Ben McKenzie

Interview By: Rob Alicea

RobAlicea@TheCinemaSource.com

In Junebug, Benjamin McKenzie plays a young man with his first baby on the way. He also happens to be tormented by the fact that he has been living in the shadow of his older brother his entire life. The film focuses primarily on these aforementioned relationships, which at times, become explosive. “This is a guy who has lived in the shadow of his older brother his entire life,” explains McKenzie on his role, “And now he’s going through an incredible pain, and he chucks a wrench at his (his brother’s) head. And I loved it.”

“It was wonderfully therapeutic. I’m not particularly a method guy. I could sulk the entire time on-set, and the rest of the time – I can be the nicest, happiest, sweetest guy in the world. And I had the freedom to do it way over the top.”

Rather than taking it to an “over the top place,” which would consist of indicating everything to the audience, McKenzie preferred a more internal and silent approach in his preparation for this film.

“I was always taught that your dialog is less than half of what you’re doing,” McKenzie explains of his acting roots, which stem primarily from college theatre at the University of Virginia. “What you’re doing, hopefully, is existing in a world and reacting to the people around you. There are things you don’t say. I’m often interested in things people are not saying.” Phil does a great job of capturing unspoken moments. We worked to find ways to express things in a non-verbal way.

And if you don’t know who “Phil” is, trust me, you will. Phil Morrison, he fresh director of Junebug is already being hailed as the next big thing.

Coming off a successful show like The OC, one would think that McKenzie, who plays the “bad boy from the wrong side of the tracks” would just have scripts flying in his direction. This is not too far from the truth. “The sort of [scripts] you get off The OC are the stuff you’d expect to get off The OC – teen-oriented material. When this script came along I fell in love with it and really enjoyed Phil, and

knew that he had a talent. It wouldn’t be the same thing that I do most of the year and that was very exciting to me to show people I can do something else.”

And indeed he has.

“Being a brother I understand these relationships,” McKenzie explains. “People don’t talk in families and people don’t always communicate. Especially in the south sometimes, I think, between men.”

McKenzie, a native Texan, had to first shed his southern tone in order to sound more “middle of the road” as an actor, and gain another for this role. Junebug, which is filmed in North Carolina, home of director Phil Morrison, called for McKenzie to sound North Carolina, born and bred. “I went down and hung out a couple weeks before I started shooting and tried to pick up whatever I could. It’s one of those accents that’s just fun to play with, anyways. As soon as you’re down there with the people, it’s alluring. It’s wonderful – very relaxed, very professional, it’s a beautiful part of the country,” added about the location of choice for Junebug.

And of course, the hundred thousand dollar question, “What can we expect from the third season of The OC. “I can’t tell you,” McKenzie quickly answers. “It’s a well oiled machine now. It looks good.”

Now that McKenzie has made the successful transition from television to film, people are no doubt going to be keeping their eyes on him for a long time to come. Has/will all this attention change McKenzie? “My goal is always to just be a working actor – someone who people have respect for, keep doing films like this, and to just stay the person you were before – if you liked who you were before. And I do.”