Marietta Native Robert Patrick Honored at Strand Theatre

MARIETTA — Robert Patrick parked his Harley Davidson in front of the Strand Theatre Sunday evening with a little more warmth than he showed as the villainous T-1000 in “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.”

The occasion was not to battle Arnold Schwarzenegger, but to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 10th annual Cobb International Film Festival.

In choosing whom to honor with the award, festival founder Richard Tavernaro said it had to be someone either from Georgia or who has lived in Georgia long enough to establish themselves here. They also needed to have the kind of resume to have earned the lifetime achievement designation. As he was going through the list of names, one name popped out immediately.

“Not only is (Patrick) from Georgia, he’s from Marietta,” Tavernaro told the audience, listing a selection of the films and shows he’s acted in. These include “Last Action Hero,” “The Faculty,” “Ladder 49,” “Flags of Our Fathers,” “We Are Marshall,” “The X-Files” and “Scorpion,” to name a sample.

“So when his name popped up, there was no further looking for me. This is our inaugural recipient. So without further ado, what I’d like to do is welcome Robert Patrick,” Tavernaro said to cheers.

Patrick said it was an honor.

“I’m thrilled to be here,” he said. “This is the theater that my mother used to walk to when she was a 12-year-old girl, would come out here, watch films and see movie stars when they’re out promoting their movies. When this was offered to me, I couldn’t turn it down. As much as I believe that I still have a lot more to give as an actor, I thought, ‘Yeah, what the hell? I’ll take the lifetime award.’”

A manner of thinking among actors, Patrick said, is that the next role will be the big one.

“We’re always looking for the next great thing we’re going to do. We all believe we haven’t done our ultimate role, and that’s how we go about doing business, and that’s what keeps us chasing after this craft, and it’s a wonderful craft I learned here in Marietta, mostly by running around in the woods with a good buddy of mine ... We used to run around in the woods and we would play army and all sorts of adventures, fight cottonmouth rattlesnakes. Swim with water moccasins. We had great adventures. So Marietta was a place where really the childlike imagination kicked in, and that’s something that I used with my craft on a daily basis, and I’m so grateful that I was able to do it right here in Marietta.”

Patrick said he was just visiting his mother in Cleveland, and she wanted to thank the festival for the honor.

“She wanted to be an actress, and she gave it up when she had me at 20. She had five kids. I think that rubbed off on me. And so it’s an honor to receive it for her,” he said.

Patrick told the MDJ he was born at Kennestone Hospital, Nov. 5, 1958, to Robert and Nadine Hammond Patrick. His mother graduated from Marietta High School in 1956 and married his father, who worked in finance at Marietta’s Lockheed plant. Patrick was baptized at St. James Episcopal Church in Marietta, and went to school there in the first grade. He attended Bells Ferry Elementary School before the family moved to Boston for his father to earn a master’s degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“So I love Marietta. Marietta is where my mom is from you know, and being born here, it’s a really lovely place to be from. It was an idyllic childhood and there’s a lot of cool people from Marietta. My buddy Travis Tritt, he was born at Kennestone after me. My other buddy Jesse James Dupree (lead singer of rock band Jackyl), he was born at Kennestone. We’re all three friends, so that’s pretty cool. But it’s such a historic town, it’s such a wonderful town, a little city and I love it.”

What, the MDJ asked him, is the No. 1 question he gets asked about his iconic role in Terminator?

“How’d you do it?” he answered.

What’s his answer?

“I worked my a-- off,” he said.

Was it true, the Journal asked, that he was mortally embarrassed while filming the nude scene in Terminator because a train went by?

“Actually, it was kind of embarrassing, but I was also in incredible shape so I was very confident,” he said with a laugh.

Patrick drove his motorcycle here from California. He had already planned the trip and decided to combine it with stopping by the festival. Riding a Harley is his preferred mode of transportation. He began with Los Angeles to Milwaukee, which took four days. He then drove from Milwaukee to Cleveland, which took one day, and Cleveland to Marietta, which took another day. His plan upon waking Monday morning was to drive to Kansas City and then to South Dakota for the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

Patrick called his 2023 Harley Davidson Road Glide Limited, “the ultimate in touring, it’s made for the big expressways we have in the United States of America, and this thing is a dominator on the freeways. You can go from wherever you want to go and ride in comfort and style.”

His navigation, music and phone are all piped into his helmet.

“I have a very eclectic blend of music I like to listen to. I’d say probably the best band to listen to when you’re riding is Gov’t Mule. Those guys, some of them, Warren Haynes, they used to play in The Allman Brothers Band, so the second favorite band to listen to is Allman Brothers, my buddies from Macon. ZZ Top’s a good one. So many great bands. Filter, my brother’s band (Richard Patrick). That’s my kid brother. He lived here a short time.”

As mentioned, he attended St. James as a boy and said he remains a devout Episcopalian. He described how his faith enhances his life.

“Well you can’t do anything without faith and gratitude. If you start with faith and gratitude, everything is going to be all right. You got to have someone that you can confer with and someone who you can believe in, God, that you can have a relationship with, and I think it’s very, very important. It’s the only way you can stay grounded and fight the devil because the devil is here, he’s walking among us, so it’s the real deal, buddy. It’s the real deal.”

This year’s four-day film festival showed 110 films from the U.S. and eight other countries. Tavernaro, the founder, estimated a turnout of between 2,500 and 3,000 people.

Other celebrity guests in attendance included Matthew Modine of “Stranger Things” and “Full Metal Jacket” and “The Walking Dead” star Chandler Riggs.

Since year one, when it was held on a Saturday and they showed 21 films, the festival has continued to grow.

“Over the years, we’ve shown almost 1,000 films from 27 different countries,” Tavernaro said.

Tavernaro, who lives in Acworth and used to be a school counselor and swim coach at North Cobb High School, now works in the film industry as a director, producer and actor. He said he got the idea for the festival years ago while sending his films to various festivals.

“And it just one day hit me that we have this beautiful Square in Marietta, we have the Strand, which is this amazing theater, and I asked myself, why don’t we have a festival there?”

He called Andy Gaines, who was then in charge of events at the Strand, and asked why there wasn’t a festival. Gaines said only because nobody had planned one. And it started from there.

As for how this 10th festival went, he said, “I always have high hopes and this exceeded my hopes and dreams ten fold. To me, this was the most amazing weekend, most amazing festival.”