The Watchmen‘s Patrick Wilson (Dan Dreiberg aka Nite Owl) on owl suits, goggles and making fun of Billy Crudup.
On Dan’s humanity.
“He’s as much of a detailed character with the biggest arc of I would say anybody that I’ve played. So I never really got caught up in the genre aspect of the film because so much of it was very organic.”
On dressing up as the Nite Owl.
“It’s hard to lift your arms … I can go back and watch Batman, Michael Keaton ‘s Batman and sort of understand now, like wow, he can’t turn his head … the leaps and bounds that they have come in design of the material. Our designers were so great and actually really receptive. I remember wanting a couple scenes where I wanted to take the cowl off and have it down so how to make the right material that you could wear it like that. I put the kibosh on the corset. They wanted a corset. I said if anything, we can corset when Dan’s younger but the whole point of Dan, it’s a pretty wide thing. I did not rock that. I worked too hard for the gut. I didn’t want to lose it.”
On sporting some serious goggles.
“The first fight sequence that we did was in the jail and they had made them sealed to my head … I was so hot, the only skin that was showing was [my face] and my eyes, you’d get about 10 seconds into the fight and the goggles would fog up and then you couldn’t see. So you’re sort of thinking, ‘OK, what would Dan have done?’ You’re sort of cutting little slits in the goggles to let the air get out and doing all this. So there was actually quite — the goggles became a real work.”
On seeing his friend Billy Crudup in a LED suit.
“My first day of shooting was the [Comedian]’s funeral … I remember getting out of the car and [Billy’s] just staring at me in this pouring rain trying not to blink and he has 150 dots on his face and this little helmet on and trying to say ‘Hello Dan.’ I just started laughing, this is ridiculous. Any time you have an experience with someone else that you’ve had a history with … anytime you see them on set and you are in your costume you go, ‘What do we do for a living?’ That was that moment for me and Billy.”
On the graphic novel.
“One of my friends is a die-hard comic book fan … even before I opened page one I called him and said, ‘Okay, Watchmen what do you got?’ and he said ‘Oh God’ and he said ‘If you were ever to do a comic book movie this is the one to do.’ I honestly knew going into it and I have such honest respect for him that he wouldn’t have led me wrong, I knew that we were treading on hallowed ground.”
KEEP READING: More ‘Watchmen’ Interviews
