‘Speed 2’ Could Accelerate Jason Patric’s Acting Career

Jason Patric didn’t take Hollywood’s big-budget blockbuster star trip.

Patric’s career could pick up speed, however, with the $120 million budgeted “Speed 2: Cruise Control” that opened Friday in movie theaters.

What “Speed” did for Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves, and “The Rock” for Nicolas Cage, “Speed 2” could do for Patric.

“This (‘Speed 2’) was an opportunity to show a side of myself that I can do,” said the highly regarded star of well-reviewed but smaller-budget films (“The Journey of August King,” “Geronimo: An American Legend,” “Rush”). Patric had a supporting role in last year’s “Sleepers.”

“If I was going to make this movie (‘Speed 2’), I was going to do it all and be extremely physical,” said Patric. “I didn’t want to do blue screen (where actors fake action and the background is added later), making myself look macho. I wanted to experience the fun of it.”

Bullock is back in the 20th Century Fox release, reprising her role as klutzy but comely Annie Porter. Reeves opted not to return for the film.

Enter Patric as Annie’s new boyfriend, Alex Shaw, who treats her to a Caribbean cruise. It’s a dream vacation until Willem Dafoe, as the vengeful John Geiger, shows up.

Patric performed the majority of his stunts in “Speed 2,” directed by Jan De Bont (“Speed,” “Twister”). Patric negotiates a red Ducati motorcycle on windy Mulholland Drive in the Hollywood Hills, rescues a lifeboat of cruise passengers, dives under the ship to dismantle a propeller to slow down the out-of-control ship, swims through flooded holds to steer the ship from a collision course with an oil tanker, and is dragged by a seaplane.

Patric, who uses his middle name as his professional surname, is a son of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright (“That Championship Season”) and Academy Award best supporting actor nominee (“The Exorcist”) Jason Miller and is a grandson of Jackie Gleason.

Patric said he didn’t grow up as a spoiled rich child of a Hollywood celebrity.

“There was never that kind of money in my family,” he said. “Even at an early age, I was supporting my family somewhat. …”

“I’ve always come from a creative standpoint and figured the career would follow,” Patric said. “I could have done ‘The Firm,’ or something like that and been at a certain place but chose not to.

“To me, I think my career’s all right. The problem with making movies and everything today is that unless you’re on the cover of People or Vanity Fair, people assume that you can’t get on there. I didn’t want to be.”