Bringing Boondock Back

The MUSE: Did you originally want to make a sequel when you made Boondock Saints or after the success?

DUFFY: Pretty much. As soon as I put the end on that first story I kind of had the idea about the sequel, yeah.

TM: What made you want to put in a female character?

DUFFY: Throw a curveball at the fanbase. I think that the sequels that have always worked have always given us everything that worked from the first movie but a brand new story.’ Like the cleanest example would be Terminator 2 where suddenly Arnold’s a good guy protecting Sarah Connor. We all didn’t see that coming.’ We ate it up.’ ‘ And that’s the thing about making a sequel that I thought was the key to making a good sequel. So few of them work out. I needed to give us all the bang for the buck that we loved from the first movie plus a brand new storyline with a bunch of curveballs in it that you couldn’t see coming. She was one. No one would expect a female lead in Boondock 1. Clifton was another. His history going into period-piece flashbacks with Il Duce is a third. But anyway you cut it, that story is unpredictable to this fanbase.

SPF: Plus the critics, for the first one, they all pretty much unanimously thought that it was vaginally light.

CONNOLLY: There was ‘a distinct lack of vagination.” I read that.’

TH: So was there anything easier in making the sequel compared to the first one?

DUFFY: No. Everything was more difficult almost to a t, except the relationship between everybody. That is what made things easier and that alone. Everything was much more difficult, for me in particular. Just because it’s a much bigger story, much broader. It’s a very different movie than Boondock 1. We had a lot to do, with virtually the same amount of money to make it as we did the first one, and the same amount of time. Those are the things that limit you on a film: money and time. And at any point, all these wonderful actors could’ve revolted and walked off the set. But they didn’t, they had my back the entire time. We these guys have been sitting there reading a script for a year and it gets to their quintessential scene that they’ve been waiting to do and you’ve got to get it in one or two takes and move on, and you don’t have time to rehearse, at any point the actors can just leave, stand up, and walk the fuck out on you. And they didn’t do it here. Every time I turned around, there were standing right there ready to go.

SPF: I tried staging a coup, but our initial meeting was held in a strip-club so we didn’t get a lot of planning done. And the next night I was like, ‘Tell ’em Norm!’ And Norm was like, ‘What?!’ And I was like, ‘Nevermind!’

REEDUS: ‘Can I borrow a dollar?’

SPF: ‘All right, back to work. Whatever.’

TM: What’s your guys’ favorite thing about having Troy as a director?

CONNOLLY: His enthusiasm. Sometime, well I’ve found — I don’t know about the other guys — but when you’re being directed by the guy who wrote the piece, it can be a bit dodgy. You know, he could be hanging on every comma. ‘Cause you know, he gave birth to the thing so he wants you do it exactly as he has seen it all these years through the writing and stuff. But you want to put your little tuppence worth in as well.
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TM: Seems like there was a lot more comedy in this one, to me at least. Did you guys plans for that, or just try to keep it light?

DUFFY: Yeah we just knew that something that Boondock fans insisted on. The humor in 1 was something unexpected for them and they loved it.’ And they took away all these lines. I mean, you three are in college. How many times have you heard people rattle off Boondock lines just in casual conversation? ‘Thanks for coming out.” It’s all the time. So I knew we sort of have those lines for kids like that to use in their everyday life. I think ‘Ding dong, motherfucker!’ is a good one.’ ‘Cause you can say that to’ anything if you think about it. The other day I said to Sean, ‘Sean let’s go grab a beer.’ He said, ‘Ding dong, motherfucker! Ding dong!’ So I mean, yeah, the humor was always a huge part of it.

TM: Do you guys prefer the cult status that the first film received or are you hoping for more of a wider appeal?

CONNOLLY: I don’t really care. I just wanted to not let the first one down. That was the foremost thing in my head, in my own performance, not to let the first movie down. I felt it was a friend of mine, I had to stand beside it. Because it was such a unique thing in my life and most of our lives and most of our professional experiece. For thing that was attacked and didn’t get proper release and all that (can’t tell he says at the end). So I felt I owed it, I owed a sense of loyalty to it. That was the most important thing to me to be loyal to the first one.’

DUFFY: I felt the same way. I mean, how many of you came across Boondock because a buddy of yours sat you down and said, ‘You got to see this film.’ That’s been our bread and butter. The kids have done it on their own. There was no ad campaign. There was no red carpet. There was no theatrical release. You found it. And you propagated it and you made it success. And whether the fans know it or not, they were the ones that got this sequel made. Every year Boondocks number kept going up and up and up.’ And it was silently a juggernaut of huge grosses in North America and around the world. Finally, the powers that be had to listen.