Patrick Gilmore

Patrick Gilmore is a Vancouver-based actor and producer. He first worked with Louis Ferreira on Stargate Universe. He joined The Friends of Louis Ferreira in June 2015. The Patrick and Louis duo is best known for their independent productions of Laptop Chat #5 and Louis and Patrick Go for a Drive.

AN INTERVIEW WITH PATRICK GILMORE

We are thrilled to bring you an interview with one of Louis’ best friends and Stargate Universe colleague – Patrick Gilmore!

Here is a brief introduction by Louis. Listen to the sound clip here:

LF – Okay, so this week we’re meeting my buddy Patrick Gilmore, for those of you who’ve seen our laptop chat.

I’m such a huge fan of him on so many levels. First and foremost as a friend. Our relationship is really that. We’re the two guys who will sit down and just chat for hours. Let us just say we’re in touch with our feminine side. For a lot of guys, you know, that’s just not the kind of conversations guys have. Patrick, him and I can talk about anything for hours and hours.

And I just love his mind and he’s super intelligent, funny, and he’s just such a kind, beautiful spirit. That’s one of those beautiful relationships that rarely have I, out of a job… I can’t really count on one hand people that I’ve kept in touch with, with someone that I’ve worked… and we met on Stargate, and have continued to grow… our relationship has continued to grow. And that’s got to be now, what, Stargate, getting close to six, seven years.

He’s part of my family to me. And I love that guy and I just find him so beautiful in every way, so I can’t say enough about Patrick. He’s a wonderful person and everyone should support and follow him in everything that he does.

And now here’s Patrick Gilmore! Click on the sound files to listen.

FF – Hi Patrick, it’s so nice to have you at Ferreira Fest this month. Most people at Ferreira Fest here know you as Dr. Dale Volker from Stargate Universe. And, of course, Laptop Chat number 5, and most recently, Louis and Patrick Go for a Drive. So, let’s start by you telling us a little bit more about yourself, your career, what gets you up in the morning. So, who is Patrick Gilmore?
 
PG – Hi, Bea, thank you for inviting me, I’m honored. What gets me up in the morning? Typically I have to pee. It’s what wakes me up, and then I finally get out of bed.

I’m an actor.

I’m from Alberta, which is, I guess, the Texas of Canada. I’m a prairies boy that moved to Vancouver in 2002 to pursue acting. And, yeah, I was lucky enough to meet Louis, I guess it was, was it five, six years ago? 2009?

I got bit by the bug when my dad brought home a video camera, in the mid-eighties, I guess. It was one of these video cameras that some people probably don’t remember, but…
 
FF – You put the big VHS tape in on the side?

PG – Oh, man, it was a piece of furniture! You had to have a backpack to hold the battery. I mean, it was the size of a VCR for the battery, it was the size of a VCR for where the tape goes in. And then the camera was like one of these ENG, you know, on the spot news cameras that were on the shoulder.

I remember my Dad asking me, do you want to see yourself on TV? And I was confused, I thought, how? Am I going to be on the news? And he pulled out this little black and white TV in his office and he played this tape of me playing in the backyard. And I was fascinated that that was actually me. I could watch it over and over again, what I had done. I was so young.

And then as the cameras became smaller, I ended up taking ownership of them and making sketch videos with my friend. And, fast-forwarding, you get into junior-high and high school, and people start asking you what you’re going to be when you grow up, and I never had an answer. So I would just dismissively say “actor”, just to get people off my back.

And so the only place that would take me was a small college in town, and eventually I transferred to the University of Alberta.

So, while I was getting my degree in English Literature, I was doing theater. The local theater, amateur theater, and still doing videos with the camcorders.

I just kept at it and graduated in 2000. Did some traveling. Because I had no idea how to become an actor. It was terrifying. And a director that I was working with on stage gave my name to a casting director, I auditioned for this TV show, I booked it. They gave my name to a TV movie production and I booked that, went to Costa Rica for a month and a half. It was my second gig ever.

And, I thought, this is wonderful. Based on that, I moved up to Vancouver in 2002.

FF – What kind of role did mentorship play in your early career, and possibly even now? We never really stop being mentored or mentoring others, could you talk a little bit about that?

I think of the entire writing and producing staff – Rob [Cooper], Brad [Wright], Joe [Mallozzi], Paul Mullie], Carl [Binder]  – these are such sweet people that had such trust in me and loyal and honest guys that really changed my life in a direction that I didn’t expect it to go.

But going back to the very beginning, obviously my parents are the number one mentors that I’ll ever have and I’m so lucky to have parents that have such a moral compass that has become my moral compass.

And then teachers. Everyone wants a Mr. Keating from Dead Poet’s Society. You know, everyone says, did you have a Mr. Keating? And I’m so lucky that I did. I think the one that had the biggest impact was my grade six teacher. His name is Bruce Plante, and we’re still friends, which is rare and lovely. He was a combination of Jack Nicholson and Robin Williams, crazy and creative and dynamic. And he commanded a room.

I was kind of a troublemaker in school. And he was the first teacher to actually see these qualities in students that other teachers would dismiss as faults, see them as strengths, and encourage them. And so when I was busy trying to make my friends laugh, instead of slapping my hand and giving me detention, he would encourage it, and do the same and make us laugh, be crazy and do characters. Every year he would perform The Shining, in front of all of his grade six students.

Your teacher’s up there, his hair is crazy and his eyes are arched and he’s doing The Shining with dry ice and a black light, and this was an adult, this was an authority figure breaking the bounds of the strict life that we see as our authority figures in life. And here he was being creative and imaginative, and just breaking rules. And he, still to this day, echoes in my head. And we’re still in contact.

FF – Oh, that’s wonderful. Patrick, what project are you currently working on, or did you just do? Any upcoming projects that you’re allowed to talk about? What’s hot and important, right now?

PG – There are three feature films that I’ve completed recently that will be coming out. I think the biggest one is The Confirmation. And that was written and directed by Bob Nelson. He wrote Nebraska, and he was nominated for an Oscar for that, so this was his directorial debut. It’s with Clive Owen, and Spencer Drever. There’s wonderful names in it, including Patton Oswalt, Maria Bello, a lot of great local talent that have shown up on Stargate of course, and good friends of mine, Michael Eklund, Ryan Robbins, Jennifer Copping. It’s a beautiful script, and I think it’s one of those projects that we’ll be proud to say we’re a part of.

FF – Now, is that a feature film, like a big screen, or in a TV film?

PG – Yeah, it’s a big screen. You know, it’ll go through the same process, once they get it all completed. They’ll try and sell it. And if we’re lucky we’ll end up in theaters and probably lots of festivals.

And that’s me. It’s a documentary, in this universe, it touches on a lot of gender issues, and it’s very funny. I think we just put the finishing touches on it a couple weeks ago.

It’ll start making the festival circuit, and eventually be available online to rent or buy, and that’s something that’s been close to my heart. It’s such a great premise. The producers are good friends of mine – Galen Fletcher and Kaleena Kiff who sci-fi fans would know from the web-series called Riese.

FF – Yes, of course, I remember Riese.

PG – The director and creator of No Men Beyond This Point is Mark Sawers who is a certifiable, crazy genius. Every movie that he puts to paper is something that defies logic.  I will always be a fan of his. He’s such a wonderful man and I’m very excited to see what gigs he’s going to produce in the future. I will be first in line.

PG – I would like to tell you the arc of my character but I don’t want to ruin anything, but it was probably one of the bloodiest rooms I have ever had filmed in. I was washing blood out of my hair for weeks.

My earliest memories are being in a Cessna, and I’m very comfortable around planes and it never occurred to me that I wouldn’t get my pilot’s license.

I’d assumed, “when I get my pilot’s license”, and I kept saying that, it’s such a life thing, it’s such a microcosm of everything. You know, we keep saying, “when I get this, when I do this”, and then a couple years ago I said, well, when is ‘when’ going to happen?

Why aren’t I doing that? And it took just a phone call, as most things do, you just make one phone call and before you know it, your life’s going in a different direction. And I started taking classes and started flying and I’ve got six hours soloing.

I just kind of got busy in the last year and haven’t had the time to really in-depth study to get it, but…

FF – That sounds great. – Let’s talk about Dale Volker for a little bit. How has the role of Dale Volker impacted your life? Both personally, possibly, and also as an actor? And who was your inspiration for the creation of the character?

PG – Yeah, we all auditioned, the sides, the script portions that they gave us to audition with, were Franklin and Brody, so I think that every one of my age in Vancouver auditioned for either Franklin or Brody and then they picked five or four of us, however many there were, and then just gave us names.
 
So, Dale Volker, I think just the Stargate experience really impacted my career and my life.

And at the time we were filming, Vancouver was going through a very tough dip in film production. So, a lot of people in the industry were struggling to find work, for a number of reasons, but we were insulated because we had this dream gig of being locked on a ship for two years. That got us through some hard times. And I got to meet these people with incredible imaginations.

And you add to them and whether or not the writers respond to that or not, and if they stay or if they go. And they add something and then before you know it, again like I said, an unspoken dance of collaboration, you’ve started adding on to this character.

And, it’s the first time I’ve been able to stay with a character for that long. Two years I got to hang out with Volker. And he became such a quirky, sardonic, almost a sad character. But I enjoyed him, I enjoyed seeing what takes he had on things. It might not have been perceptible to the audience because we’re more aware of what we’re doing than other people are. So at the end of season two, I saw him as such a colorful, quirky character, and I don’t know how much of that shows on camera but I was really excited to see what would happen in season three because it was just, you know, they gave us so much to do in season two.

FF – Oh, I know. I know. Well, and then Volker had this whole little arc with the kidney failure and then the unrequited love with Lisa Park, and it was just such a sweet storyline I thought.

PG – We always joked that the reason why they gave me kidney issues is because I was the only one of the entire crew that’s struggling to find food for two years that actually gained weight. I think I gained fifteen pounds while filming, and it had nothing to do with kidney failure, it had to do with the fact that I was getting free food for two years.

So, I ate my way through Stargate. But yeah, the Lisa Park stuff was wonderful. And just that whole triangle with Jamil. There were some really heartfelt moments, heartbreaking.  I was honored that they gave me Volker to play with.

And he has his own reasons for saying those things, but I love that relationship. But you know, Volker was also a bit of an elitist. He was very particular, which made the Brody relationship so much more fun.

I mean, Brody was a man, he liked to drink and he was kind of a loud character. For two years, Volker kept wearing his bloody vest. He carved a flute out of wood, liked clean shoes, it was just all these little things that may not have been picked up by the audience but that were there subtly and he could be a bit of a stick in the mud.

FF – Right, well, both Volker and Brody were such a comedy team, too, just the interaction between the two characters. And I could tell, this is a personal interaction that’s coming through here, that’s why those two characters together on screen have such chemistry. It’s so funny, it’s always like a Laurel and Hardy, or something.

FF – Right. Of all the characters you’ve played, so far, which one do you think is the closest to the real you? And what is the role that you’re most proud of?

PG –I think the first half of season one of Volker was most like me. Because it mirrored life. There was a group of people that you didn’t know, thrown into a small space. And where do you fit in? And I’m sure a lot of the looks of being lost that you saw on my face were actually Patrick going like, what am I doing here?

Most recently, the character I played, Andrew Myers in No Men Beyond This Point, there was a lot of me in that. And, again, it’s where do I fit in? And trying to figure it out while keeping a brave face for the public perception of “I know exactly what I’m doing. I got this. And you don’t.” And I think everyone feels that way.

So, I don’t know if there’s one specific, because you try not to be, every time you get a role you try to do something different, you want to stretch yourself. I don’t want to play myself every time.

As far as the one I’m most proud of, I think maybe Tom Drexler in The Killing. I did a character arc in season one of The Killing, on AMC, and that was such a departure from characters I’ve played and he was such a pompous megalomaniac, and, oh, it was so fun. It was like getting back into theater. Because in theater, I played women, I played children, I played hundred year old men. There was such a breadth of characters you could play in the theater, and then you get on camera and you start playing Deputy Number One, Deputy Number Two, Best Friend… and there’s not a lot of range, so to be able to go on there and play this coke-fueled egomaniac, was like going back to theater for me. And it was such a high quality show. I think that was the one that I’ve most recently been very proud of.

FF – Wonderful.

FF – You’ve also worked with Bradley Stryker on Unexpected Guest, the short movie, and we’ve had Bradley as a guest here before on Ferreira Fest, so…

PG – Did you really?

FF – Would you share a memory, about working with him?

PG – Well, Bradley was the first person I met on Stargate. The very first scene I filmed was the evacuation of Icarus Base. And going through the Gate. And they brought me in early, and I sat in my trailer for hours before they finally called me in, and then they called this other actor in. It was the two of us walking up to the studio that held the Icarus Base. And it was Bradley Stryker. And we knew of each other, we’d seen each other around town. But we just started chatting.

FF – Let’s talk a little bit about the Laptop Chats, and how did you come up with the idea, and how did you develop that?

PG – The Laptop Chat stems from my innate laziness. Social media became a big part of being in the sci-fi community. When you are on a sci-fi show it comes with a built-in fan base, a family, which is overwhelming. And I mean, you know all about this.

FF – Oh, yeah.

PG – And it came to me unexpectedly and overwhelmingly. And I’m not very good with that, admittedly. I’m not good in crowds, I’m not good with that attention. And so, when I’m on Twitter, which is rare these days, people were asking questions. And someone like Peter Kelamis is very good with answering and talking to fans of the show and getting involved. And I never was. And I felt bad about it because these are really committed people who love the projects that you’re involved in, and they’re some of the nicest people that I’ve ever met.

And I wasn’t participating. So I came up with an idea of, well, why don’t I just gather up all their questions instead of tweeting them individually? I’ll just set up a video camera in my kitchen and I’ll just read them and answer them. Get them all done in ten minutes and then post that and move on. Maybe do that once every few months.

It felt really narcissistic to sit there in front of the camera answering these questions, so I asked my friend Ivon [Bartok], why don’t you join me? So in the very first one, which unfortunately I made into two parts, I shouldn’t have, it should have been just one, no one ever watches the second part, so Ivon and I sat there, having a few drinks, and answering these questions, and I found I actually enjoyed it more when he answered the questions and I asked them. So, when it came the second time to do it, I sent out a request for questions and, instead of answering them, I asked them to Peter. So it was kind of killing two birds with one stone. I got to, kind of, not say anything about myself, and get answers from other people. It was perfect. So it just became this recurring thing, and I intended to do more. But you get busy, and then once I did Louis’…

FF – That’s a hard one to top!

PG – Well, exactly. Where do you go from there? I’m looking at some post-its on my wall right now, of projects, irons in the fire, and one of them says “Laptop Six”.

FF – Now, your latest crime, with your partner in crime, was Louis and Patrick Go for a Drive. And how did that come about?

PG – Louis and I always wanted to do other things and he always said let’s do another laptop chat. Well, you can’t do the same thing twice. And so, we’re always talking about it, but you know, people get busy, and he’s been doing Motive for the last number of years. 

I was driving back to L.A. from Palm Springs a couple months ago and I was listening to music, and Paradise by the Dashboard Light pops on and I start singing my heart out. I texted Louis immediately and said, “You, me, driving, lip-syncing to Paradise by the Dashboard Light.” And he immediately responded, yes! So two days later I showed up at his place, and we played the song, sang our parts, told him what I was thinking, and then we just drove around his neighborhood for an hour, we did it four times. The one you see is the fourth take. And there was a bunch of other songs that we had flirted with doing too, if this one didn’t work out.

Everything from Islands in the Stream, to Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, and The Girl is Mine, which you see a little of…

FF – There’s a little bit at the end.

PG – That’s how that came about. And then of course, we had so much fun with it, and we were laughing so hard, that we’re like, okay, what are we going to do next?

It was such a big cast that we never really hung out. But we worked together and he was so fun to work with because he’s fun off set, when the camera was not rolling, and then on set, I can’t speak enough about how talented this man is. It’s just something that the man is born with. He’s just a natural actor. And dynamic, someone you can’t take your eyes off on camera.

We never really started becoming that close until I think somewhere around near the end of season two. And then the show ended. I love it that he’s become such a close friend.

FF – There’s probably many good… just one that’s standing out… any memorable or funny experiences that you had with him, on set or off, that you would like to share?

PG – I think that’s the toughest question you’ve asked. When you hang out with Louis, you never know what you’re going to be talking about. You never know what adventures you’re going to get into, you never know which stranger on the street he’s going to pick out and become friends with.

Even though you walk into a store with Louis, you never know what scene is going to happen, right? And it’s exciting and it’s fun and then you get Louis alone and you never know how deep you’re going to talk, of life and philosophy and it’s fun.

I was talking about Bradley Stryker, and like I said, there’s a reason why these people are in my life. Because when you leave their presence, you are richer for it.

I couldn’t pick one, there’s so many that they just blend into this kaleidoscope of positive energy.

It was a beautiful meal, and by a fireplace, and we walked out into the air and then we drove back to Vancouver and of course we were all so relaxed that we couldn’t fall asleep so we pulled up YouTube and started playing Karaoke songs.

And we sang the whole way back.

Yeah, it’s funny how that one would stand out when I’m sure there are moments where I was shocked, horrified, dying of laughter over an incident, but that one, where there was silence, it stands out for some reason, I’ll always remember that, and look forward to more. So I don’t have any salacious, hilarious prank or anything but that, I think, is one of my favorites.

FF – It’s perfectly okay. So now we’re at the end here, Patrick, I hate to say it, but here comes the difficult question that all of our interview guests get: If you had to describe Louis in four words, what would they be?

PG – Four words?

FF – Four words.

PG – You know, typically I would go for the laughs, but after the last question I’m just kind of in that zone of who Louis really is.

First one that pops in is energy. There’s an energy in Louis that I don’t even know if he’s fully tapped but when it washes over you it’s infectious.

Talent. I mean, the man is dripping with it. Obnoxiously dripping with talent. And his ability to express it with seemingly little effort, it’s fun to watch his different roles throughout the years and what he’ll do next because he is forever the student and so, when he’s done something, he’s done it, and he’s ready to move on and try something different. That’s how I want my career to be, I want to push myself and find the limits of my talent. And I don’t know if he has any limits.

He’s loyal. Loyalty, I guess. I’m a hard guy to get a hold of, on good days. And he’s one of those friends that if he hasn’t heard from me in a while, he’ll check up on me. You know, if you haven’t seen him in a while, it’s like no time has passed.

And I’m honored to kind of be part of a group that he considers his, well, and here’s my fourth word—family.

Because I feel like I’m part of his family. And there’s nothing more precious to Louis if you know Louis than his family. His kids are his world. And if you’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting these two, they’re fascinating, they’re beautiful, they’re joys to be around. And I love watching him interact with them and I love listening to him talk about his kids.

FF – If you could tell us real quick where people can find more information about you. So, you’re on Twitter, obviously.

PG – Twitter is probably the go-to. Twitter leads into Instagram and Facebook and anything else that I’m doing. It all kind of feeds through Twitter. So, @PatrickGilmore is my contact point.

FF – Thank you so much for being with us here today, Patrick. Thank you so much for this wonderful, long and detailed interview.

PG – Thank you, and I’m so sorry it’s long. I could talk about Louis forever. And evidently I can talk about myself for even longer. Sorry about that.

FF – Well, it’s what people want to know. So, thank you again so much for being with us today and you have a wonderful rest of the day.

PG – You too, thank you Bea.

Thanks to Casey for the transcript and to Patrick for the edits!

More info about Patrick

10 Things You Didn’t Know About Patrick Gilmore

An Interview with Patrick Gilmore by Abbas Karimjee

Watch Louis and Patrick go for a Drive: