Actor William Fichtner returns to Buffalo in person and on the big screen in ‘Hypnotic’

It’s 2:33 p.m. here in Buffalo and the phone rings.

“Sorry,” says Fichtner, who is unfailingly polite. He’s only three minutes late for the call.

“It’s such a nice, sunny day,” he says, “and I’m going to be gone for a couple of weeks, so I took my old Road Runner out.”

Fichtner has since returned to his hometown with his wife, Kym, and staying for much of the month. They are picking up their son from college in Syracuse. Fichtner is planning to drop by the PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester. He’s doing some charity dinners, and he’s planning to join his friend, Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, “to support the mayor and our beautiful city” as the community joins together to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the May 14 racist mass shooting.

Fichtner is also going to see a movie. A movie he is in: “Hypnotic,” in which Fichtner portrays a suspicious and uncannily elusive character (Dellrayne) pursued by Detective Danny Rourke, played by Ben Affleck.

Acting opposite megastars like Affleck is normal for Fichtner, whose onscreen career began in the mid-1980s. His credits include smash franchises (among them: “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” “Independence Day: Resurgence”), iconic films (too many to list but including: “Black Hawk Down,” “The Dark Knight” and “Armageddon,” which also starred Affleck) and hit television (most recently “Mom”).

But walking into a theater (or turning on a television) to watch his own work is unusual for Fichtner, especially in recent years.

“I haven’t watched ‘The Company You Keep,’ ” Fichtner says, referring to the new ABC show in which he plays a doting father and grandfather who doubles as…