Canadian actor Stephen McHattie is one of the busiest actors in the world. He's one of the most immediately-identifiable character actors around. With his thin frame, gaunt face, and gravel-tinged voice, McHattie is known for his roles in shows like The X-Files and Orphan Black, as well as multiple films from Zack Snyder, including 300 and Watchmen.
McHattie's latest film, Dreamland, is a doozy. A psychedelic throwback to the acid-soaked esoteric experimental films of the 1960s, Dreamland, as the title suggests, follows its own dream-inspired logic as it tells the story of a rogue hitman and a heroin-addicted jazz trumpet player. Both characters played by McHattie, channeling his inner Chet Baker (essentially reprising his role from the 2009 short film, The Deaths of Chet Baker). Directed by Bruce McDonald (Pontypool, Hard Core Logo), Dreamland reunites the director with McHattie, his frequent muse.
While promoting the release of Dreamland, McHattie talked to Screen Rant about his work on the film and how he was involved with the project from its earliest planning stages, and how Chet Baker's tragic life and incredible music inspired the film and his acting within it. He also talks about working with Zack Snyder and his feelings on having his best scenes from Watchmen dropped from the movie until the release of the Director's Cut on home video.
Dreamland releases June 5 on Digital and Video on Demand.
Dreamland is fantastic. I talked to Bruce the other day, and we talked about how the movie was written with you in mind. So, can you talk a bit about getting to shape your character on the ground level like that?
Yeah. It kinda came out of a little five-minute movie I had done about Chet Baker. It was called The Death of Chet Baker. So, we started to play around with that. I had done a lot of reading on Chet Baker's life, and how he died. So it kinda took off from there. There were odd things about Chet Baker, you know, his high voice and the very feminine affectations, he had this gentle and lyrical way of playing and singing. And then, you know, he led a real cowboy life. He was kind of a badass guy. So that's where the two characters came from.
I had loved you in Born to Be Blue, but I didn't know about the short film when I saw it. I thought you were fantastic in that. I remember watching you in that movie and thinking, "Wow, he could totally play Chet himself." And now I know, you were!
(Laughs) Well, thanks! Yeah. We came up with the idea, and Tony Burgess, the guy with the strange imagination that we had to try to wrestle with. He has wonderful ideas, and we had to figure out how to use them. So, we had already worked together on Pontypool, so we know each other really well. We had a thing of meeting up every two or three months to talk things over.
It's cool, because there's so many different elements in Dreamland, it's really psychedelic in its sensibilities. It's got that 1960s acid vibe that you don't really see that much anymore. I want to watch it again knowing that it's like a fantasy version of Chet Baker as the lead. That's a whole new prism to explore every angle.
Yeah.
In the final act of the movie, without spoiling anything, the jazz player wears this incredible suit with a black and white tie, it's kind of the most beautiful outfit I've ever seen. It's such a Chet Baker outfit.
It could have been. I know the Belgian costume designer was very meticulous. She had me dressed in kind of a 50s style for the Johnny character. I would imagine it was very close to something Chet Baker wore, yeah.
You'd worked with Bruce a bunch of times before, including on XIII, one of my favorite TV shows, where you played the President.
Oh yeah.
It's too bad we never got a third season of that, because I loved how that show got better and crazier as it went on.
That show died a very unceremonious death. It was great fun playing a president, you know?
Back when America had a president! That was great!
Yeah, pretending to have concerns about things that I'm sure real presidents have no concerns with whatsoever. It's hard even to think of a president now, as to what they do. It was much clearer to me back then. There was the image on all the TV shows about the Clinton presidency, like The West Wing and all those. It was really so idealized. So this was kind of a show where I got to take the piss out of that a bit.
One last thing, really quick. The big news that we at Screen Rant are obsessed with right now is Zack Snyder's Justice League coming out on HBO. I know you worked with him on Watchmen, and it's a movie where we didn't get to see some of your best scenes until the home video Director's Cut. Do you have any insight into Zack's process and how he cuts scenes to restore them? Or are you, as an actor, someone who does your job on set and then after that, it's out of your hands and you move on?
It's pretty much always that! (Laughs) But I know he's very ambitious as to what he always wants to include in a movie. He does fight for, you know, sidebar things. I remember when the movie came out, he called me and said, "I have good news and bad news for you." And he told me about the cuts, but said they were gonna be in the Director's Cut. Not that that means much, since the movie, as it stands, is important. But I also did 300 with him, that was the one that put him on the map. Great guy!
Dreamland releases June 5 on Digital and Video on Demand.