Michael Lombardi (Rescue Me) stars in the revenge horror thriller, The Retaliators for which he also serves as producer. The film, which also stars Marc Menchaca (Ozark), and Joseph Gatt (Game of Thrones) is about an upstanding pastor who uncovers a dark and twisted underworld as he searches for answers surrounding his daughter’s murder. Speaking by phone with Lombardi, he talked about the joys and challenges of his latest project.

Let’s start with The Retaliators. How did your involvement come about and what attracted you to it?

Well, several years ago I had a band and a little record deal back in 2009. During that time, living in Manhattan, I’d go out to L.A. often and my music manager at the time would say, ‘Hey, you need to meet with these brothers. They’re incredible writers.’ So, I met the Geare brothers and we really hit it off. One of their screenplays was The Retaliators, and it really connected to me on a lot of levels.

Was it initially to star in it or did you want to produce as well?

Well, the whole reason that I went on this journey was to play the role of John Bishop. I really loved the experience, and I directed a lot of this film and produced it, but I was really attracted to the character and the characters in the story.

With revenge being an obvious theme in the movie, is that something that you relate to? Are you a vengeful person, or are you more of a turn the other cheek kind of guy?

What I love about the movie is that I feel like half the people are on the side of Jed, the detective, like, ‘Get them, revenge, yeah!’ and then maybe the other half are uncomfortable and riding the line. You can relate to it. Certainly, there are times where maybe I’ve been angry enough… certainly I haven’t been put in a situation like my character in the film, thank goodness… but I think you can relate. I’ve been passive in my life, but I can’t say that there haven’t been times where I’ve been pretty angry with someone.

What was the experience like playing a pastor? Did you have any religious upbringing?

Yeah, I did, actually. I grew up with Catholicism and I was an altar boy, so I understood the morals and him being a man of the cloth and what his beliefs were. I think what I did to find my shoo-in, though, because this is a modern-day pastor where they have rock bands in their sermons, I went to a few modern-day sermons and did a lot of research to find the truth in this tale.   If he’s a pastor and a man of the cloth and such a good guy, I really made a choice that he could defend himself but he’s choosing to be passive. I want to add one thing you should hear that was a really wonderful, incredible shoo-in talking about this revenge and what people can be capable of to avenge their loved one.

I found this YouTube video… this is a true story.  It was a guy who literally looked like if you were to cast him, he’d be like a math teacher or a mathematician. He’s in court, and he has a moment at the end of the trial to say words to his son’s killer. On each side of him are prison guards. He’s standing there, and he starts his speech, and he’s talking to him and immediately, he jumps over the fence and starts stabbing at him with a pencil, and he lets out this scream that was so guttural, it was from the depths of his soul, this animalistic scream. Then the prison guards grab him and pull him back. It took three of them. He was crying and screaming and the rage that he had gave me goosebumps. It’s like this is the animal instinct that’s as old as cavemen avenging the death of their child who is eaten by a saber-toothed tiger that they go out and hunt. It’s primal.

What was it like being in front of and behind the camera?  That’s a lot of responsibility.

Well, I really enjoyed it, but I have to tell you that you have to really love the project. I loved the story. I thought it was on the highbrow side of horror where you have real issues, and it leaves you thinking.

You were on Rescue Me with Denis Leary…you must have learned a lot from him as he was star and producer?

Yeah, I did about 100 episodes of that show and all those years of being on it and right next to him, it wasn’t until I was in this circumstance that I actually realized how much I learned from him and the choices he was making as well as what he was dealing with on the creative side and behind the scenes when he was just an actor hanging out with us as an actor.

Are you still in touch with him?

Yeah, absolutely. I just got a save the date on May 3^rd for his International Firefighters Day where they train firefighters. Hopefully a few other castmates and some other incredible people will be there, like Steve Buscemi, who I love as an actor and a guy, and he used to be a firefighter, so he’s a big part of Denis’s firefighter community. Rachel Ray is on the Leary Firefighter Foundation board, and Jeff Bezos.

You were a musician who then became an actor, is that right?

My family, my two uncles were musicians and had bands. So, I got a drum set when I was pretty young, and I went to New York to this place called The Collective. At the time, it was for drummers and bass players, though it’s for everything now. I was studying and I was into it and then I ended up going to taking a summer intensive at the William Esper Studio. I can’t say enough about this place. Actors like Sam Rockwell, Kathy Bates, Paul Sorvino have come out of this school. So, I went that route and then I enrolled in their full program. But I have a tremendous love for music and always still enjoy playing. My band was written into Rescue Me at the time. That’s how I got a little record deal because Denis wrote my band in for my character’s storyline for a few of the episodes in season three or four or something.

What do you have coming up next?

I did a romantic comedy a few months back with Tom Berenger, who played my dad, and Jon Heder, who’s from Napoleon Dynamite, and some of the cast from Ted Lasso. I’m also developing another horror movie with the Geare Brothers.

And so just one last thing. What do you want people to walk away with after watching The Retaliators?

Oh, well, I think ultimately, I want them to leave thinking, ‘That was whacked. What a crazy journey!’