PATRICK SABONGUI INTERVIEW
by Melina Morry
There’s no shortage of things to talk about when it comes to Canadian actor Patrick Sabongui. He’s been around for “a minute” and has mastered everything from theatre to slasher-thrillers to insanely rushed 8-day independent films. But that’s what this business is all about.
“You have to remain on your grind,” he tells us. “You have to grab every opportunity that comes and just roll with it.”
We chatted with Patrick between auditions in L.A. about what it was like acting with his family on The Prince Short Film, how his role on the hit series Homeland encourages him to hustle harder and what area of the industry he’s dying to try next (clue: it could involve a laugh-track).
CHLOE MAGAZINE: What first attracted you to acting?
Patrick Sabongui: I think it was life. I fell in love with life at a very young age. When I discovered acting, I realized it’s a way to experience even more of it.
To me, acting was a gateway into more facets of life. If you do it right, it can connect you viscerally to different experiences [your] characters might have. You walk away from that experience knowing a little bit more about the world that we live in.
CM: A lot of people know you from your role as Reda Hashem on Homeland. How have you found being part of a show with such a massive following?
In terms of fulfillment, I don’t think I could’ve asked for a better [role]. Every single person on the team is just so skilled at what they’re doing and so passionate about it. They encourage me to elevate my game.
It’s inspiring because it’s a show that’s making a genuine effort to do the best that it can. People are going to pay attention. It’s controversial so you’re going to kick up a lot of dust. Whether you’re a fan or not, everyone feels something about it.
No one goes “Homeland? What’s that?” like 90% of the other stuff I work on. It’s either “Oh wow, that’s my favourite show!” or “Oh really? You’re on that show?”
CM: You recently finished working on The Prince Short Film with your wife Kyra Zagorsky and your two kids. How did it go working as a family?
I don’t want to say effortless because it was a lot of work to get it done but the family dynamic part of it felt natural. [Kyra] based the script on a real life situation that happened to our family a few years ago. This was a very important story to her; also a very timely issue and it became very much a passion project for the whole family.
CM: What’s a new role or project that you’d love to try out?
I haven’t done a sit-com yet. I don’t always get seen as a comedic actor but people who get to know me before they know my acting assume that [comedy] is my genre – probably because I’m a bit of a clown in real life.
Early in my career, a casting director told me ‘You’re going to work a lot of different areas but you’re going to have your real success in comedy’. That was a decade ago and I’m still waiting for that to come to fruition…
CM: Any goals for this year you’re working on achieving?
I want to keep doing the work that I have been doing. That takes an active effort. You know, when you’re starting out as an actor I think we have this image of like, once you get on a big show or you’re a series regular that maybe now you’ve ‘made it’ and you can sit back and choose the projects you want to work on. That hasn’t been my experience.
My goal for our future as a family is to keep moving forward in the hustle and not fall back. That’s why I’m here. That’s why I don’t turn down opportunities. But that’s part of our work ethic. We can’t take our foot off the gas.
