All conversational roads with actors who have Pittsburgh connections lead to (what else?) the Steelers.
When Patrick Fabian, star of "The Last Exorcism," was growing up in central Pennsylvania, he had to make a choice about which football team to follow. He pledged his loyalty and his room decor to the Black and Gold.
"I was a Steeler fan because my grandma lived out there [in Pittsburgh]. So, in the glory days of the first four Super Bowls, I had the Steeler sweatbands, I had Franco and Terry on the walls, I had the bathrobe, the alarm clock," and the old photos courtesy of his mother to prove it.
That's not the beginning and end of the local ties.
Mr. Fabian's father, who worked for the Pennsylvania student loan program in its infancy, earned a master's from the University of Pittsburgh and Patrick's brother, Mike, and family live in Monroeville, while a nephew just started at Duquesne University.
"Growing up in New Cumberland, coming from Pennsylvania and going to Penn State were some of the most lucky, fortunate things, I think for me. It was a great springboard for the rest of the world and fairly idyllic."
After earning a BFA in performance from Penn State University, he went to graduate school in Long Beach, Calif., and then started waiting tables until he became involved with the Los Angeles Shakespeare Festival, got his actor's Equity card and an agent.
"I have to say, my mother and father never said, 'Don't be an actor,' and they always encouraged it even though I'm sure they were rolling their eyes and biting the insides of their cheeks. What parent really wants a son or daughter to say, 'Guess what I want to do with my life?' "
The actor is still a Steelers fan, with the jerseys to prove it, and jokes, "In case any of the Pittsburgh Steelers are reading this and like the film and they get into trouble this season -- I'm not assuming they would ever get into trouble, but if they need me to come exorcise some demons in the locker room, let 'em know I would do that gratis. Absolutely that one's on me."
Of course Mr. Fabian only plays the Rev. Cotton Marcus, a character who is something of a charlatan who decides to hang up the cross after one last exorcism, which he's invited a film crew to document.
A disenchanted Marcus is suffering a crisis of faith when he asks the crew to "blow the lid off it, thereby being able to make amends for the wrong I've done." But he meets his match in a teenage Louisiana girl, Nell, who may be possessed.
"There are two different exorcisms that happen in the film and I don't want to give away too much other than to say that Ashley Bell as the possessed girl is fantastic. And if the possessed girl in a devil movie isn't convincing, you don't have a movie and we do have a movie because of her, without a doubt."
Although "The Last Exorcism" didn't suffer the sort of mishaps, unexpected deaths or unsettling events of 1973's "The Exorcist," cast and crew were greeted by an 8-foot alligator on day one and a creep factor off the charts.
The movie shot in an 1860s Louisiana plantation that had swamp rats, the interloper gator along with a resident alligator just 3 feet long, and a waterline, through oak gun cabinets and chests, 6 feet from the floor.
"The house itself had been flooded because we were down in the lower Ninth Ward, where Hurricane Katrina had passed through five years ago," Mr. Fabian said. That's where he spent 12 hours a day, six days a week for about five weeks in summer 2009.
While Mr. Fabian watched purported exorcisms on YouTube and other movies dealing with the subject, he concentrated on properly portraying a preacher. "I think any actor worth his salt would love to play a preacher; I like it because it's inherently theatrical. I think a good preacher has a lot of good actor in him."
So that meant time studying men who fell from grace such as Jim Bakker, Ted Haggard and Jimmy Swaggart. "Those guys who stand up there with that guile, that ego and ability to say, 'Look at me. Follow me. I know the way to the Lord and, if you don't mind, reach into your pocket and give me a little bit of money.' "
"The Last Exorcism" favored old-fashioned acting over now-common computer trickery. "Even the poster you see advertising it, that's Ashley doing that [back] bend, and there are physical feats she does in the movie that are frankly creepy and, as an actor, it was great to go to the set and work with her."
The movie is rated PG-13 for, among other reasons, disturbing violent content and terror but Mr. Fabian says, "I think the trailer delivers in all the scary, scary aspects that make you go, 'Oh my gosh.' ... It's not like 'Friday the 13th' or the Freddys, it's not a body count kind of film but for those who like that kind of thrill, there are definitely moments in there."
When strangers think they recognize Mr. Fabian, it could be from a wide range of projects spanning nearly two decades.
He played Ted Price on the third and fourth seasons of HBO's "Big Love," had recurring roles on series such as "Veronica Mars," "Joan of Arcadia" and "24" and landed plum guest spots on such shows as "The Mentalist," "Burn Notice" and "Will & Grace." And he was Professor Jeremiah Lasky on "Saved By the Bell: The College Years."
Starting in October, he will play a movie star and dad in the Teen Nick series "Gigantic" opposite young Grace Gummer, who happens to be one of Meryl Streep's daughters.
Inspired all those years ago to be an actor after watching "The Man Who Would Be King," Mr. Fabian is enjoying a fruitful end to the summer.
"To be the lead in a film that's getting a premiere on Sunset Boulevard and being released nationwide, I couldn't be happier, I couldn't be more thrilled." Even more exciting, though, is the expected delivery of his daughter by wife Mandy Steckelberg in mid-September.
"Whether the movie does good, whether it does bad, my daughter's coming out either way. So I'm very, very excited about that, as well. We just got married about a year and a half ago, and we're thrilled."
First Published: August 27, 2010, 8:00 a.m.
