Night Patrol Director Ryan Prows Was ‘Ecstatic’ To Work With CM Punk, Offered Him Role Outright

Top WWE Superstar and current World Heavyweight Champion CM Punk is known as one of wrestling’s biggest babyfaces and one of the top stars in the business. However, in the new movie, Night Patrol, CM Punk takes a more villainous turn as a reprehensible deputy of an LAPD task force targeting residents of housing projects throughout the city, and they harbor a dark, horrific secret.

The movie comes from director Ryan Prows (Lowlife, the “Terror” segment in V/H/S/94), and the lifelong wrestling fan was ecstatic to be working with Punk for his new movie, revealing that the role of the Night Patrol’s Deputy was offered to Punk outright, rather than have the wrestler audition. He explained, “I’m like such a dork where like I love, I grew up [with] wrestling, you know, like, horror movies, hip-hop, and punk, and everything. So I got like every side of that in the movie, and I was just so ecstatic when like — same thing, we sent it to him, and he told this story recently. I had not heard this before, but he thought he was going to have to, like, audition for it. And I was like, ‘Are you kidding me? You’re CM Punk. What are you talking about? Like, if you want to do it, it’s yours.'”

In fact, Prows revealed that the production expanded Punk’s role after they got him on board, stating, “We wrote a couple of extra monologues for him because it’s like, you got the best talker in the business. I wanted to get him in there monologuing, so we wrote a couple extra bits for him.”

The filmmaker also credited Punk, whose wrestling character is known for his Straight Edge lifestyle, for being open to play in the movie’s sandbox and about staying true to character, portraying a very unique type of character for Punk. Not only is the Night Patrol Deputy a reprehensible individual who preys on civilians, but he also smokes cigars and does drugs in the movie.

Prows went on regrading Punk, “He was such a pleasure, and is so on top of it and like game for everything and was super fearless of not only like, you know, like we had fun with like with his persona, where we have him smoking cigars, and we have him, like doing drugs and all sorts of stuff or whatever. So that was fun.” Prows praised Punk for delivering a “true villain performance,” without trying to “wink at the audience,” stating, “He was like fearless delivering like a true villain performance, without winking, without being like looking to the audience and being like, ‘I’m a good guy…’ H is reprehensible in this movie.” Prows added, “He just leaned in on it. And it was so cool to watch, like, ‘Oh, okay. This is like, you’re really here doing this, and this is not something like you’re just playing a part. You’re here to act and do this.’ So, it was really refreshing.”

Night Patrol‘s Ryan Prows Hopes CM Punk Will Work With Him Again as Expands His Acting Career

Now that CM Punk is expanding his career with more roles in the acting space, with an upcoming role in the Netflix rom-com, The Bodyguard, we also asked Ryan Prows if he expects more great things from Punk in his movie-star era. “Oh, for sure, yeah,” Prows said. “Hopefully, he’ll do some more with me [*Laughs*]. But yeah, he’s one of one. He’s incredible.”

Prows also stated how the film’s ensemble cast, including Punk, was leveling each other up, especially with talents like Nicki Micheaux inspiring them. He continued, “I was just like so blown away with him [Punk], with Justin [Long], like Freddie Gibbs came in, he kind of steals the show. You know, I had worked with Nicki Micheaux on a couple other previous projects, so I knew she would bring it, but she kind of held court several times. And everybody was kind of just like, ‘Oh, I need to catch up with her.'” Prows added, “So, it was just fun to, it was everybody sort of leveling each other up, and you could tell everyone was really game to push it and turn in something cool.”

Night Patrol, featuring WWE’s CM Punk, Jermaine Fowler, Justin Long, RJ Cyler, Freddie Gibbs, CM Punk, YG, Flying Lotus, Dermot Mulroney, Jon Oswald, and Nicki Micheaux, arrives in theaters on January 16 from RLJE Films and Shudder.

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