Boondock isn’t Boondock without some cops chasing the tail of the two brothers right? Well, that is exactly what Brian Mahoney and Bob Marley, who play Detective Duffy and Detective Greenly respectively, do in The Boondock Saints. Mahoney was a military pilot before getting into acting and Marley to this day is a stand-up comic who got to play one of the most popular roles of his career. I spoke with both of them about what it was like to work on the first film and being able to return 10 years later.
First up will be my interview with Brian Mahoney:
Merrill Barr: Hi Brian, how are you?
Brian Mahoney: Good, thanks.
Merrill: Great. So 10 years is a long time to be away from a character, so what was it like getting back into the role of Detective Duffy?
Brian: Well it really wasn’t 10 years for me, because I lived here in LA and I know Troy — the project was on again off again almost the 10 years it seems like. It was gonna go anytime, but what it really was, was the court case just kept holding it back and holding it back. Finally, when the court case cleared we all got to play and it was just amazing. It was easy to get back into it. I’m from Framingham, MA, originally so I just had to go back and get my accent back again and I went from there.
Merrill: And what was it like with Troy and the rest of the cast again?
Brian: Oh, that was unbelievable too. This whole experience with Boondock Saints 1, and now the big 10-year arc, it’s getting bigger and bigger everyday and really it’s everyday there is something new.
Merrill: Well how did you get the role of Duffy in the first place?
Brian: Well, in 1997 my newlywed wife worked at New Line Cinema. I was an actor. I had just gotten out of the military; I was a cobra pilot. I tracked everything that came out of New Line as far as scripts. What I would do is find a story I really liked and find some smaller parts that people would consider me for. Then I would lie, beg, cheat, steal, whatever to get an audition. Boondock Saints was one of those projects. I found it and I had that script for almost two years before I got to read for it because of all the delays. There were eight cop roles, four smaller cop roles and four bigger cop/detective roles. One of them Detective Walker got written out, I memorized all eight of them and begged for an audition with Troy Duffy and finally got it and the audition process itself was amazing.
Merrill: Cool, now I know that Bob Marley (Detective Greenly) is a standup comic and you have Bob Rubin coming in who is also a comic — so what was it like working with those guys who are just constantly funny on a 24 hour basis?
Brian: Well it was amazing with Bob Marley because Troy wanted to build a relationship with Bob and I so he roomed us together. He put us in a condo just so we would start getting along or start fighting, either way it’s going to look good on screen. So, we did that and that’s the difference between the first movie and the second movie — that me and Bob get side-by-side time. Also, Bob is a crack up, you got to watch out, he’s always looking for funny stuff.
Merrill: Now, I know you were in the military for a while before you got into acting so were you bringing any of that into the detective role?
Brian: Oh man, this is the problem I have had during my transition from the military into acting. In the military, flying in aviation in particular, it’s all think don’t feel. When I was in Central America, there no room for mistakes when you’re flying in a different country in a multimillion-dollar aircraft with weapons on board. If you screw up you could have an international incident. So there’s no emotion in the cockpit — it’s just the opposite in Hollywood. Every acting teacher I had for the first 4 years told me, stop thinking so much, you just got to feel this. Once I learned how to transition from that into the feeling, things started getting easier.
Merrill: In the first one, the detectives had a huge relationship with Willem Dafoe’s character. Now that Dafoe is out and Julie Benz is in. Is the connection the same?
Brian: Well first things first; yes, Willem is not in this one. He was in the first one and what a great experience that was to spend like 5 weeks with him. That’s probably the best acting class I ever had. It was just those 5 weeks with this gentleman — just an incredible actor and incredible human being. And Julie, well Julie is a lot prettier than Willem Dafoe. [laughs]
Merrill: [laughs]
Brian: As a matter a fact when you look at Julie you got to look at her twice, it’s really embarrassing. I had to keep staring at her at first because she’s kind of like a special effect — she’s really pretty on film but in person she is just beautiful. Every day I got to wake up and go interact with this incredible woman. She’s really professional too. So if you’re looking for a “she was a bitch story” from me you’re not going to get it because she was a real sweet heart.
Merrill: I’m not looking for that at all. In fact everyone I have talked to compliments her on her professionalism and just being around her is apparently an incredible experience. Now, are the detectives more physical this time around, because in the first one you guys are really just standing around investigating the crime scenes. So is there maybe a shoot out or two?
Brian: Thanks for noticing man, that’s what pissed me off about the first one. I love it, but I never got to pull out my gun and kill anybody. I was just standing there — so is it more physical this time?
I really can’t say. I would love to tell you two or three of the things I did, but if I do it will give away plot points. So I’ll say that our parts are much bigger and yes they’re some surprises and this will be my introduction. Nobody knows who Brian Mahoney is yet. When this movie comes out, people will know who Brian Mahoney is.
Merrill: Awesome, now one more question. Any Freudian slips this time around?
Brian: [laughs] Yes, but they were all off camera. There is some humor, ya know Bobby Marley, You don’t bring a comic like him back without using that humor. He has all the good stuff and I am of course the somewhat up tight detective, but thankfully I’m the smart one. I have [Troy] Duffy’s name so he isn’t going to let me get too stupid.
Merrill: Great, well thank you very much for your time.
Brian: No problem
Up Next: Bob Marley:
Merrill Barr: So it’s been 10 years and Greenly, outside of the brothers themselves, is one of the most memorable characters of the first film. So what was it like getting back into that role?
Bob Marley: It was a lot of fun and I had to go buy the movie at Wal-Mart…
Merrill: You didn’t get a free copy?
Bob: Well I had a bunch of free copies when it first came out and of course all of those went to relatives so when they told me they were shooting the sequel I went to Wal-Mart and bought the movie just so I could watch it again, and the lady is like “buying your own movie Bob?”
Merrill: [laughs]
Bob: I was like “yeah” and she was like “don’t you think that’s a little arrogant?” I’m like “no, we’re shooting a sequel and I got to watch the first one to remember what I did,” and she goes “yeah sure Bob, whatever.” So I thought that was pretty freaky, but yeah got to go back and see what I did in the first one and then of course my character has a big story in this one so I had to act like Greenly a lot of the time and then other times he’s just giving information to move the story forward. So it’s not just straight Greenly being a wise-ass the whole time. There’s a little more shading to him this time.
Merrill: That’s good. I spoke with Brian Mahoney, who says hi by the way, and he was telling about how Troy wanted to build a relationship between you and him, specifically in the first one, so he roomed you together. I was wondering what you could tell me about that.
Bob: Yeah the first movie we were roommates together so it was funny because I am a wise-ass anyway so it fits for my character, so I was kind of a wise-ass all the time with Mahoney. He showed up in Toronto the first time, he had 3 suitcases and I showed up with basically a back pack — and one of his suitcases is just filled with underwear.
Merrill: [laughs]
Bob: And I’m like “dude what the fuck? What’s going on?” and he’s like “well yah know I just want to stay clean, stay fresh” and I thought it was funny because his character in the movie is very meticulous and very much like that and my guy’s kind of like “what the fuck” and a little more rough around the edges so it was a great idea by Troy to put us together like that because he’s a better looking guy than me and it all kind of fits for the movie so this time around it was funny. Troy didn’t put us together in the same apartment but he put us in apartments next door to each other, which was really funny. We kind of picked up right where we left off and the other cop David Ferry, who plays Detective Dolly, we all just got to set the first day and we all just started laughing and it was like we never missed a beat. It was just like it was 10 years ago.
Merrill: That’s awesome. I am glad to hear that the chemistry still exists. Do you have a lot of those one-liners again?
Bob: Yeah, ya know the thing about Boondock Saints II is that it didn’t lose that independent feel that Boondock Saints I had. Basically it’s the thing about Boondock Saints that everyone loves, and is still prevalent in All Saints Day, but it’s like Boondock Saints on steroids, because we had more money to spend, and they used it really well. They spent it on more characters, more actors, more time to shoot — they basically spent it on everything you wish a director and producer would spend it on. So, for us, that’s just a lot of fun. They added a lot more characters to it, so the whole movie is hilarious at times, and my guy definitely has plenty of funny scenes in it, but there are also other characters and other new people that join the cast that just scream funny, so it’s great, it’s really fun for me to watch because I’m a comedian so I love the comedy part of it.
Merrill: Now, how did you get the role in the first place?
Bob: The first movie, a buddy of mine named Tom Chabot, who was a kid from Maine, that was living in LA and kind of working with Troy and these guys and so he called me up and said “Hey, these guys are doing a movie.” I’m like “O.K. well it’s Hollywood dude, everyone is making a movie. Whatever,” and he said “you wanna come down? They want to see you at The Laugh Factory on the sunset strip,” and it was like one o’clock in the morning by the time I got there the place was packed and there’s people hammered in the audience and I’m just on stage like taking off on people going “shut up” and apparently that’s what he [Troy Duffy] was looking for so then I just went home for three months and then I got a call back and he said “Troy said come down. We want you to audition for this.” So I went down and I had a scene in the ally which is three pages long, which is the scene of me in the first movie where I’m talking about the guy jumping off the roof and all that, and Troy goes “go ahead and do that scene,” and I go “O.K.” and there’s a script right there and I go “I don’t want to read the script I got it” and he goes “you got it all, you got three pages memorized?” and I go, “yeah, yeah” so I did the whole monologue and he just stops me and looks at me with a smile and goes, “you’re the guy,” and I was like, “O.K. I’m good enough,” and that was it. He was awesome to work with — he’s a super cool dude.
Merrill: A lot of people that I have talked to are calling the set “a family” do you agree with that?
Bob: Yeah, I mean everybody knows everybody and we’re all going out to eat and hanging out together, I mean it’s great, and I would go out and hang out with Sean and Norm and it’s just like, if there was somebody who was on the movie for like a day, they would go “hey we’re all going out to get a beer want to come?” It’s a totally cool group of people — really, really fun. Billy Connolly, just having people like that on the film; such great leaders that you just follow their etiquette and you learn how to just be cool. Like Billy Connolly, he just takes time to talk to everybody and it’s not because he thinks, “Oh I’ll do this so I won’t look like a dick.” It’s just who he is. So, you watch that and you go — oh man, it’s contagious. It’s a great vibe, just a really good group of people to work with — a lot of fun.
Merrill: Now, Bob Rubin, who is also a stand-up comic, is in the film. So between you and him, was there a lot of practical joking, ribbing, etc…?
Bob: Well there’s him and there is also some other guys. So there’s like three or four of us in the film. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a lot of scenes with Rube, but we spend time together just hanging around laughing our asses off and he’s a really great guy. But, it’s weird because my instinct always tell me “go for the joke, go around, screw around,” but then you’re standing in a bar room and there’s like 5,000 squibs set up ready to explode at any moment
Merrill: [laughs]
Bob: So once they yell action and everybody draws their guns is when my body decides to turn on the Robin Williams improvisational moment and I would probably get my ass handed to me like, “it was really funny but now it is going to take us two fucking days to reset this bar.”
Merrill: So is this one more physical than the last one?
Bob: I don’t know, the first one had great moments, but this one probably has the same amount as the first one in terms of fights and stuff, but I will say that in this one I think the gun sequences are a lot cooler and the weapons are just awesome.
Merrill: Was it hard to get the accent back?
Bob: No, I’m from the east so Maine is a lot like Boston except a little more slowed down and not as angry.
Merrill: [laughs]
Bob: [laughs] I mean if I were to say, “hey how you doing” in Maine, in Boston it would be like, “how yah doin.” It’s just got that tone like, “I might punch you.” But, I lived in Boston for two years and it’s easy for me to slip into — that’s no problem. It’s funny though because other actors who act like they are from New England would come up to me and say “Honk the car” and I’m like, O.K. dude forget all that shit, and just stand over there and say “retard“ (in boston accent) 27 times in a row and then you’ll have it.
Merrill: Last question, Julie Benz vs Willem Dafoe?
Bob: Well, they are totally different, I mean my character kind of has the hots for her character in this movie and I’m kind of in pursuit of her the whole movie. She’s just super smoking hot. My character is really just smitten by her and she was wonderful to work with — really funny, really talented actress. But when you see Willem Dafoe standing across from you, like he’s been nominated like three times, and in my first scene with him I’m like, “this dude has been nominated for an Oscar like three times and I just played the chuck chuck’s in Omaha” So Willem Dafoe, it just kind of took me and I was really cool to him and it was a lot for fun. But with Willem it was a little more star striking because I have grown up watching all of his movies and Julie I had just become familiar with. I told her the first day, “anybody gives you any shit let me know.” Just because it’s a tough environment for a girl to step into.
Merrill: Well thank you very much for your time and good luck.
Check out previous interviews here and come back for more leading up to The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, which hits theaters October 30th.