BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Tinseltown came to Buffalo Friday night, as Hollywood actor William Fichtner — a Buffalo native — came back to his hometown to watch the premier of his latest movie, Hypnotic.

When Fichtner comes back to town, he always has time to say hello to everyone — from a security guard on an escalator, to some old classmates from Maryvale High. News 4 had a chance to chat with him before the premier of his new movie.

“What better place? Where would you rather be than right here, right now? I always gotta quote Marv Levy,” Fichtner said of his return for the film. “I knew that I was going to be here this weekend, and didn’t want to be in L.A., I was going to be here. So I’ve got a bunch of high school friends from Maryvale, my sister Patty here tonight, niece, nephew, my wife, my son, just a bunch of us, so let’s grab some popcorn and watch the movie.”

The movie is about a cop in Austin, Texas searching for his missing daughter. And Bill plays a villain — a bad guy.

“I am a misunderstood guy, Don,” Fichtner laughed. “Sometimes I hear, ‘This is a bad guy, that’s all you do is play bad guys.’ Well I just did finish five years on ‘Mom.’

Bill stars in the movie with Hollywood legend Ben Affleck, whom he has worked with before.

“Ben’s great, Ben’s a big movie star,” Fichtner said, adding that he is only a movie star to his own mother. “Ben does a great job and I really enjoyed him in that role.”

The film’s director is Robert Rodriguez — a top movie maker in Tinseltown.

“Movies have a rhythm,” Fichtner said. “And are they ‘Something you haven’t quite seen before?’ And I think that what Robert has done in this film, he always said it was homage to (iconic director Alfred) Hitchcock.”

Bill Fichtner bleeds Buffalo blood. He was crushed to learn about the mass shooting in his hometown.

“This is my town, those are my people,” he said. “I wanted to be back here, I wanted to be with Mayor Brown and remember.”

He also plans to attend the memorial service Sunday afternoon at the Jefferson Avenue Tops.

“I remember when it happened,” he said. “Unfortunately, we see these things on the news — it’s too commonplace. And one day the news came on and it was my town, I’ll never forget that.”