Last year, Patrick Wilson appeared in the Netflix film Jay Kelly, directed by Noah Baumbach, in a small but pivotal role among an ensemble of powerhouse performers including George Clooney, Adam Sandler and Laura Dern.
In the film, Clooney plays a renowned movie star whose best days are behind him, who is coming to grips with the impact his career has had on his personal relationships and the kind of legacy he will leave behind. It is ultimately an examination of the movie star phenomenon and the consequences of fame.
Wilson as Ben Alcock in the film Jay Kelly
Wilson portrays a younger star whose career has taken a less explosive trajectory but who has a strong family life. The character creates an interesting counterpoint to Clooney’s Kelly, who exists in a kind of celebrity snow globe of reality curated by handlers and is recognized by the public everywhere he goes.
Wilson describes the film as a "meta" experience that mirrors the machinations of the Hollywood machine, but says he believes there are valuable lessons about our personal choices and the complexity of our emotions that make the film’s message universal.
It also creates a natural parallel to Wilson’s own life and career—he has become a highly recognizable performer, but even given that fact, there are varying degrees of fame itself.
Like many other actors, he likes to joke about being mistaken for other actors from the “squint and you can kind of see it” types like Chris Pratt and Will Arnett to some implausibly hilarious ones.
“Paul Newman, George Bush and Pat Boone all in one week,” Wilson recounts some of his oddest instances of mistaken identity. “Really, it's true.”
It’s something many of the world’s most famous performers deal with daily, but Wilson believes many people struggle to know where they know him from.
“Let me put it this way. I've been out with people who are on TV sitcoms and because you're in their living room every week, they feel like they know you,” he explains. “But that's not my kind of fame. Now to horror fans, I am super famous because of The Conjuring and Insidious and they're so nice and appreciative, but I don't get hounded or have the whole screaming girls running down the street type of fame.”
Wilson and Vera Farmiga star as Ed and Lorraine Warren in The Conjuring franchise
Perhaps not, but he does still regularly get recognized for two iconic early lead roles that he originated, namely Jerry in the Broadway musical The Full Monty and Joe Pitt in the acclaimed HBO miniseries Angels in America.
Even though he played those characters over 20 years ago and, as he says, is probably now more famous currently for his big box office success in the horror film genre, people still mention them. And therein lies one key factor that makes him difficult to place—different audiences have different reference points for him, given the particular project they know him from.
The second factor is that although he has striking leading man good looks, Wilson has been celebrated as a versatile everyman actor who is often acclaimed for his versatility and ability to transform for a role, garnering praise from such collaborators as Clooney, who says he has maintained a friendship with Wilson for "20-some years."
“He's good!" Clooney says. “Every time he's in something.”
Director James Wan, who has worked with Wilson on six films, is equally effusive in his praise.
“I just love Patrick. He is such a great leading man,” Wan says. “Such a great actor!”
Wilson as a young Lou Solverson in FX's Fargo
Over the course of his career, he's appeared in over 50 film and TV projects, although the classically trained performer actually got his start on the stage. Notable film roles include The Phantom of the Opera, Watchmen, Little Children, Hard Candy and Aquaman. He has shared the screen with the likes of Al Pacino, Samuel L. Jackson, Kate Winslet, Rachel McAdams, Halle Berry, Charlize Theron, Harrison Ford and Meryl Streep. However, he achieved a different level of visibility and mainstream recognition with The Conjuring, which made history as the biggest-ever opening for a horror movie, and Insidious, both of which went on to launch massively successful horror franchises. Those projects positioned him as a central figure in one of the most commercially successful genres in modern film, while underscoring his ability to lead a blockbuster.
But Wilson did not start out dreaming of becoming a household name.
“When I got into the business I didn’t have any grand plans. I grew up singing in my mother’s church choir, but as a kid I never really studied drama. I did musicals in high school, but I never dreamed I’d be singing and dancing on Broadway,” he recalls. “I always knew music would be a part of my life. I never had any grand plans of wanting to be in a band, whether it was a boy band or a rock band. That was never really my vibe, but I always knew that music would be a part of my life. I didn't really decide on musical theater until I was in college.”
Wilson in the 2025 film Millers in Marriage
But the seeds of his love of music and performing can be traced back to his childhood.
“We did grow up in a real musical household. My mom was a choir director and my parents sang together quite a bit,” Wilson shares. “When we were kids, we all played an instrument, Mark was violin, Paul was trumpet and I started playing drums. I guess I was probably 11 or 12. Then Mark transitioned from violin to guitar. We really gravitated towards Van Halen because we loved the music. That’s when we started playing together. And for me as the youngest brother, the way to be able to play with your brothers, I loved it. It was always a way to spend time with my family. I'm four and a half and six years younger than those two, but I knew if I could be a decent drummer, they would be like, ‘Okay, you're allowed in.’ I remember we used to do these like lip syncs and air guitar competitions and stuff, before we could actually play the stuff. We just acted like we could. We were three boys growing up in the ‘80s, so most of our days were either church music or listening to a lot of Van Halen. Then we go off and we have our lives and our careers and our families, but we had this idea for Mark's 40th birthday.”
“We really just kind of wanted to show Mark off,” he recalls. “We rolled through 30 songs that we had not played since high school. We felt like, for guys that are just screwing around this is pretty good. It was really organic. There wasn't some grand plan. Like, in our 40s we're going to start a band. It just kind of happened.”
The Wilson Van on stage
And so, together with his brothers, Mark, who is a local Emmy award-winning news anchor and Paul, who owns the advertising, marketing and public relations firm Wilson Media, formed The Wilson Van and perform benefit concerts when their schedules allow. And what started as a shared love of music has become an ongoing way to give back and raise money for such organizations as Paws for Patriots, the St. Petersburg Free Clinic and the Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital through The Wilson Family Foundation.
On May 24th they will perform at Ferg’s Concert Pavilion, with proceeds supporting the foundation’s work. The show will include guest performers and collaborators from within their extended musical circle.
Wilson and his family, Mark, Paul, Mary K and John present a donation to the Wound Warriors Abilities Ranch
His crowning moment as a singer, however, came ten years ago when he found himself being summoned to work with none other than Barbra Streisand, who asked him to perform a duet of "Loving You" from the musical Passion with her for her album Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway.
“Patrick Wilson sings with such passion,” Streisand shared. “It was a joy performing with him. He’s not only a TV and movie star, but he’s also an accomplished Broadway actor with a really amazing voice.”
Wilson with Barbra Streisand
“It started as, ‘Hey, she's putting together this album. She'd love for you to sing on it… they'd like to fly you out.’ So I go out there and I absolutely loved working with her, singing with her, spending time with her. She has one of the greatest voices in the modern era. It was really special. And then it was like, actually, we think we want to bring you out again because we want to do it with the orchestra. Then they said, she's going to do a couple concerts, would you want to do it? So I did two shows at the Barclays Center and I did a show in Miami with her. And then it was like, ‘So she's gonna do a town hall for Sirius, and she'd like you to moderate.’ And I was like, what is happening right now? It was like the gift that kept on giving. It was a really great time of my life and certainly a high point in my career.”
When the subject turns to the inevitable nerves that come with working with such heavyweights, he chuckles and leans in.
“Of course I'm nervous, but it's like, those are the nerves that you want. It's like, let's go, let's go…here we go,” he enthuses. “I've always been the type of person. I guess that's self-assurance and I don't know where that comes from, but I love it. I love digging in with those types of people. I try to take advantage of the opportunities in front of me and I always try to push myself to do something new every year.”
Wilson with his Lost Boys producing partners Marcus Chait and James Carpinello
Even now, as Wilson’s career continues to move in multiple directions simultaneously, it is that impulse driving it. He and his producing partners Marcus Chait and James Carpinello have taken audiences and critics by storm with their reimagining of The Lost Boys at the Palace Theatre on Broadway. And he’s starring in a new adaptation of Cape Fear alongside Javier Bardem and Amy Adams on Apple TV, which will premiere on June 5th.
With Amy Adams in Cape Fear
It’s clear he’s enjoying the current moment and doesn’t plan on slowing down any time soon. Unlike the fictional Jay Kelly, Wilson has found a way to navigate fame without losing that everyman quality that makes people feel like they know him even if they can’t always recall from where.
Visit tinyurl.com/WilsonVanBenefit for tickets or find The Wilson Family Foundation on Facebook and check out lostboysmusical.com for more information and tickets.
