Patrick Wilson on The Ledge, Reckless Faith, and Visions of Ted Bundy

Did this role or film challenge you as a spiritual person?

No. First of all, religion and spirituality are different things. But I think it's very personal, you know? If somebody wants to go to church because they like the ritual of it and want to sit in silence for a while one time a week, then that's great. If someone wants to go because they believe that God them and Jesus rose after three days, then that's great, too. I just saw The Book of Mormon the other night, and it was awesome. It was awesome because it's such an easy target to make fun of, and yet it's a great message: Whatever you want to believe in, that's great! Who's to say me making up some story is any worse than the plague of frogs in the Bible? You know? I love that. I think at the core, it's the same stuff. It's very personal, whatever you want to take from it.

Film is like religion: Audiences have faith. They suspend their disbelief. We're credulous, and as such, we like to discuss how and why we believe. Can The Ledge move the conversation to that extra level beyond the nominal thriller it is?

That's what made it an interesting movie for me to want to be in! Any time a movie's set up to be about spirituality or religion, it's usually kind of dour, I guess. For everything like The Apostle, which is awesome, there's another religious movie that's sort of boring. That's why the best things are when you watch a documentary about Jesus Camp or something, you know? We always come back to that: That fascination or obsession we have with religion. So if somebody wants to go to a movie just to see if a guy's going to jump off a ledge, great. If they want to talk about it at the end, perfect. The device of the movie -- using a thriller -- can hopefully be entertaining. I think it is to me. That's the most important thing: To get people interested. And to me, that's cool. That's the kind of movie I like: If this guy says, "I ate my popcorn, I liked it." Hey, that's great. If that guy wants to go in and talk about religion because he's crying and doesn't know who God is anymore, then that's awesome. Well, not for him, but you know what I mean.

This movie is a fable in some ways. I think it's written like an opera. And I don't mean this in a bad way, but I think a lot of it is very melodramatic and can be heavy. And I love that! I love that everybody has a very specific view. He's not just devout, he's devout and his wife's cheating on him. [Another character] is not only gay, he's gay and is getting married and studying Kabbalah. I mean, if you're going to do a movie about it, then do a movie about it.

Conceptually anyway, did you guys ever feel like you were biting off more than you could chew?

No, but I see what you're saying. There's a way this movie could have gone -- a little watered down, a jump of suspense, a couple crazy cuts, and maybe you just sort of tiptoe around the issues. But I think it plays stronger when you address what these characters are feeling. I mean, a studio film probably wouldn't have this ending. A studio movie would have cut the monologue scene I have with him. I talk for like five minutes straight! I would probably sit down with the gun and point it at him. To do this movie how [Chapman] wanted to do it, I think you needed that. That's what he's passionate about. He's a filmmaker.

Again, without giving anything away, that climactic reaction shot of yours is indelible. Whether or not the movie works overall, the shot is amazing. What is going through Joe's head at that moment, and where did you draw from?

Loss of control. How do you put in a way that doesn't spoil it? [Pause] He's shocked. Put it that way.

Let's just call it a plot development.

This movie, to me, is how so much sticks out where nothing is spoken. There are a few shots that stick out like that, but this particular shot you're talking about, I felt like he was -- in his own twisted way -- getting his control back, which was taken away from him. And then it was gone. And he knows there's no hope. There's no way out. It can't... [Pause] It's just the worst possible scenario for him. Put it that way. The bottom falls out.

It's such a great shot!

He's such a lost, awful soul. It's terrible.

How did you develop the monologue together?

Well, we went through it, and [Chapman] had written quite a lot. He's a writer, you know? He's written books. We pared it down and tried to get the most out of it. But we had to imagine the situation -- there is a ticking clock here, and I think he's going to see what kind of a man Gavin was. I think he thinks he's a complete coward, and that's where we wanted to let the audience in on him and the caged animal he was.

I haven't said this in any other interview, but my dad was one of the 12 people in the room who saw Ted Bundy die. And that look on his face... I had seen those interviews -- I don't know if you remember. I remember Rev. [James] Dobson, the chaplain. [Bundy] was a very smart man, and he was talking about what was going on with his life, and trying to deal with this impending doom. And you're like, "What? This is that animal?" My dad said that when he walked in that room, about to put the mask on to be electrocuted, it was like this caged animal. And you're like, "That's Ted Bundy." So I think of those moments -- the private moments, where you get that sense of, "Oh, shit, that's Joe. I am not screwing around here." That sense of deadlocked, sweaty... I don't even know what he did in the past eight hours, but it focuses him in, and he's just this animal that's like, "Let's go. I will go to the end, the extremes of the world for my cause. Will you?"

What was your dad doing at Bundy's execution?

My dad's a TV anchor in Florida. So he was one of the journalists covering it.

Looking back, did you draw from that in some kind of roundabout way?

I didn't consciously. Again, you approach any character with what you know. And when I think of a persona, on the outside, which is housing this animal underneath, that is one of the things that always stuck in my mind. It wasn't a conscious thing -- "Oh, I'm going to play Ted Bundy." But that's always an image to me when I think of the most black-and-white vision of what a person is like underneath. Because that was what Joe was: He's a troubled, lost, reckless soul. That's what I always remember from my dad's reaction -- just being blown away by this animal who knew he was faced with death, like a dog in a corner.

Well, it worked, whatever it was.

[Laughs] Thanks!

[Top photo: WireImage]

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