On this fragrant morning in Hollywood, Sean Patrick Flanery, the most happy actor in movieland, is having his other passion-a '65 Cadillac he bought from a hermaphrodite who'd once been on Sally Jessy Raphael-cleaned up at a car wash. And as usual, he's feeling fairly perky: "I've been really busy lately, living in hotels year round, but life is good. Sometimes I get the part, sometimes I don't, but I've never lived totally in pursuit of that. I don't think to myself, 'One day I want to be happy.' I want the actual trip to be happy."
For the 33-year old Flanery, the path to nirvana has been one curious trip, an easy stumble into the sweet life. Raised in Houston, Flanery was pursuing a business degree at the University of St. Thomas when he happened upon a beautiful girl walking out of the drama department: "She made me want to take her class, and I just fell in love with acting. After graduation, I drove out to LA, worked as a waiter for a while, and did a few plays at the Encino Playhouse. That would have been enough, but I got lucky, found myself in the right place at the right time."
Within a year, Flanery was a working actor, and his career was seriously launched by the starring role in George Lucas The Young Indian Jones Chronicles. From there, he gradually moved into a different realm as the prince of independent films. In his breakout movie, Powder, he played a telepathic albino to considerable critical acclaim. That, in turn, led to character parts in the dark Suicide Kings and Truman Capote's The Grass Harp.
Lately, Flanery has been especially productive, with an onslaught of edgy material ready to roll. In Zack and Reba, he plays a general misfit; for Eden, with Joanna Going, he was cast as a psychic go-between. Best Men, costarring Drew Barrymore, features Flanery as a Hamlet spouting eccentric. And this Valentine's Day, 20th Century Fox is releasing Simply Irresistible, a surreal romantic comedy costarring Sarah Michelle Gellar: "it's a cross between Like Water for Chocolate and Bell, Book and Candle. I'm a department-store executive who meets this girl with a passion for cooking. Weird things start to happen when I eat her food: At one point, I become weightless, float right off the ground."
These projects appear to be only the beginning for Flanery, who, with the artistic parameters of trying to make "the kinds of movies I'd pay $7 to see myself," has proven to have an interesting range: After Simply Irresistible, Boondock Saints with Willem Dafoe and Billy Connelly should be out next, I play a blue-collar worker who's put in a situation where he breaks the law and becomes a kind of hero-vigilante. Some of what he's doing is right, and so the police force closes their eyes. It's sort of a bleak piece.
And right now, I'm making Jello Shots in LA: Michael Christofer, who did Gia, is the director, and all kinds of different actors are in it. This one is all about sex in the '90s and the struggle for power between the sexes, partly a comedy and then serious, kind of like In the Company of Men-and Women.
"Men and women have the same ideas and dreams, but it's always this endless separation between the genders. And there are all these rules that no one discloses to the opposite side: That's very weird to me, the understanding that all these secrets can never be told. But it is hard to trust people, let them see you as you are: I always feel exposed, like a split-open frog in some high school biology class."
Between acting assignments and various philosophical speculations, Flanery is now on line for the perk parade that comes to young Hollywood, from amateur car racing to headier regions of the professionalized nightlife: "I love the concentration of racing: When that checkered flag goes down, it's like being a fighter pilot. In 15 minutes, you're ringing wet from the tension. Movies can be a bit like that, too: Of course, the consequences are a lot more magnificent in racing, especially if you crash.
"Every winter I go to Florida to race with my buddies, and I always spend a few days on South Beach. In Miami, you have fashion, architecture, art and some great DJs: LA is just an art carcass, especially in the terms of music. Some of the after hours places are fun, but they're full of 13 year olds, and you've got these people walking down Sunset in stretch pants. Most of the clubs in LA are still playing glam rock-not quite Marc Bolan, but close-and there's no place to hear good new things. For real nightlife, you have to go to London, New York Chicago, and Miami. There's nothing in LA worth doing, but Miami is right on the cutting edge, pop culture at its peak."
On the career front of pop, things are rolling along nicely. And Flanery's perspective on the game is decidedly healthy, far removed from the Hollywood angst patrol, that whole stardom is so empty number adopted by way too many young actors: "From the beginning, I decided to just do the best I could, take things as they come. I'm not in turmoil or angst ridden--to tell you the true, I'm having a ball. Who would have thought growing up in Texas that I'd be in the movies one day?"
Special thanks to Robin Brownell for providing this article.
