The American actor is one of the protagonists of “The Conjuring”, a film in which he plays Ed Warren and which has just released his third installment, “The Devil Made Me Do It.”
Born in Virginia and raised in St. Petersburg, Florida, Patrick Wilson earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Carnegie Mellon University. Beginning her career, she earned applause on the Miss Saigon and Carousel national tours. In 1999 he performed off-Broadway in Bright Lights, Big City, winning a Drama League Award and a Drama Desk Award nomination. That same year he participated in Gershwin’s Fascinating rhythm, for which he won another Drama League award.
Wilson has also been noted for co-starring in the long-awaited sequel to Aquaman , opposite Jason Momoa, playing the main character’s half-brother, Orm, also known as Ocean Master.
The American actor reached his widest audience to date in the role of Ed Warren in the franchise The Conjuring , which just released the third installment, entitled The Devil Made Me Do It . Regarding this tape, we spoke with Patrick Wilson.
With this third installment of “The Conjuring,” James Wan has handed over the reins of the main franchise to Michael Chaves. How has that been?
It was a super creative and fun session. Working with Chaves was great. He loves the franchise. It was like a child in a candy store. He has boundless emotion and a bold imagination, he jumped on both feet and made big decisions, and he wasn’t put off by the franchise’s history. We started shooting the first The Conjuring nine years ago, and he wasn’t afraid to talk to Vera and me. That was important because we want them to lead us. We want to take these characters to places they haven’t been. So having Chaves take the reins was a nice addition. Obviously, James Wan still has his hands on it as a producer. Also, I think because we did our little stint at Annabelle you eat home with Gary Dauberman, I got used to wearing the clothes and sideburns and having someone else tell us what to do.
How has your friendship with Vera Farmiga influenced your portrayal of Ed Warren over the years?
We did not start from the very first The Conjuring, hoping to chart a course through Ed and Lorraine’s lives for many years. But from the beginning, Vera and I just click. We trust each other from day one. We’ve had a lot of fun with these characters and we still do. The chemistry works and luckily people really fell in love with seeing Ed and Lorraine. As they age on screen, everything they do comes at a cost, a physical, emotional, and mental cost. Whether or not you believe in God, or the devil, or ghosts and demons, there are real-world consequences for Ed and Lorraine.
What are Ed and Lorraine Warren like in installment three of “The Conjuring”?
In this The Conjuring they are a little older and a little wiser, and their love is stronger than ever, but you will see their mortality come into play. Those are scary moments, but it’s the correct progression in the series because it makes you worry. We always return to their relationship like rock. That is what substantiates these stories. When that’s put to the test, it’s scary and it’s dramatic. When you worry about the people you are seeing on the screen, when you have a history with them, you don’t want to see them in danger.
How does the dynamic of the story change so that Ed and Lorraine become more involved in the world at large?
This has a very different feel. Vera and I always want to put the Warrens in strange and different situations. This was a great opportunity to get them out into the real world. I love making action movies, so doing something more action-oriented through the eyes of Ed, who is now a little older, I appreciated that. I think the audience will too. When you think of the character moments with Ed that people respond to, like playing the guitar or fixing something, they are real world things. We’ve all seen him do an exorcism before, and we could go down that path, but we want to push these characters to places they’ve never been. It’s getting harder and harder, but I think we’ve done it with The Devil Made Me Do It, and it’s been fun.
It is a tradition in “The Conjuring” to begin production with a fixed blessing. How did a real life exorcist do it for this third installment?
I have great respect for the ritual and know that it is important to much of the cast and crew. I think it’s great if it helps people to feel comfortable and to get into the right mental space. For me, it is a moment of peace where you can reflect and think: “Let’s have positive energy during this session.”
What do you expect audiences to experience when they see the third installment of “The Conjuring”?
They are going to see a case like they have never seen in the universe of The Conjuring. Morals and faith are questioned. The style of the movie is different from what you have seen in others in this franchise, but you will still be terrified of what is happening. There are epic scares. I think everyone will be super happy with it.
What can you tell us about the expedient that inspired “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It,” and why was this particular story chosen as the focus of the next installment?
Well, there are a couple of reasons why this seemed like the right story to be the next in the series. One is that the timeline was important. We’ve always wanted the main The Conjuring movies to move forward as Ed and Lorraine get older. The public knows the weight it has had in the course of two other films. So we had to look at a case that was a little further on, in the 1980s. The other thing is, we knew we couldn’t have another family history in distress at home. We wanted to move the genre forward, push Ed and Lorraine out into the world. This case is different, because it is more of a mystery or why they did it. Also, this is a famous and well-documented case in which demon possession was used as a legal defense. That is quite a historic moment.
