I always talk about which I fear is, she’s a popular character, we have to bring her back but we can’t trust that guy, he’s not an actor, we’ll get Terence Stamp or somebody like that in to play the fucking part. I always worry about that because you can’t tell who’s under all that makeup and shit. It could be anybody.
PROJECT LOUDER: That was certainly the case in the first film, but although you didn’t originate the part you certainly took it further (pun intended) than originally envisioned.
TOM FITZPATRICK: I think I invested it with some energy it didn’t have before. I think I made it my own. They’d be crazy not to use me. I’m actually a pretty good actor but you know how people are. I don’t trust anybody in this business [laughs]. Leigh sort of likes me, so maybe if Leigh’s working on the script I’ll come up in number five or something, we’ll see.
PROJECT LOUDER: What was Leigh Whannell like as a director?
TOM FITZPATRICK: Leigh is nice. He’s Australian, gregarious, very in your face, but very sweet. On set all the while. ALL THE WHILE! Directing and tweaking and adjusting. Often from a room two rooms away, which is where video village was. And he would sometimes watch the takes on video, and he’d be hollering. He wouldn’t even bother coming to the set, you would just get your direction between two rooms, at the top of his Australian lungs. But good hearted. It was fun. I think it was his first directorial effort with the franchise, so he was taking no chances with anything. He was very hands-on. And sweet, very sweet. Really nice guy. I got the sense that James didn’t want to be bothered, didn’t want people in his face, just didn’t want to hear from you so that’s his style. But he had to go to his medical exam so he could do Furious 7. So that was my brush with James Wan, my brush with greatness. But Leigh was very dear, [he] gave me a line of dialogue.
PROJECT LOUDER: Was the “This is how you die” line in the script, or was it something Leigh came up with on set?
TOM FITZPATRICK: It was on set. I even had one other line of dialogue which I can’t remember. I think I had a follow up line in the same scene after that, but I can’t remember what it was. Of course that was immediately cut the second I got on the set, even before I’d read the line. So at least I didn’t feel like I read it so badly they cut the fucking line.
PROJECT LOUDER: Have you been approached for any other horror films recently?
TOM FITZPATRICK: I was up for 31, that Rob Zombie made. A pal of mine is kind of in his posse. He’s been in a few of his horror pictures, Jeff Daniels Phillips. He recommended me to the casting people because I found out afterwards they were hoping to get Malcolm McDowell, but he was bitching about the extremely low wages they were offering, so they had me in to read for that role. And they were offering a no name player like me six hundred dollars a day I think, and probably only a week and a half or two weeks of work. They were gonna shoot that thing fast and cheap. So, I’m sure they were offering more to Mr. McDowell, but I bet not a lot more because he wasn’t jumping at the chance. But anyway, he wound up playing it so I did not. But that’s kind of how it works. You have to know people, and you have to hang in for fucking ever. And if you’re lucky god smiles you get the one part for which you are absolutely right, and they recognise that you are the one, and you get it. You play it fabulously well and the franchise becomes massively popular, and hello, you have arrived, you know, after fucking 40 years of trying.
PROJECT LOUDER: You attended the Insidious: Chapter 3 premier in full Bride in Black drag!
TOM FITZPATRICK: I loved every moment of it! First of all, they paid very well, for a change, and they did the makeup and the gowning, and they had a room at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel across the street from Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Terribly Hollywood. I just had a hard-on the whole time, I was so happy! The room at the Roosevelt Hotel was very high up, and you could look down at the forecourt of the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, and they indeed had a red carpet, the whole nine yards. And a crowd very early on started to gather. It’s amazing how popular that movie is. So, they gowned me, and the same wonderful makeup woman, Elenour Sadabuquia, who has always done the makeup did it for me. Then they took me downstairs, where they had a bunch of people who were being fed and given drinks. Anyway, they dragged me down to meet all of these nice people with their drinks and their canape’s, and they were all over me like a cheap suit! It was such a revelation. They all wanted to be photographed with me. Most of them wanted me to strangle them. One girl would hand her camera to her girlfriend and I’d have to strangle the wench, then they would trade off the camera and me, and I would strangle the next one. I probably did, like fifty people just downstairs when they were getting liquored up and fed, and I thought; “Well, this is going to be fun. This character is actually beloved”. And then they led me across the street and turn me loose on the red carpet, and the people went fucking nuts! They love that character. So many photographs on the red carpet where I’d have to strangle a succession of the real stars like Lin and Stephanie. I had to strangle Jason Blum which was fun, he’s so nice. I had to strangle Leigh, multiple times. Never saw James, I don’t even think he was there. But that was grand fun and I was probably photographed more than anybody else. Which was pretty amazing.
PROJECT LOUDER: Were you at the Premiere of Insidious 2?
TOM FITZPATRICK: I wasn’t invited to anything for 2 at all, so I was so astounded when I got asked to come to the Premiere of 3. I can only attribute that to the sweet nature of Leigh Whannell, and maybe somebody in PR saying; “Oh, actually, we could make a little bit of hay with the old guy”. That’s how I got invited, I think they just thought it would be a good publicity gag, and by god it was. But nobody paid any attention to me in number two. I saw it in a theatre with my manager, only to discover they’d misspelt my name wrong in the crawl at the end. They gave me Tom Fitzgerald’s credit, that really hurt my feelings. So, I had this little bit in number two and they didn’t even get my name right.
PROJECT LOUDER: How long were you on set for Insidious 2?
TOM FITZPATRICK: I had two scenes in the hospital strangling the kid and down in the elevator, and then, in the old house. In the hospital, I also got down really close to the camera, and there were two handles right under the lenses, that I was to grab and they represented Josh’s neck, I guess I was strangling Josh in close-up? I don’t even know what the fuck I was doing, but I was told I was strangling somebody. I didn’t know who any body was, I’d never read the script [laughs]. It’s odd, when you have like small-y parts, sometimes you read the whole script, and sometimes you don’t. In the case of Insidious 2, it was never sent to me. I thought I’ll have one or two scenes, and I had not seen the previous one so I didn’t know the story or the franchise, or who the fuck I was strangling but it was somebody. And then at the old house, I did nothing except be exorcized. I was put on to like, a rolling platform. In kind of a velvet tube. It was fun. They would start on a close up and they would yank the tube up through the platform, it was on wheels and they would yank me up through the velvet tube, I’m screaming all the way, that was me being exorcized. So that was all I was supposed to do, but as I said someone got the bright idea that they need me getting into the drag and doing my nefarious thing. So that was a total of three days. That’s all I worked the first time on that thing. Then they had me in for a photo shoot about a month later, with the little boy who played Young Josh, the little kid I throttled in the hospital. Many shots with him. I think they were looking for something for the poster, I don’t know if they got it or not, I don’t think they used it.
Then for Insidious 3, it was all shot on a sound stage. Number two was in this really old spooky abandoned hospital, that everybody does film shoots in, and everybody’s terrified of because it’s haunted. Terrifying. Linda Vista Hospital. Oh god is that place creepy! And at night, thank you, no! I wouldn’t go anywhere in that place without company with me.
PROJECT LOUDER: They fixed up the corridor and lift area for when we see you as Parker, but the rest of the place they didn’t touch, right?
TOM FITZPATRICK: Yes! Horrible, horrible dump. They fixed up one room for Parker, and lit it, and it was gorgeous. And the rest of the place hasn’t been use since 1956 or something. And it closed because there were murders and other strange deaths there, very, very sinister. I heard now they’ve made it into an old age home. good luck to those old people! I wouldn’t want to spend my last years there! More money to be made from old dying people than crazy film makers! But by the time they got over on Insidious 3, maybe it was economically more feasible to have everything contained in a studio. So, they build everything in the studio. The Further, and the little middleclass house where I throttle Lin, that was all in a studio.
PROJECT LOUDER: What was your first day back on Chapter 3 set like?
TOM FITZPATRICK: The first thing I had to do was the strangling Lin thing. Which entailed her throwing off my arms and me being yanked out of the camera range, I think by somebody physically pulling me out. Then of course the continuation of the shot was Mr. Stunt Man on wires, being flown out and doing a backflip and landing on the floor, and then another shot of me kind of picking myself up, and glaring at her, and vanishing back into the shadows. That was the first days shooting I guess. And poor thing, right after that scene, she was gonna have to do that nice long scene in the bedroom with the demon who’s playing her dead husband. It’s a very sweet scene. But then she realises this is fake and he’s a demon so she whips out a knife and stabs him. She had to do that scene right after being throttled, so she was one nervous lady about being throttled, oh baby. But we got it right. Many takes on the strangling, then many, many takes on that emotional scene with the husband. And I watched her work, and she was really amazing. They maybe did at least six takes of it, maybe longer, and that was a long scene, and they did it without a cut. Just a two-scene, and she did it impeccably every time, and cried at the same fucking place every time. It was an astounding piece of work, and she had been strangled for an hour before. She’s a pro to her backbone that kid, it was a wonderful thing to watch.