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• Bio on Mr. McKenzie

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Tavis: Benjamin McKenzie plays Ryan Atwood on the breakout TV hit of last season, 'The O.C.' The talented actor had a busy summer, which included a speech at the Democratic Convention in Boston. I saw you there. The new season of his Fox series begins on November 4th. Here he is in a scene from 'The O.C.'

Ryan: This is good. All right. Thanks for the ride.

Summer: Don't forget your lunch. I peeled your orange for you.

Ryan: Thanks. But, uh, probably not the best way to fit in with these guys.

Summer: Right.

Ryan: All right. Well, uh...

Summer: Yeah, you don't want the foreman to get angry.

Ryan: He's always angry. He's an angry man.

Summer: Maybe tonight we could rent a movie or play pool or something.

Ryan: Yeah. Pool sounds good. See ya.

Tavis: So, Benjamin, welcome to 'the L.A.'

Benjamin McKenzie: Thank you. Little farther north.

Tavis: Little farther north of Orange County, yeah. How you been, man?

Benjamin: I'm great. Absolutely, yeah.

Tavis: I've never believed in this notion of an overnight success. I mean, I've heard that a thousand times. But when I landed here on PBS, people are like, 'Wow, this guy, Tavis Smiley came out--' well, actually, more like, 'This guy, Travis Smiley came out of nowhere. What an overnight sensation this guy is, an overnight success, this guy.' I'd been on TV and radio for years before you guys 'discovered' me on PBS or NPR. But you really are an overnight success. I hate people like you. So you were in L.A., workin' for, like, three days.

Benjamin: Yeah, it was--

Tavis: Three days!

Benjamin: A year. A year and six days.

Tavis: Year and six days, and you end up, like, the star of a hit TV show.

Benjamin: It's really wild, you know. I was, uh, I was at the University of Virginia getting a degree in foreign affairs and economics, and I decided I'd pick up acting. I kinda started flirting with it and graduated. I figured I didn't want a real job, so I moved up to New York and waited tables and struggled and then moved out to L.A. On the advice of a friend, and I spent a year and six days on his floor, kinda hustling back and forth from bad audition to bad audition to worse audition and then finally got 'The O.C.' So it's just been-- It's pretty wild.

Tavis: And now you own the building that your friend used to live in, right?

Benjamin: Yeah, exactly.

Tavis: Ha ha ha ha ha!

Benjamin: Now he has a very nice set of golf clubs.

Tavis: That was last year. Wait, wait. He let you sleep on his floor for a year and a half, and you bought him some Calloways?

Benjamin: Hey, they're nice Calloways, the bag and the whole thing. You're right. I owe him a little bit more than that.

Tavis: Yeah, you owe him a little more than that, Benjamin. Come on, now. Foreign affairs, economics. I'm trying to connect foreign affairs, economics, thespian. Foreign affairs, economics, thespian. I'm not connecting this.

Benjamin: Yeah, it's just--it's a weird thing. I never really had it on my radar. I grew up in Texas; I played high school football. It just was a different world.

Tavis: Have you seen 'Friday Night Lights,' the movie?

Benjamin: Fantastic movie, and I read the book growing up, and they really captured the essence of that movie and the, um--there's so many things going on in that book. I don't know if you had the pleasure of reading it, but it's one of the best nonfiction sports books out there--the small-town atmosphere of Odessa, Texas, and all these fathers living vicariously through their sons, the pressure put on these young men. Thankfully, I didn't go through that exactly. I was in Austin, I played football, but it was a different kind of environment. But it is such rich ground for drama that they really did a wonderful job.

Tavis: Where--since you said acting wasn't really on your radar--where did it come from? How did this love or this interest, at least, develop again, from foreign affairs and economics to putting your face in front of--yeah.

Benjamin: Well, it was never really the intention to put my face, no offense, in front of a television screen. I actually just fell in love with the craft of it in college. I have an uncle who's a screenwriter/playwright, and so there was someone in my family who was sort of out there in this world. He was always sort of the crazy uncle that lived far away, uh, and--

Tavis: We all have one of those.

Benjamin: Yeah. In some of our families, it's, uh--

Tavis: Yeah. More than one. Ha ha ha!

Benjamin: He's the playwright. So, uh, I had someone out there to sort of aspire to or to emulate. And, um, so I decided I'd move up to New York and give it a shot. But there was no indication in my mind that I would ever end up here doing this sort of thing. I figured I'd serve some coffee for a while in New York at a Starbucks or something, and, you know, in a couple of years maybe enter law school or something like that and probably get it out of my system. But I figured I'd give it a shot and see what happens here.

Tavis: So did your parents take you out of the will when you decided you were leaving school, after all that money they'd invested, to go to New York and wait tables?

Benjamin: Yeah, exactly, exactly. $100,000 education and I'm off, you know, sharing-- I actually shared bunk beds with a friend of mine in New York. Our room was so small we couldn't fit two beds next to each other. So I had the bottom bunk of a bunk bed.

Tavis: There you go. Back to being five years old.

Benjamin: Exactly, exactly. Uh, no. They've always been incredibly supportive, and actually, sort of ridiculously so. Every once in a while I wanted them to sort of sit me down and have the talking-to and sort of say, 'Listen, kid, you're a great guy but you need to do something different,' but they never did. So, um, God bless.

Tavis: How much do you guys hate, at 'The O.C.', being compared to '90210'?

Benjamin: You know, I actually--I understand the comparison. I mean, basically everyone is looking for some way to compare the show to something that's come before. It's obviously a show with young characters set in a sort of ritzy location, and you know, the similarities to '90210' are obvious. All we're trying to do is make the show that we enjoy making and we enjoy watching, so the show, I think, is a little bit funnier, a little bit more true to life in certain respects. I mean, my character is from a blue-collar background. He's nothing like these rich kids that he's surrounded by. That being said, yeah, there are similarities; so I certainly understand.

Tavis: Speaking of young people, I suspect, one of the reasons why the Democratic National Committee reached out to you to invite you to speak at the Democratic Convention where we saw you earlier this summer is because you are on a TV show that young people love to watch. You are obviously still young yourself. Tell me about your politics, how you wound up being a Democrat, and how you wound up on that stage next to Maya Angelou--Dr. Maya?

Benjamin: I was--

Tavis: I heard a funny story. Well, you tell the story about how you guys met backstage. You shared a dressing room?

Benjamin: Well, yeah. We shared--exactly, the green room. We were sitting in the green room, and Maya Angelou and I were next to each other getting tea at the craft service table, and she was very polite and very wonderful. I don't think she had any idea who I was, which is fine.

Tavis: But you knew who she was?

Benjamin: Absolutely.

Tavis: She's been around a little longer, so that's fair.

Benjamin: Well, yeah, exactly. She's accomplished a little bit more. You know, it's an odd world where the kid off a TV show is sitting next to the former poet laureate of the United States. And I have three minutes at the DNC, and she has three minutes at the DNC. That's a strange world. I don't think that's necessarily--I don't think that's necessarily a just world, you know.

Tavis: Only in America.

Benjamin: Yeah, exactly. For better or worse, that's America, you know what I mean? But-- And that's indicative, getting to your question, about why they asked me to speak. You know, it's certainly not necessarily that I have the most formidable political background or the most keenly developed political philosophy or anything like that. I just--I have always been a Democrat, and I grew up in Austin, Texas, so it's been rough for a long time.

Tavis: That's why you ain't in Austin these days.

Benjamin: Exactly. That's one of the reasons why having had George Bush as governor I support John Kerry for president. So, I just--they asked me to speak, and I basically decided to--I accepted--and decided, in order to sort of understand exactly what my purpose was in this experience, that I needed to really speak from the heart and talk to kids out there. I was actually just up in Oregon yesterday at Oregon State University and the University of Oregon talking to kids about the same thing, which is that in 2000 I didn't vote.

Tavis: When you were a student?

Benjamin: Yeah. I was a student at the University of Virginia. I was majoring in political science and didn't vote. I mean, it's kind of ridiculous. And I think that's indicative of a lot of, you know, the apathy among my generation. The political apathy is just completely rampant and... Up until this year, up until 2004.

Tavis: As you travel around the country talking to college students, certainly since your big moment at the DNC, is your sense that young people are going to be more engaged this time around?

Benjamin: Absolutely. No, absolutely. When I was in Oregon yesterday, they had, I think, about five hours to organize the rally. I just, at the last moment, decided to go up there, and 250 kids showed up at Oregon State University. And every single question, to their credit, was about politics. There was not a single question, you know, 'The O.C.'

Tavis: Yeah.

Benjamin: Ryan and Marissa or whatever. It was all about healthcare, jobs, the draft, you know, same-sex union. It was really impressive, and they're very motivated young people up there, and that was a real pleasure to be a part of that. And so I think this year is the turning point potentially for this generation. I think that the last four years have been such a turbulent time, not only for Americans overall, but for the youth. We are the ones who would serve in wars, foreign wars, our generation. We are the ones who are entering the economy for the first time in terms of being full-time employees and are faced with significant problems.

Tavis: And sleeping on the floor for a year and a half.

Benjamin: Exactly! Exactly. I sure didn't love George Bush while I was making minimum wage as a waiter in New York City. I wanted him to, uh...

Tavis: Raise the minimum wage.

Benjamin: Raise the minimum wage.

Tavis: At the very least.

Benjamin: Exactly. Exactly.

Tavis: Now, you know, though, with these pro-Kerry views, you can hang out in L.A., But you can't hang out in the O.C.

Benjamin: Yes, exactly.

Tavis: For those who don't know the politics out here, Orange County is one of the most conservative bastion strongholds left in this country, and you espousing these views down in the O.C., that doesn't work.

Benjamin: Exactly. Well, I've never been down to the real O.C., so I guess I'll be safe.

Tavis: Yeah, you stay in the L.A., you might be all right.

Benjamin: Yeah.

Tavis: Let me ask you what you want to do with this career, I mean, this talent that you have and whether or not you think that you have a long-term future here or whether or not this was, with all due respect, a fluke because it happened so quickly for you.

Benjamin: I think it's both. I think it's a bit of a fluke.

Tavis: That's an honest answer.

Benjamin: I think it's a bit of a fluke, and I think that I do. Is there water around here?

Tavis: Yes, there's water right there.

Benjamin: I do have a long-term career here.

Tavis: But you got game. You can hang, huh?

Benjamin: I think so. I mean, I aim to prove it, and if I can't, then I have only myself to blame. But I think, basically--and I think that so many actors have begun their careers in television--that it is such a tremendous learning tool. I learn every day, and I work at it pretty much every day. And so to have that 12 hours, 14 hours every day on the set in front of a camera around a crew and around, you know, directors and actors and writers and producers, really helps hone your craft. So the future to me is wide open. I think that, you know, television provides such a forum for expressing your views for being able to be passionate about the things that you're passionate about--about politics or whether it be politics or being involved in film or whatever it is, so...

Tavis: A few years from now, when you have proven that you had staying power, we'll talk again on another show, I'm sure.

Benjamin: I'd love that.

Tavis: Nice to see you.

Benjamin: Nice to see you.

Tavis: All the best, Benjamin.

Benjamin: Thank you.

Tavis: Take care. That's our show for tonight. As always, you can catch me on the radio on NPR. I'll see you back here next time on PBS. Until then, thanks for watching. Good night from Los Angeles, and, as always, keep the faith.