Exclusive Interview: Pop Culturalist Chats with The Retaliators’ Michael Lombardi

Michael Lombardi has quickly emerged as one of Hollywood’s most sought-after leading men. His past credits include Rescue Me, The Deuce, and Central Park.

For his latest project, The Retaliators, Michael steps into the role of actor and producer.

The must-see horror-thriller follows an upstanding pastor who uncovers a dark and twisted underworld as he searches for answers surrounding his daughter’s brutal murder.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Michael about The Retaliators.

PC: Tell us about The Retaliators and your character in the film.
Michael: At its heart, The Retaliators is a horror film, but it’s also a thriller. It sits on the high-brow side of horror. It’s driven by story. It has a crazy third act. It starts in a Dante-esque, Spielbergian way. Our goal was to have a crazy Tarantino-esque third act. But I think what I loved the most about the script when I read it was that it was a real story and one that deserved great acting. It has a plot with morality, religion, and justice at its core.

PC: Your character’s life is turned upside down after one of his daughters is murdered. We see the impact that has on him throughout the film. How did you prepare to tackle that journey?
Michael: I’m fortunate enough to have a beautiful five-year-old boy, so I was able to use that. The revenge topic is as old as Shakespeare. There have been films made on the topic, but you need to use your imagination. If someone did something to your mom, dad, sister, brother, or in this case your son or daughter, what would you do? It was easy for me to tap into it because I have a son.

PC: This is a deeply personal story to Darren and Jeff [Geare] and you were their top choice to play John. Did that bring a different weight/pressure to this project?
Michael: That’s a good question. I admire your research. The motivation for the Geare Brothers to write this story was that something horrific happened to their little sister. Even though the story is not based on that, it’s what they went through and what their family went through during the trial. This was a form of therapy.

But what I wanted to tell you, what’s even crazier, is that I was on a show about New York City firefighters called Rescue Me for a long, long time. Their little sister, who’s now thirty-something years old, is also a firefighter. Part of her relief of dealing with what she had to deal with was watching my TV show during the trial.

She recently became a captain. She’s one of the only female captains. How serendipitous, right? She loved the show Rescue Me, and unless she was flattering me, she also loved my character, who was pretty funny on there. She got a lot of laughs from it in her firehouse. Now I’m playing the lead of the film about the topic of her experience. It’s really crazy. I’ve got to tell you, I connected to the script and to my character so much. There’s always pressure, but I felt really grounded in the work and the writing was so good.

PC: Great answer. There is so much physicality with this role. What was more challenging for you, that aspect or diving into the psyche of your character?
Michael: They both had their challenges. To play a pastor, I had to do some work. I went to see modern-day sermons and things like that. But the physical part of it was very demanding. I did mostly everything myself. I told my stunt double that I was going to take credit for it all. [laughs] But I’ll give him some credit because the stunt team (and Norman Douglass in particular) was unbelievable.

But we shot all this outside. We shot at night for eight nights in a row. We’d go into the woods at like six p.m. and shoot until six in the morning in November. It was nineteen degrees and my character always had a t-shirt on all the time. That was challenging.

You know what else was crazy? You’d be freezing and then stretch a bit and go out and start fighting with these subhumans. The worst part was all the fake blood. It was all over me. When it would get stuck on my neck, it was so uncomfortable. [laughs] Listen, man. It’s a good problem to have, right? I’m not complaining. I’m doing what I love to do. But it was cold and the fake blood was a little sticky.

PC: There are so many intense moments within the film. How did you decompress after a day of filming?
Michael: I’m also a producer on this film. So to be honest with you, there wasn’t really any decompression. There was so much to do. I was able to use that. At the beginning, I put a lot of under-eye makeup on for my character, then took it off and let it roll because I wasn’t sleeping. I really wasn’t. It worked for the character, and we tried to shoot in sequence as well. It worked really well. I allowed all the stress from doing the film during COVID and then coming back to the hotel and having to take an hour-long shower to get the blood off to make it into my character. We had a sixty-person crew during COVID. I really didn’t sleep, but I used that in my character and it helped.

PC: At what point in the process did you realize you were going to wear multiple hats? How challenging was that? What did you learn from this experience that you’ll apply to future projects?
Michael: I can’t talk about this film without mentioning Allen Kovac. He’s the founder of Better Noise Films, which I’m proud to say has made me head of production. We have a great relationship. That’s how all these amazing musicians ended up in the film.

But what I wanted to say was, when I brought him the script, he believed in it. He had a vision for it. I knew that I was going to be a producer, but I didn’t know how difficult it was going to be, especially during COVID. It was months and months of prep and bringing everyone together. The most important thing was to protect the cast, crew, and film.

I’ve been so pleased with the way that the film’s being received because there were things that I read in the script that affected me and it seems like we’re getting them across. But it was extremely challenging dealing with everything and being the guardian of the film. It was an incredible experience to not only be in the front of the camera but behind it too.

PC: You’ve done it all throughout your career. This is one of your biggest horror projects to date. Is there a scene in the film that you’re excited for your fans to see?
Michael: Wow, that’s a good question. There are a lot. I was fortunate to learn so much from Clive Owen and Morgan Freeman in a film that I shot with them. I can say almost any scene. There are so many dramatic scenes and so many action sequences. I’m really proud of the work in this. It’s really special to me. I don’t think I’ve ever found myself talking about a project as much.

PC: Like you were saying earlier, the film’s made its way around the festival circuit. It’s been incredibly well received. What do you think is resonating most with audiences and what do you hope they take away?
Michael: At the end of the day, it’s a fun, crowd-pleasing ride. It sits on the high-brow of horror. It has a lot of incredible elements. It also has that throwback wink to the ’80s. People are really getting that and enjoying it. It’s a crazy journey, man.

PC: What’s next for you?
Michael: Right now, I have a few films in development with Allen. We have multiple projects. We’re sort of teeing up and going into production, hopefully soon. But there are some really great scripts.

To keep up with Michael, follow him on Facebook and Twitter. Learn more about The Retaliators today.