Shifting from her usual pairing with Richard Gere and George Clooney, in 1991, Julia Roberts shared the screen with Patrick Bergin in the psychological thriller Sleeping With the Enemy. Well, the film wasn’t just a shift from her popular co-stars, but also from the rom-com genre that Roberts is often known for.
Playing the role of Laura, a woman fleeing an abusive relationship, Sleeping With the Enemy narrated the tale of a marriage from hell, where Patrick Bergin appeared as Roberts’ possessive and violent husband, Martin. But while the 1991 movie could have been just another film about DV, what drove it to brilliance was Bergin’s bold choice regarding his character depiction.
Unlike the villains from 90s cinema, Bergin’s choice to keep Martin an unforgivable monster helped shift the cultural narrative surrounding domestic violence in a way that changed Hollywood forever.
Patrick Bergin Refused to Give His Abusive Character a Backstory in Sleeping With the Enemy
While Hollywood has always had a habit of offering a sympathetic backstory to an antihero and a tragic past to a villain, Sleeping With the Enemy took a different path. Significantly changing the course of Hollywood storytelling, the film’s lead actor Patrick Bergin revealed actively resisting the idea of adding a backstory to his character Martin, which would have otherwise explained his abusive behavior.
Playing the role of Martin Burney, the proverbial husband from hell, alongside Julia Roberts’ character Laura, Patrick Bergin told Yahoo Entertainment how he specifically requested that one scene that tried explaining Martin’s psychology be dropped from the film. According to Bergin, during the film’s first read-through, a scene was proposed in which Martin would deliver a lengthy monologue, elaborating on why he was the way he was.
When we were doing our first read-through of the script, there was a three-page monologue at the end of the movie when Martin finally catches up with Laura where I expand on all my reasons for being the way I am. I just went on and on.
I told Joe, ‘I just can’t do that. I can’t keep the intensity up for this.’ And he said, ‘Well what would you say, Patrick?’ And I replied, ‘I can’t live without you, and I won’t let you live without me.’ And that became the end of the movie! I’m pretty proud of that.
Patrick Bergin, openly revealed how he refused to portray or even speak about his character’s possible childhood trauma or past failures as a way of explaining his cruel behavior and helping the audience sympathize with him. Implying that it went beyond his morals and capabilities, Bergin thus left Martin to be a pure, unredeemed abuser, representing a very real type of person who exists in reality.
Therefore, in a Hollywood landscape often eager to justify villainous behavior, this became a game-changer in the portrayal of abusive relationships in films. Patrick Bergin’s bold choice thus transformed the project into a groundbreaking movie and even served as a defining moment in the entertainment industry.
Patrick Bergin Believed Martin’s Abusive Psychology was Rooted in His Controlling Nature
While Patrick Bergin refused to give a backstory to his character in Sleeping With the Enemy, the actor addressed the possible reason behind Martin’s abusive psychology, during his interview with the outlet. Focusing on what made his character tick in the present moment, Bergin explained that Martin’s abusive behavior was rooted in an overwhelming need to dominate and control every aspect of his environment.
Citing that his onscreen character’s behavior wasn’t the result of a tragic past, but a deep-seated insecurity, Patrick Bergin mentioned that Martin was simply trying to control Julia Roberts‘ character Laura, as well as the entire world around him. Martin’s sheer obsession with dominance, which was evident in his interactions at work, is what Bergin believed to have turned his character into a monster.
In psychological terms, his main problem was that he was controlling. There’s a couple of short scenes where you see him at the office, and there he behaves like a man that’s very much in control. That can be seen as a very positive treat in a person, but he also can’t accept any competition or criticism.
And that makes it hard for him to control his environment at home. He’s deeply insecure in himself, so the mere fact that Laura might look at another man is enough to send him into a spin.
As per Patrick Bergin, his abusive character in Sleeping With the Enemy didn’t have any specific triggering event, rather he inflicted his abuse on Laura due to his inability to accept anything that threatened his fragile sense of control. Well, although the film never really explained this psychological framework, learning about this perspective from Bergin surely served as a refreshing departure from the traditional “traumatic backstory” approach used in films.
Sleeping With the Enemy is currently available to watch on Prime Video.
