Interview: Mark Patton / Roman Chimienti (Fantastic Fest)

Matt Elliott. This is Matt Elliott with horrornews.net, contributing writer coming from Fantastic Fest 2019. And I’m sitting here with an icon. His name is Mark Patton, the star of a Nightmare on Elm Street part 2  Freddy’s Revenge. Mr. Patton, thank you so much for meeting me.

Mark Patton Oh thank you, thank you for having us.

M.E And,  who else do I have sitting with me here?

Roman Chimienti. My name is Roman Chimienti. I’m one of the directors of Scream Queen.

Tyler Jensen. And I am Tyler Jensen the other director of Scream Queen.

Awesome. So actually that’s, a good segue cause my first question is about the documentary. So where did it come from? What are, what are kind of its origins?

RC The origins of this movie essentially are  it came about at a time where Nightmare on Elm Street 2 was being rediscovered and we felt that the dialogue around it wasn’t fair and we all just came together. We all had our own ambitions with what we wanted to say. Mark had originally started this, he came, he had, he had a story to tell. And  because he had put it out there, we found him and we all decided that this needed to be taught.

MP I actually started with,  the documentary Never Sleep Again, which is the Elm Street documentary. And I went into that documentary expecting one thing and I got a different situation when I got there. And I mean, we kinda like to say that it was just a blowjob joke and, and actually it offends all three of us.. I mean, I liked the film, but it’s not a documentary. It’s a talking head kind of like it and said lot of hurt feelings in that thing. I mean, if you ever want to talk about it talk to Tuesday night, she’s just like, they just savaged her.. So then I signed a contract to start doing comic cons and all that kind of stuff and I started going around and, and it just seems wasteful to have this kind of newfound thing that I had, which I didn’t really understand that I had. And then to begin, I wanted to do something with that. And that’s how we began so that we could take this little bit of fame, that glove that will be in squeeze as much out of it as we could. We had an agenda right from the beginning what we wanted to say and, we found a way to say it, the three of us.

ME So that leads me into my next question, which is, what is your ultimate goal? What do you hope to achieve most with this documentary?

Basically we want the gay audience, to not feel like a punchline anymore. You know, if it’s a blow job jokes that they’re making because it seems like it’s a gay movie that’s not cool, you know.

couldn’t agree more.

Well, I want to jump out of the sidebar and go into mainstream of film making, the festivals, which we’ve already started to do. And I quite frankly, I’d like to be nominated for an Academy award, to be honest with you. And I don’t, and I’m not saying that the film that we’ve made is of that caliber for a documentary.The reviews, which you probably looked at, the response to the movie is overwhelming because it almost plays like a feature film. But when you go into the, when you go into the, the theater, people come in with a certain expectation, some around the horror or some around the queer aspect of it and some who have no idea what they’re seeing.

And I mean they’re just film festival people and they’re like, I got to ticket to this, I’m going to see it. I don’t know what it’s about. And almost all of them come out of a business or an experience that’s like interesting. Yeah. It’s almost like a, I dunno, baptism really. Um, cause I think anybody who’s ever been, you know, shit on honestly,  knows what it feels like and how the opportunity to go back and correct that. And for me in sexual barge way, in such a public way because humiliation is so passionate, but to be able to go back and correct that and say, you know what, you got me wrong. And you know, to sort of, you know, stand up for your self. And I think that’s what the whole movie is actually about.

ME That’s really powerful stuff guys. So  actually, that leads me to a question I have about you, about your character in nightmare 2. As a fan, like I’ve always found Jessie to be one of the most likable and relatable characters in all of horror history. My question is how much of yourself did you put into that role? Like what was your process like in creating him?

MP.Well, you know, ask any good actor and they’ll tell you that, that they, the real art of acting is, just being yourself and letting people believe you’re assembling yet. So, of course, there’s a lot of, Jesse and I, I, I’ve talked about this before on a lot of different levels, but I had worked with really good film directors, like these kinds of really good film directors. I knew that I was going into this, that they weren’t going to harm me. I knew that they weren’t going to do anything that was going to harm me, I had worked with Robert Altman.

I like knew that I, Geraldine page, I just knew that I was protected and I expected the same from these people and they didn’t give it to me. So I just surrendered myself to the part and I played it the way that it was written. And, uh, you know, I thought what would happen to a real boy you stuck a knife in his eye? I mean, I say that at the conventions a lot. It’s like if you want a squeal, like a girl, I’ll stick a blade in your eye and see what happens to you. So, yeah. And I love Jesse actually. I mean, I love the movie, I have so much compassion for that boy now as  an adult  And I look back at that beautiful young man who was so insecure and I just think like god bless you. But I  did all right. I know, but I love it. And it’s like. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to do the documentary Scream Queen because I wanted to save Jesse. That was my intention to save Jesse and me. And I think that we did because we are Scream Queen.

ME.Absolutely and that is a title you take very seriously as you are considered the first male scream queen in horror  history.

MP.Well  you know, eh, on a certain level, you know though, what’s  I did a panel called Scream Queens once with Heather Langenkamp Lynette Quigley  and PJ soles. And that quickly became women in horror and suddenly I wasn’t on the panel. And I, we created scream queen . I created scream queen and like people ask me often, are you proud of it? Yeah. This is, we did this, I mean this was all intentional and , so yeah, I  when I die in the New York times, right? The headline will say the  scream queen die, in his bed alone, you know, happy at 104. Their  going to say the scream queen  and they’re going to say Nightmare On Elm Street and then they’re going to say, activist underneath that and I’m going to be super, duper proud of it.

Well then I have a, I just thought of this question for all three of you. What would you most like to see for queer representation in horror but also just in the larger realm of Pop Culture?

RC.We were talking about this in the car.

TJ We were.

I mean we really just want to see ourselves as we are.

we want to be the heroes of the story. We don’t want to be the punchline and you know, the first to die, it’s one thing to be represented in the film unless you’re the hero. It’s like, are we pushing stuff forward? I think that’s where we got to go.

I definitely, I also, just on a personal level, I want to be able to sit in a movie theater and not have Kelly Rowland call Freddy a faggot and have to sit there and feel really small while everyone’s laughing. I know I don’t want that experience.

Bring it up to speed to sit in It Chapter Two and see the whole audience grown when two characters kiss in the first 10 minutes in the movie and you realize like, Oh, I’m not in the safest of places.

ME.Clearly they didn’t  read the book.

Right, exactly.

But it doesn’t, but it doesn’t matter about the book. You know what I mean? The thing is, it’s the reaction of the audience and strangely enough, it’s where you see it. Like I always use an example of Y Tu Mamá También, which is a great film, the first time I saw it, nobody knew what was going to happen, right. So nobody knew what was going to happen. So the audience kind of Swirmed when the boys kiss. And the second time I saw it, which was in Hollywood, the first time I saw this was West Hollywood in Hollywood, they knew it was coming and they cheer. And the third time that I saw was in Universal City and the girl behind me screaming, no poppy, no, no, no, like make vomiting noises when I kiss. So it’s like, it’s circumstantial, you know?

But I agree with them. It’s like what I would like to see happen. And it’s just a small, huge thing. I would like to see no boy or girl walk into a movie theater and have to turn into themselves when you know, like when you see that thing on screen and you just, you know, it’s like, it’s a gut punch in a dark theater. Like everybody’s going to see you.

I remember having that feeling, seeing old school in the theater and in the first 10 minutes, like the main character who gets called a faggot and it gets the biggest laugh in the whole audience and you’re just like, Oh, I’m not in a safe space. These people think that we’re a punchline. I definitely loved It Chapter Two and bringing the queer, subtext to the forefront. It like that’s, this is how progress is made. It’s not enough to just make a, a gay centric Horror film. It’s core transcends every one. So you really, get into the mainstream when you were in with everything else. When it becomes simply like a gay horror film, it’s like our only gay people gonna go see it. We want everyone to come see it.

And they will.

Oh absolutely. Now one thing I would really like to do, you get your opinion on is, you know, there’s been kind of a really renewed interest, obviously in Nightmare 2, but also just in the franchise as a whole. Probably also to do due the success of last year with Halloween. So my question to you is if you had the opportunity to revisit Jessie in another film, where would you like to take him? Like where would you like to see that character go?

We’ll actually, you know what, I wrote a book and it’s called Jessie’s Lost Journals. And it’s about what happened to Jesse, the first half of the book is a sticks very true to form

with the film itself. And it’s his personal diary. And  then the book takes off when Jesse leaves, when he leaves and goes actually goes to New York and Freddy comes with him.  And it’s a fantastic book. You can read it if you like. And we’re doing a thing in Chicago where I’m doing a live reading of the dirty parts as Jesse does get to have sex, a lot. Good clothes and a great job. And you know, all the things I need.  But yeah, so that’s what I would do. But I, I just shipped, uh, something like a major thing for me, which is, uh, one of the reviews that just came out.

Well they said at the end they said it’s Marks revenge, but the leading thing of it was, there’s a monster in the closet and I am a big fan of a film called   Closet Monster, which is a Connor Jessett film that played at TIFF in 2015 and I think it’s a modern day take on what Elm Street could be if you redid it. And I would like to see those two push together. You know, and I would love to do it if they invite me as a nine story arc on Netflix.  Each chapter would be like American Horror Story or whatever and really get to know them. But I would not do it comedic at all. I would make it very dark because I think, I think the Nightmare films are really dark films until, you know, they become a laugh fest.

But I think the, especially Nightmare On Elm Street 2, I think there’s a lot that could be dug out of that, out of that situation. So yeah, invite me to come and direct it and they can direct it with me and they can edit and produce because they’re fabulous.

ME.We’re Looking at you Netflix.

MP.Yes. Hello. Hi, we’re here.

Well, for people who are not at fantastic fast right now. Where can they find the documentary to watch?

TJ.We are on a festival tour right now through the end of November, I believe. And we’ve got some things in the works.

f you would follow us on, on https://www.screamqueendocumentary.com, it will give all the information, we literally are at a film festival every week, sometimes two a week.

And as you know, as a professional, this is where the film gets sold. And so the dog race is on.And we’re going to hold out for the best deal we can get.

It’s in the hands of every, a major premium cable and SVOD company right now and we’re accepting offers so it’s awesome. And they’re coming.

ME.Will this have a Blu Ray or DVD release?

Ultimately it will have everything. we do have a nice long vinyl album out. It will be available here at Fantastic Fest. It’s the soundtrack.

It’s hot pink. It’s our score from Alexander Taylor and a track from Skeleton Head and it’s highly exclusive and you better get yours while you can.

So awesome. Is there anything else you’d like to plug while I’m here?

I just finished the new film. It’s called One Dead Dog.It’s Shooting it in Portland. So you could mention that like that’s my really serious step back into acting. So just finished it in Portland, Oregon and really enjoyed it played a grown up. No more new bile young boy.

But still at heart though.

Oh yes, he’s in there. He’s just trying to get out.

ME anything for you guys?

We’re just happy to be here.

Awesome. We’re happy to have you here guys. Thank you so much for sitting with me and I can’t wait to see the film. Thank you so much.