By Ashley McCleery

The North Jefferson News



One of north Jefferson’s own will be strolling down the red carpet as the star of the independent film, St. James, which will premier at the Carver Theatre on Nov. 3 at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Although Patrick McCarty was born in California, he has spent the bulk of his life in Pinson, where he fostered his love for acting by participating in his high school theater.

However, it was only a hobby until a talent scout spotted McCarty when she picked her child up from his martial arts class. “She saw me and said, ‘I could use you in commercials.’ But, I wanted to do movies, so she told me I needed to take a class to learn film techniques,” McCarty said.

Following her advice, McCarty attended a film technique class at Samford University, where he bumped into a prominent Birmingham independent film director, Steve Moon. Moon, who had already directed several independent films, was immediately struck by McCarty’s look.

“He had a look. Hollywood is all about a look,” Moon said. “As soon as I saw him, I knew he was what I was missing for my flashback in a prior film.”

So, Moon approached McCarty at the seminar, which began their now three-year partnership. Shortly after their first meeting, McCarty was cast as a supporting character, Nolan, in “Killing Lawrence,” a story about a soldier who returns from the war in Iraq to begin his life as a boxer and is haunted by the past.

“It was my first time to play a bad guy, but apparently that’s all Steve wants me to play because that’s all I’ve played for him,” McCarty said.

McCarty soon received his second opportunity to play a “bad guy” in the new film “St. James.” While at the premier of “Killing Lawrence,” a man approached Moon with 17 years worth of research about the 1921 case of Edwin R. Stephenson, which Moon took and ran with it.

Although the film is fictional, it’s based on the true case of Stephenson, a Methodist minister and a Ku Klux Klansman (KKK) who shot Catholic priest James Coyle in St. Paul’s Cathedral in Birmingham. Apparently, Coyle married Stephenson’s daughter to a Puerto Rican Catholic man, which enraged Stephenson.

Defense attorney Hugo Black, McCarty’s character, fought Stephenson’s case and used his ties to the Klan to sway the judges and the jury, many of whom were Klansmen. Despite the fact that 38 people witnessed Coyle’s murder, the jury acquitted Stephenson.

“Anytime you think you know history and you start digging, you’re going to find stuff you couldn’t even imagine,” McCarty said. “You needed the Klan in 1921 politics — that was it or you weren’t in.”

In order to prepare for this controversial role, McCarty interviewed Black’s family, learning about Black’s role in society during this trial, his connection to the KKK and his resignation from the Klan during his service in the U.S Senate from 1926 to 1937 and as Supreme Court Justice from 1937 to 1971.

McCarty also researched life in Birmingham during the 1920s. “I read up on history because you can’t be ignorant coming into a true story,” McCarty said. But McCarty accredits his portrayal of Black to his ability of analyzing every side of every situation. “When it comes to acting, it enables me to be the good guy or bad guy and understand both sides.”

Moon said he’s thrilled about the premier of his film, which is being considered for distribution with HBO. Even though Moon’s put a lot of his own blood, sweat and tears into the project, he couldn’t help but to give props to his star.

“Patrick can take any scene and know just what to do. I can take anything he does and take a one-shot edit, and it’s dead on. He makes it happen.”