Patrick Heusinger: I change myself a lot. Some roles you don't want to...

My character is called The Hunter. He's the main antagonist in the movie. In a nutshell, he's a slightly deranged natural born killer who's weirdly determined to succeed at his job, whatever his employment is. He's a mercenary and there's a high body count for him in this film [Never Go Back].

Patrick Heusinger

determined-to-succeed jobs character

I read as many books about the psychology of a psychopath as I could and I researched what exactly happens to soldiers.

Patrick Heusinger

psychology soldier book

A sociopath can imitate emotions, where a psychopath really doesn't have that capacity. They can't fool people into thinking anything and they're usually lacking major empathy for anybody besides themselves.

Patrick Heusinger

empathy people thinking

For some roles, like when I was doing Bent, that was harder and I didn't find that helpful because I was so calorie deprived, my brain wasn't getting food. I would end up not being as focused or as clearheaded as I would have liked to be during the run of the performances. I would lose those quality impulses that you lean on when you're acting because of malnutrition. basically. But I looked skinny.

Patrick Heusinger

quality brain running

I'm not a method actor but it certainly does help to have that kind of dedication. I treated my preparation like I was in the military. I didn't go out ever. I went out for drinks probably twice in five months. I lived very monastically.

Patrick Heusinger

dedication preparation military

I was eating with the help of a nutritionist so I was definitely putting in the appropriate calories and vitamins and minerals into my body; however, it was still so little that if I had the tiniest piece of sugar, my brain would go crazy. If I had some alcohol during the run of that play, my brain would go crazy.

Patrick Heusinger

vitamins-and-minerals crazy running

When I look at myself in the mirror, I don't see the bad guy.

Patrick Heusinger

guy mirrors looks

When I did Casual, I just let myself put on weight because he's a schoolteacher. He's not meant to be muscle-y.

Patrick Heusinger

casual muscles weight

The director, Moisés Kaufman, just received the national medal of the arts from President [Barack] Obama . He wrote and directed The Laramie Project and he has directed several Pulitzer prize-winning plays. He's a pretty profound director in the theater.

Patrick Heusinger

winning play art

When I came on to Jack Reacher, I had just taken my girlfriend on vacation and ate everything I could. I put on about 15 pounds, so when I met [the Jack Reacher team] I was clocking in at about 180. They looked at me and were like, "You're just gonna lose five pounds, we're gonna keep you skinny".

Patrick Heusinger

girlfriend team taken

I had just come off of doing a play in Los Angeles which actually got me the role. It was called Bent and it was at the Mark Taper Forum. I was playing a homosexual in 1930 to 1934 Berlin who is eventually put into a concentration camp for the second half of the play. I had lost about 38 pounds for that.

Patrick Heusinger

berlin pounds play

Obviously I was talking to my parents and my girlfriend all the time, but it's one thing to finally be in the same room and get to be with each other and just hang out.

Patrick Heusinger

girlfriend parent talking

I had done a little bit one other time. This character [in Jack Reacher] is a psychopath, but I had been hired by Carlton Cuse and Randall Wallace.

Patrick Heusinger

done littles character

I went into very deep research as to what exactly that meant and how sociopaths function psychologically and within the world.

Patrick Heusinger

sociopath research world

Sociopaths are more complicated psychopaths; the difference between a sociopath and a psychopath is a sociopath is incredibly charming. There are a lot of sociopaths that are CEOs. They don't necessarily kill people but they're able to walk into a big social function and make everybody think they're the kindest, coolest, smartest, most interesting person in the room.

Patrick Heusinger

differences people thinking

You're working so hard and so many hours, you simply don't get to visit with everybody when you're gone for five months. That's part of the trade in we make with this career. You don't get to maintain the intimacy you would like to.One of the big things I was doing was working on reestablishing that.

Patrick Heusinger

careers months gone

It's pretty tough on your loved ones to try to get back into a rhythm, especially when all you want to do is do nothing.

Patrick Heusinger

tough want trying

I only had a three-week break from the beginning of Bent, so I went from one thing to the next. I got back [from shooting Jack Reacher] and there was a sense of, "Oh my God, what do I do now?" I don't have personal trainers around me all the time, I'm not on a meal plan, which I had been on for almost a year straight. There was a lot of sleeping.

Patrick Heusinger

meals sleep years

[Jack Reacher] is the longest I'd ever shot anything - and let's be clear, this is my first studio feature film - so there was a huge learning curve.

Patrick Heusinger

curves film firsts

The guy [Tom Cruise] is a machine.

Patrick Heusinger

cruise machines guy

I change myself a lot. Some roles you don't want to be big, bulky, muscle-y guy and some roles you want to be a lean, marathon-runner physical type. And some roles you just don't want to be in shape.