Patrick Cavanaugh plays Pete in the laugh riot movie Trasylmania that is out in theaters now. Pete is a stoner who is dating twins and by the end of the movie one of the twins will have her head screwed on a little tighter than the other one, but you will have to see the film to find out what that means. One of the funniest scenes in this movie is at the beginning when we meet Pete and his stoner buddy Wang and they are trying to hide their pot from customs so they stick it where the sun don’t shine. This is one of the many scenes that had me squirming and laughing at the same time, and that is really a good thing.
Transylmania is a horror spoof movie like the films done by Mel Brooks and it is refreshing to have that on the big screen again. The movie is about a group of college students who go to Transylvania to spend a semester abroad because of their friend Rusty and they get a lesson in the legends of the famed land. One of the legends they deal with is Radu’s. His lover’s soul was stolen and placed in music box that has been missing for several centuries, that was until now. When the college students accidentally come across the music box, one of them will transform into the dormant Vampire who can’t wait to be back with her lover and his feeling is mutual. So how did Rusty get his friends to travel to Transylvania? Well he met his true love on the internet and he convinces them that they have to go there so he can be with her. When he gets there, he learns that asking for a full body photo is an important thing. The girl’s father, who is also the Dean at RU, wants to help his daughter find her one true love and will do anything for her and what he does will effect Wang, Peter and his twin girlfriends. There are a lot of plot twists in this movie that all stitch together at the end of the movie and you will enjoy every one of them.
Now back to Patrick Cavanaugh, his scenes had me laughing hysterically throughout the whole movie. This is not the first time he has had us hysterical, he is sort of reprising his role Pete from the National Lampoon Dorm Daze movies. Plus we have also seen him smoking pot before as Smitty in Mad Men. His performance as Pete in Transylmania had me wanting to know more about him and some of the stuff he has to do for the movie and I was lucky enough to get an opportunity to talk to him about it all.
Seriously? OMG! WTF? – How did you get this role? Patrick Cavanaugh – I’d already done a couple of movies with the Hillenbrands, the Dorm Daze movies, which these characters pop up in. They decided to do a new movie using some of the same characters and I was lucky enough to get picked for this film and got to go to Romania.
SOW – Tell my readers about your character Pete and the movie? PC -Hey readers!! Pete, I think is a typical college dude. He’d rather spend time out of the classroom, drinking and getting stoned, for sure. I think that’s part of the fun of Pete and Wang, that they’re the ones outside of the castle, out in the world and partying in Romania.
SOW – What was it like filming in Romania? How did the locals react to the premise of Transylmania? PC -Amazing! Getting to make a movie, in the first place, is already a blast. But then to actually get paid to travel to this exotic world that I would probably not have been able to otherwise at this point in my life… It was great to get to be in the middle of it all. There’s a really fun, young energy to Bucharest, where we filmed part of the time. The rest of the time, we stayed in these smaller towns, and it was a different world. Like when we first arrived, they picked us up on a bus, and as they were driving us into town, we actually passed a horse and cart on the street. It reminded me that even though technology has spread across the world, there are places where the way of life is still much simpler. That being said, there was a McDonald’s in the little city that we were staying in, which I thought was massively hilarious.
The locals were really nice. They just seemed to enjoy that there was a group of American kids running around their town. I never got the sense that they were annoyed by us being there. In fact, one of the towns that we stayed in, Deva in Hunedoara County, made us feel very welcome. We were the entire group staying in this one hotel and ended up staying there during Thanksgiving. The chef went out of his way to serve us a traditional Thanksgiving dinner that night, which was great, when you’re far from home, to be able to still enjoy Thanksgiving with each other.
SOW – Do you believe in Vampires more now, now that you have been there? PC – (laughs) Uh, not necessarily. In fact, some of the Romanian people just roll their eyes at all the Vampire talk, but they also seemed to appreciate that it brings in tourism.
SOW – Have you ever hid anything your butt like you did in the movie? PC -Nothing too big.
SOW – Have you ever dated twins before? After this movie would you? PC – Uh, I have not dated twins before. But I have dated several women with split personalities. Does that count? No, I wouldn’t want to date twins. One woman at a time is enough for me.
SOW – How was it filming the throw up scene and what did they use for the effect? PC – It was a lot of fun, but it was really hard not to laugh. It was also hard not to throw up, because to get that sound, you really do have to retch a little. They used a soupier, watered down oatmeal. It made oatmeal much harder to eat after that!
SOW – What did you think was the funniest scene in the movie? What scene didn’t make it that you wish did? PC = When Cliff, played by James DeBello, shoots himself in the leg with a cross bow, just because of the way he plays it. It makes me laugh hard every time I see it. Just the way it all plays out is pretty phenomenal. I can’t think of any scenes that were left out.
SOW – What was your funnest moment filming the movie? PC – In the movie, my character rides a motorcycle with a sidecar. I’ve never ridden a motorcycle, so the stunt coordinator, Tom Ficke, had to teach me while we were in Romania. There was also a local guy helping to train me, but he didn’t speak very much English, which made it hard. To make it worse, he was pretty obviously drunk.
He kept trying to get me to go faster, but I was still learning. Tom made sure that I was being safe and going slowly at first, but this other guy kept shouting at me to go faster. I couldn’t understand most of what he was saying or if he was mad at me. I wasn’t ready to go faster, but I couldn’t explain it to him because of the language barrier. And to be honest, I think there was a sobriety barrier there as well.
SOW – Tell me a secret about the filming of the movie that you haven’t told anyone yet? PC – Sorry, I don’t keep secrets.
SOW – What do you want to tell my readers about the movie? PC – That I think it’s a fun movie that is a new take on the whole vampire world and a different spin on this whole craze, and that it’s just fun. Also, I think they should go see it with a lot of their friends.
SOW – Do you think you will return to Mad Men as Smitty PC – I’m actually coming back as Don Draper next season. Kidding! I really, truly hope I will return, but I honestly don’t know. I can say that whenever my phone rings, I sure do hope it’s someone telling me I’m doing another episode, because it’s been incredible getting to play Smitty and be a part of it. I do find it pretty funny that whether I’m playing someone in the ‘60s or a college kid visiting Romania, I’m cast as a pot-head. I’m like Ferris Bueller goes herbal! I don’t know what my deal is.
SOW – What else do you have coming up? PC – I just wrapped an indie comedy BRAND DEAD. I also have a couple of animation pilots, which will hopefully get picked up. I won’t find out until next year.
Thank you so much to Patrick Cavanaugh for taking the time to answer my questions. So please support him and go with all of your friends to see Transylmania in theaters now! I promise this hilarious movie will have you in stitches like it did me!!!
