Diego Peralta
Night Patrol is a seamless combination of horror and violent crimes. The drama directed by Ryan Prows isn’t afraid to place audiences right in the middle of a complicated conversation while entertaining anyone who watches it with paranormal action. Night Patrol has allowed CM Punk (Phil Brooks) to return to the screen. This time around, the professional wrestler portrays an unpredictable police officer.
Awards Radar had the opportunity to interview CM Punk regarding his role in the film. The acclaimed professional wrestler from WWE was more than glad to discuss what drew him to the movie, as well as the challenges of transitioning between the ring and the screen.
CM Punk is aware of how many police officers he portrays on the screen, but what drew him to ‘Night Patrol’ was the feature’s script: “I loved the script. The subject matter is really intriguing to me. I’m a huge horror fan. I feel that, for some reason, I play cops a lot (laughs). You mentioned (Zootopia 2), I was a zebra cop. Now I’m a vampire cop.”
In order to play a police office, CM Punk based his body language from the film on people he got study up close in real life: “Most experiences I’ve had in my lifetime with law enforcement. They haven’t been great experiences, so I relish playing that bad guy. It was a lot of fun.”
The director of the movie, Ryan Prows, had a very specific vision for what he wanted to do with ‘Night Patrol’. That is something CM Punk understood very well: “It was all his vision, along with the others who wrote script. I think you can watch this movie and you can see my character, the deputy. You can think “I’ve been pulled over by that guy before.” There’s an arrogant malevolence about him. Obviously, there’s a supernatural twist in this movie. At the root of it, I want people questioning what’s scarier: A vampire or a racist with a badge? It’s something to think about.”
The one ability CM Punk learned in the set of ‘Night Patrol’ was how to operate the police siren and spotlight from a vehicle, something he never had the opportunity to do when he portrayed other police officers.
Another interesting aspect from Punk’s dual trajectory as a screen actor and a professional wrestling are the skills he has learned in Hollywood and implemented on his persona in the ring: “There’s a synergy there. You’re doing the same thing. The only difference is that one is live. With the other one, if you do mess anything up, (that being) forgetting a line or messing up your tone and inflection, you have the ability to do multiple takes.
There’s a lot of “Hurry up and wait” in both businesses. If I’ve learned anything from television and movies to apply it to wrestling, it’s working more for a camera. When I’m in a ring, wrestling in front of 20,000 people, I try to be big so the people in the cheap seats can see it. I’m almost wrestling for the people in the 300 level. When you’re doing television or film, the camera is right here (close to the face). You have to tone it down and be a little bit more subtle.”
The wrestler and actor enjoys the horror genre because it dares to dive into political commentary, and that includes the premise of ‘Night Patrol’. “I think that horror movies have always been more socially conscious. They speak on a lot of social issues. Even with George Romero’s ‘Night of the Living Dead’. That was social commentary about segregation. Speaking on gang violence and what I hope people take from this movie, is that the LAPD is also a gang. They have authority, they have a badge. I think it’s important to illustrate that.
Who are the bad guys? Who are the good guys. Are you a product of your environment or is this who you are? Were you born this way? I think it’s important to ask all these questions and explore all these things because these are real life issues. If you don’t talk about it, you’re just ignoring it.”
CM Punk had one of the biggest moments from his wrestling career in WrestleMania 41, when he got to walk down the ramp while Living Colour once again delivered a live performance of his entrance theme, “Cult of Personality”. The entrance was emotional for the multiple-time World Champion: “They are such a classic rock band. They’re also solid dudes, good friends of mine now. It’s great that I can just call them up and say: “Hey, we’re doing this thing again. Do you guys want to come out again?” To me, it was a full circle moment.
They played me out in WrestleMania 29, back in 2013. For them to be able to do it, I needed them there. It needed to be a moment in which you could forget about the ten years that happened in between. It needed to be like: “We didn’t miss a beat.” For me, it felt like it was a re-do. This is what we were supposed to do. We got to do that. I needed my friends there, and I needed Living Colour there. Moments like that aren’t lost on me, they mean the world.”
Night Patrol is now playing in theaters.
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