One of the most popular cult films of all times (and one of my personal favorites), The Boondock Saints started out as an independent action film and went on to become something of a household name and a sacred movie amongst cinema aficionados. At the 2009 New York ComicCon, I was fortunate enough to speak to writer/director Troy Duffy and star Sean Patrick Flanery about the Blu-ray release of the film and the upcoming sequel.

- Mike Spring

Editor

MS: When you guys started making this film 10 years ago, did you ever think of it spawning such a huge cult following and even a sequel?

SPF: Everything starts with a good script, but every decision you make after that can only lower it in my opinion.  I’ll give you an example. Anytime you write, “the most beautiful girl in the world walks into the door,” well, every time you read it, it’s the most beautiful girl to you.  But the minute he casts a brunette, everybody whose ideal chick is a blond, you already ostracized them.  So all you can really do is try and stay as close as possible; if you write a script and it’s 100 out of 1 to 100, all you can really hope for is to get as close to 100 as possible.  You can never elevate anything, because when it says, “this guys a badass” and he swings from the roof, I can’t do that any better than you can imagine it.  Period. So anybody that says he elevated a film, I think is just bullshit.

MS: So it was obviously a great experience for you.

SPF: I think we started off with a great script and, yeah, we’d love to realize 95 out of 100 or something, but the odds of that happening are slim to none and I’m more proud of this film than anything.  This film has done more for my career than any other film I’ve done and I’ve done some films that I’m very proud of but, man, it’s like we really--I think we made a good film starting with an excellent script and I think we ended up as close to the script and the emotional effect it had on me when I read it as possible. I think we ended up something closer to that than any other movie that I’ve done.

MS: Is it weird to follow the course of a film as it becomes a cult favorite?  Because obviously the movie came out and it didn’t light the world on fire and it just kept building and building. And now you guys are here, and Sean, I saw people mobbing you on the floor after you left your signing.  Is that different as a film maker and an actor than a regular film project is?

TD: You know what, I’m kind of glad that I don’t have as much experience.  I’ve only done Boondock so to me it’s just.. I know it’s doesn’t happen that often but it’s the only thing that’s happened to me particularly in the movie business, so the only way I can give you an answer is that I’m glad it happened. I don’t know what it’s like to do a shitty film and have it fall apart and then it’s a failure.  I mean, like some huge Will Smith summer blockbuster thing.  I only know what’s its like to do Boondock Saints and how it felt to go from that to taking it to a cult status. To me, that’s the coolest way; if I could have planned it this way I would have.  It’s the coolest way to have a film--especially your first film--be a cult hit because that means the fans have chosen it.  There is no huge machine behind you putting billboards up on the streets in New York and Los Angeles and TV spots.  Fans find it on their own and it’s almost like they become real particular about it.  They feel like they are invested in it, too.

SPF: I’m going to give you another analogy.  Anytime a film is hugely promoted by a studio, it’s almost like they’re letting you bang their girlfriend.  But when you find it on your own, that’s your chick, dude.  That’s your chick.  And you pick who can see it. It’s like, “Screw you. You take that DVD, watch it now. No, you take it and watch it.”  It’s so much more possessive. 

TD: I know a guy who actually chooses his friends—like, he says, “I’ve got friends and I’ve got buddies. My friends, I let watch it. My buddies I don’t.  I don’t want them touching it.”

SPF: But that’s the way it is.  It’s just like music aficionados.  You find an album that’s like an independent that nobody’s heard of, you’re like, “Bang! There you go, my gift to you.  Try it.”  But if that person gives it to a bunch of douchebags, you’ll never give them another record again.  You’ll never give it to them again.  It’s the same kind of thing, so it has that kind of cache of like, this is my little gem.  So that is why they have the “Boondock Flock,” because they’re the ones that found it.  They are like, “Fuck you, you didn’t know about it. I found it.”

MS: With having such a passionate fan base, does that create a lot of pressure for the sequel?

TD: To be honest with you, no.  There was no pressure.  The fan base being behind us, they were like sitting there going, “Go.  Make that movie, get it out in theaters as soon as possible.” So all we ever felt was them cheering us on.  Once I knew we had a great script and we were bringing back the boys to do this that already did the first one, it became like a thing where it’s not so much old hat.  It’s like finding a nice comfortable pair of shoes but at the same time, now you’re going to run the Boston marathon and you’re jacked up.  So if anything, once we all were sold on the script, it became more anxious to do the film rather than nervous. It was such a crazy experience making Boondock II that I don’t know that we would really have time to be nervous about much. 

SPF: Necessity is the mother of invention.  If you know you can go back and get five extra days, it changes the way you shoot that day.   But you know if we don’t get the shit, it ain’t there.  Then you find a way to get it.  You just do.  You find a way to get it. 

TD: Also, there are some new faces in this cast.  Pressure for us was like an additive.  It was like a shot of adrenalin in the arm. Sean and Norman are pretty much just solid all the way through.  They had all of their dialogue memorized day one of every single scene.  So I could have said “15D shooting, perfect, done.”  Because they just know what they are doing and they know their brothers. Getting the boys back for the sequel, getting those guns strapped on them, they were just as excited as I was.  At that point I just knew that somehow, someway we had obtained some magic with these two guys and the fans just loved it and we were just on our way, so in my mind it gave me a lot of solidarity shooting the movie.  So if anything came up that was, “Oh my god, this big tragedy, we don’t have enough money for this, we can’t do that,” I would always be like, “Ahh… got him, got him, got Billy Connolly.  Done.  It doesn’t really matter.”