It is not big news that Jason Patric has turned in another fine performance in Geronimo: An American Legend. It is big news, however, that he has turned in any performance at all.
Patric is one of those rare young actors who gets terrific notices after each film and then immediately goes into hiding. Instead of taking full advantage of the moment, he prefers to lay low and wait until his career cools off again.
But the handsome actor insists that it’s not that he doesn’t want to work more often.
“I have nothing against work,” the actor said with a defensive shrug. “I realize I don’t work as often as I could. I much prefer to work than not work.
“But I’m always looking for the right combination of a good story, a good character and a good director. Unfortunately, these things come together all too infrequently.”
Geronimo is Patric’s sixth film and, by far, the biggest movie of his career. It has a big cast, a big budget and a big story to tell. Patric plays Lt. Charles Gatewood, the sensitive, knowledgeable army officer charged with the responsibility of bringing in Geronimo.
“I’ve never set out to make a message film, but this is an important movie for people to see because it shows both sides,” the actor said. “It’s important because kids are not learning this stuff in school. I never learned about Geronimo in school. At least not the truth about Geronimo.”
If Patric, 27, seems a little wiser about the business than other young actors, it’s understandable. The grandson of Jackie Gleason and the son of playwright Jason Miller, he has been around show business types all his life. Something was bound to rub off on him.
“It wasn’t like people in my family were giving me advice about the business,” he said. “I only saw my grandfather five or six times in my life. But I observed the lifestyle and I guess I learned from what I saw.”
Patric was born in Queens, N.Y., and raised in a New Jersey suburb. Despite the bloodlines, he said he never considered a career in acting until he spent the summer after his high school junior year at a Shakespeare festival in Vermont.
When he graduated from high school, he began auditioning for parts and, following some theater work, got his first film role. The movie was forgettable – he refuses to even name it – but he got noticed in his second role in the teen vampire flick The Lost Boys in 1987.
He followed that effort with The Beast and then was discovered by critics in the 1990 film After Dark, My Sweet. Then came Rush a year later and Patric was being hailed as the next coming of DeNiro and Pacino.
Rush, in which Patric played a strung-out undercover narcotics officer, was a box office disaster. Yet his performance was so strong, he found himself at a critical crossroads in his career. He, of course, opted to disappear for awhile.
But he was not able to completely disappear this time. Fate stepped into his life in the guise of actress Julia Roberts.
Patric was caught up in the hot glare of the media spotlight when his friend walked out on Kiefer Sutherland days before their planned nuptials and straight into Patric’s arms.
The actor doesn’t talk much about any aspect of his life, let alone the brief time spent with Roberts, but he seems critical of celebrities like Roberts who seek media attention when things are good and try to shun it when things turn bad.
“I have a real problem with celebrities who gain notoriety or fame through their personal lives and then all of a sudden decide to pull back,” he said.
“If you’re on the cover of People magazine telling about your traumas or happiness, then you’re using your personal life to advance your professional career. In effect, you do owe the people something and therefore, when things get bad, you have an obligation to speak up.
“That’s why I’ve always tried not to do that,” he continued. “I have avoided publicity intentionally and whatever advancement I’ve made has come through my work. Therefore, I have the right to say no when people ask me questions.”
