It’s been 10 years since The Boondock Saints came out. The sequel, Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day has been on IMDB ever since. Now it is finally in theaters. Sean Patrick Flannery returns to the role of Connor McManus. After a decade of waiting, we got an exclusive opportunity to talk to Flannery by phone.

Crave Online: How many times did Boondock II gear up and then not just happen? 

Sean Patrick Flannery: Man, I don’t even have an answer. It happened so many times. I mean, it really never came that close but there was a lot of false alarms, you know. 

Crave Online: Did you ever think you’d play this character again? 

Sean Patrick Flannery: You know, I really did just because I think the fans kind of mandated it. Now, we had some legal wranglings. That was the test to see if it was going to get made. Or actually, that was the test to see how soon it was going to get made. We always pretty much figured it was going to get made. We just didn’t know how soon or how long it would take to legally clear us. 

Crave Online: Did the script or story change over the years? 

Sean Patrick Flannery: Yep, I’ve read four incarnations of the script. 

Crave Online: What were the big differences? 

Sean Patrick Flannery: Oh, plot points. Every variation was really, really good. He’s just a solid scriptwriter. But, I don’t want to give too much away, but they changed drastically. 

Crave Online: It makes total sense for a sequel. Of course they’re living their life in Ireland and something brings them back home. I can’t imagine what else a story would be. 

Sean Patrick Flannery: Well, obviously in pretty much a lot of the variations, the basic premise is we’re cleaning up society. The little nuances were quite severely different. The ending as well, very different. 

Crave Online: This ending sets it up for more. Were there other more definitive endings? 

Sean Patrick Flannery: Yes, yes. 

Crave Online: Don’t you have to go in with the confidence that you can keep going? 

Sean Patrick Flannery: Yeah, we’re over the moon that we made a movie that warranted a sequel. We certainly have our fingers crossed that a lot of people will enjoy this one. It’s in 60 theaters so if it expands to more, that’s going to be dictated by the fans’ response and if people go to see it, so we’d like them to latch onto it like they did the first one and kind of send Hollywood a message that they’d like to see it in more theaters, but we have to wait and see. 

Crave Online: Was this a comfortable skin to slip back into? 

Sean Patrick Flannery: It really is. These are guys that we had a ball playing. It’s always less pressure. You would think it would be more pressure to not screw this one up because they loved it so much but now it’s kind of less pressure because we know we did something that they dug. 

Crave Online: Are the stunts bigger this time around? 

Sean Patrick Flannery: We do have some bigger stunts. Yeah, we do. We do but they’re not just for the point of having a bigger stunts. The sequel’s not Big Explosions Part II. I think they’re well integrated into the story. I’m super, super proud of this movie. 

Crave Online: Which were the most fun stunts or action sequences to do? 

Sean Patrick Flannery: Probably hanging 200 feet off a scaffolding off the side of the Prudential building is pretty neat. That’s pretty fun. 

Crave Online: What were the biggest pains in the ass? 

Sean Patrick Flannery: Really, this is a fun movie to make so the biggest pain in the ass was the weather. We’re filming in the north pole basically. One day it was like 50 below, just like a ridiculously low temperature. It’s almost prohibitive for going outside at all.

Crave Online: Was it like a 10 year reunion for all you guys? 

Sean Patrick Flannery: Yes, it was, although we’ve never lost contact with each other. You’re talking about a group of guys that hang out with each other anyway so it was. It was like a coming home because this was one of all of our first films, first one to get recognized from. So to do a sequel to it, it was always like yeah, we’re back. We get to do this again. 

Crave Online: You’ve done some physical roles. Did you always want to be an action hero? 

Sean Patrick Flannery: I was always a dude growing up. I was always the guy that would climb things, jump off things so yeah. That’s always been attractive to me. 

Crave Online: Young Indiana Jones is pretty action-y. 

Sean Patrick Flannery: Yeah, that was total action and that’s something I’m incredibly proud of but only 19 people saw that.

Crave Online: They demanded the DVDs though. 

Sean Patrick Flannery: Yeah, yeah. Young Indiana Jones opened every door that’s open to me today so I’m super proud of that.