An Interview with Patrick Sabongui from ‘The Hunting Party’

THE HUNTING PARTY -- "Arlo Brandt" Episode 106 -- Pictured: Patrick Sabongui as Jacob Hassani -- (Photo by: David Astorga/NBC)

Patrick Sabongui is an accomplished actor that has appeared in some epic franchise in the past few years. Since he’s been part of the Godzilla universe and he’s even been part of the rich world of DC Comics during his time on The Flash. Currently, he stars as Jacob Hassani in the amazing new NBC series, The Hunting Party, and we had the honor of sitting down with Patrick to discuss his work on the show.
John Betancourt: I would love to start by getting to know what attracted you to this project as an actorl
 
Patrick Sabongui: A regular job on a network series was very attractive, if I'm going to be honest. So, I mean, yeah, that's always appealing, the notion of gainful employment. But creatively, I don't know, man, right from the beginning, soon as I was exposed to this thing, I felt like everything I had done in my career was pointing me towards a show like this and a role like this. It's, it's dynamic, it's action oriented, it's, it's intelligent. There's some smart, you know, unpacking of psychology, which I really love. And then there's gunplay, and there's fast moving cars, and there's chase scenes, and there's fight stuff. And my character, you know, he is a little bit of the strong arm of the government, but he's got a very human side, and he's a family man, and he mentions his kids, and, you know, he's got this kind of protector, caretaker characteristic. And so, the combination of those things was like, “Yeah. This is what I would love to spend my career doing.”
 
John Betancourt: You bring up something I want to talk about a lot today. That realism the show harbors in all things, including your character, Jacob. Because there’s a real honesty you bring to the role, and I’m curious how you found that.
 
Patrick Sabongui: Oh, thank you. I appreciate that. I think what grounds me is that there's so much narrative for me to sink my teeth into, and for Jacob to be balancing all the time. He always has multiple things to balance in his mind. There's the mission at hand, but then there's also all the secrets that he has to keep. There's also his, you know, he takes on the responsibility not only to accomplish the mission, but to protect the team. And then in the back of his mind, there's his kids at home, and are they okay? And is the family, okay? And how does catching this bad guy actually, you know, make it safer for the nation in terms of national security, but also safer for his own family. And so having enough story for me as an actor to like always be turning over in my mind, actually makes it easier to just be grounded in the scene.
 
John Betancourt: Something I also appreciate is the stark and realistic differences between the characters. There are some that are in the gray, some that lean into the opposite of that, like Jacob. And I'm curious, since you're so close to the character, what would you say drives that moral core for him?
 
Patrick Sabongui: Yeah, I think morality when you're engaged in warfare is a really complicated thing. And I think if you're going to be… I think morality and ethics are different. I think the notion of right and wrong, or the notion of justice is highly individualized, and for a guy in Jacob's position, sometimes you got to do a very wrong thing to try to do the right thing. It’s complicated, you know, like, it's not okay to shoot somebody in the head unless it's okay, unless you have to, you know? And I think that having to constantly weigh right and wrong and having to take action. I know it's just a fascinating area to consider, and I think the notion of right or wrong is highly individualized, and it's not for other people to judge.
 
John Betancourt: Now something I’ve heard from all of your fellow cast members and co-workers is that the vibe on this set is great, and it’s just a joy, and I’m curious what you have enjoyed the most about playing Jacob.
 
Patrick Sabongui: I’ve enjoyed the most, I mean, on the production side of things, I love coming to work. I love hanging out with this cast. We really genuinely enjoy each other, make each other laugh, and, you know, they engage in the work. Like, this is Nerds That Geek and like, we're nerds, that geek, man, like, we love storytelling, and we love, you know, talking about the scene and the characters. And we, we love challenging each other, challenging the show runners. I don't know if you spoke to Jake (Coburn) and JJ (Bailey), but like, yeah, we're always coming to them with, like, with ideas and questions, and iit's not because there's a problem. It's because we really dig this shit. And for, I think, for everybody in the cast, we really care about the material, and we and we enjoy engaging with it. And that's, I think that is one of my favorite things, is that not only do we have fun and make each other laugh, but we actually enjoy engaging in the work.
 
John Betancourt: Now, there’s nothing like this on teleivison now, and I'm curious what it means to you as an actor, as a person, all around, to be part of such a refreshing and unique show.
 
Patrick Sabongui: It's refreshing and unique to be on a refreshing and unique show. (Laughter) Yeah, man, you never know how things are going to land. I understand this industry. Everything is risky about it, every new idea, every new type of show, you never know how it's going to land. And it's really exciting to see a concept that pulls in some of the things that are very prominent in the zeitgeist right now, like true crime is a huge interest, you know, in the culture right now, from the podcasts to the shows and the procedural model is, you know, highly successful people you know, make that a regular part of their routine. To check in on their procedural show. And then this one also has a serialized arc where we're talking about our families and the mystery of what happened in the Pit, and so it's just really satisfying to be part of something that pulls all of those popular cultural elements together into one place every week.
 
John Betancourt: I know also in talking to your cohorts, that’s there some big stuff coming up, and obviously we're not gonna spoil that portion of it. But what are you excited for audiences to get to experience in this back half of season one?
 
Patrick Sabongui: We uncover more about the about what happened at the Pit, what that whole conspiracy is. I mean, this is something, honestly, week to week when the scripts will come out. I couldn't wait. Like, yeah, I would do this scan of the script and be like, “Okay, this is circular. We made this a little action sequence. Okay, then we catch them here.” But like, “What the hell is Silo 12? What the hell is going on? Who is actually behind it? What does Odell actually know?” And you know, so there's that a lot of that gets revealed. Doesn't necessarily offer clarity. I think we're going to get exposed to a lot more questions about what really happened, and what that explosion was, and what the Pit was, and what Silo 12 was. And so, I'm excited about that. And then there's some trippy serial killer stuff too. Man like, we uphold that tradition of -- I love how when this becomes your show, you try to anticipate, and as soon as you meet the killer, you're like, “Oh, I bet it's this, this, this, this,” and then we throw you for a curve ball, and there's another loop, and it's not exactly what you thought it was. And so, there's still a lot of that.
 
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.