FRIDAY
E-mail a friendBenjamin McKenzie
original airdate April 14, 2008
For Benjamin McKenzie, acting runs in the family. His paternal grandparents, uncle and brother have all been in the business. Born and raised in Texas, McKenzie did some theater while attending the University of Virginia. Following his graduation, as a foreign affairs and economics major, he went to NY to try his hand at acting. After 9/11, he decided to give LA a try and became one of TV's heartthrobs with the lead in The O.C. McKenzie has segued into features, with roles in 88 Minutes and Junebug.
Benjamin McKenzie
Tavis: Pleased to welcome Benjamin McKenzie back to this program. The former star of "The O.C." is appearing alongside some guy named Al Pacino in the new thriller "88 Minutes." The movie opens in theaters around the country this Friday. Here now, a scene from "88 Minutes."
[Clip]
Tavis: That clip, Benjamin, gives you some sense of what Pacino does in the movie, but not really what the movie is about. So I'm going to stand down and let you explain what the storyline is. It's a great storyline.
Benjamin McKenzie: Yeah, well, he's a professor of forensics and his testimony has helped convict a guy who's about to be put away, who's on death row. And all of a sudden he starts receiving threatening phone calls saying he has 88 minutes to live. So it's a thriller kind of in the line of like a "24" or something where it's a, you know, there's a specific time period.
Tavis: And you play one of his students.
McKenzie: One of his students, who may be a good guy, may be a bad guy, you're not really sure. I've got to tell you, when I was watching the clip, it reminds me of when we were shooting. I had to learn how to ride a motorcycle to do the scene, so all I'm seeing -
Tavis: You hadn't already learned that in Texas?
McKenzie: I had - no, no idea, no idea. Yeah, now horses, sure.
Tavis: Horses but not motorcycles.
McKenzie: No motorcycles, yeah, exactly. So while I'm watching that clip all I can think about is oh my god, I'm going to kill Al Pacino. (Laughter) (Unintelligible) caught and the motorcycle's going to careen out of control and I'm going to be forever known as that guy who was on that -
Tavis: Who killed Al Pacino, yeah.
McKenzie: - that one time who killed Al Pacino, so. But still every time I have to watch it to make sure he doesn't die.
Tavis: It's a great storyline. So Pacino has been told he has 88 minutes - not 88 days, not 88 hours, he has 88 minutes to live, and he's trying to figure this thing out. And everybody around him sort of becomes suspect.
McKenzie: Absolutely, absolutely, and that allows you to really have a really wide range of characters and really keep the plot moving fast and keep it interesting.
Tavis: So for you - this is the obligatory question because he's one of the great actors of our time - the experience of hanging out and working with Al Pacino is like what?
McKenzie: It's tremendous, it's absolutely tremendous. You sort of have to - at the beginning you have to separate sort of your image of the icon of Al Pacino from the man himself, because obviously when you're acting in a scene with him, you know, it's like doing a scene with anyone else. So you have to sort of -
Tavis: Does he make that easy for you or intimidating for you?
McKenzie: He does. An incredibly classy guy. Wants to rehearse, has a work ethic like you wouldn't believe. All about rehearsal, about lots of takes, lots of different kind of takes. He wants you to switch it up, likes to improv, likes to switch it around. So he's a very giving actor and you see why - it's inspiring, you see why he is who he is. It's because he works really, really hard at it.
Tavis: So it feels like what when he does that yelling thing at you?
McKenzie: Yes.
Tavis: That we all know he does so well.
McKenzie: It's a little strange. You're in a scene with him and he starts doing his thing and then you realize, "Oh, wow, wow, (laughter) that's so cool, I love it when you do that. Wait a minute. Wait a minute, I'm in the scene with you." Blank face back on, back on, back in character.
Tavis: I assume you liked the experience of doing this.
McKenzie: I love it.
Tavis: And I'm asking because I'm trying to get a sense of whether or not you like the way that your career is now starting to navigate post-"O.C."
McKenzie: Right. Well, it's a challenge because as you know, the medium of television is such a powerful thing. People start to associate you with - in your case, hopefully with who you are, but in my case being an actor playing a role. That character on "The O.C.," and particularly when it has a sort of a pop cultural resonance like the show did.
So the challenge for me in order to have the kind of career that I'd like to have is just to work with great actors, to learn from them, like Al Pacino. To do different kind of projects like "Junebug," or to take on different kind of roles that are about as far removed from what I'd done on "The O.C." as possible.
Tavis: When you say as far removed from "The O.C.," it's a perfect segue for where I wanted to go, which is whether or not you have figured out, Benjamin, whether or not you've figured out if there is a particular genre, a particular kind of film, particular genre that you prefer over others - comedy to drama to?
McKenzie: Yeah, I don't think so. There's not one particular one. The kind of movies that I like are often the more intimate, smaller, independent-minded movies, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate a fun, popcorn thriller like I think "88 Minutes" is.
Tavis: And that affinity for you for the former comes from what?
McKenzie: Gosh, I don't really know. Probably how I was raised in Austin. It's a very artistic community; there's lots of different influences, whether it's music or theater or film - it has actually a good film community down there. So it just has a very sort of bohemian atmosphere, and that's probably what I attribute it to.
Tavis: Speaking of Austin, I was just in this conversation the other day with somebody on an airplane, stuck in an airport - thanks to American Airlines. Stuck in an airport in Texas, as a matter of fact, in Dallas. We were talking about Austin, and years ago when I first started going to Texas, like most people, I guess, I went to Dallas or Houston for different appearances and things like that - these two major cities.
It wasn't until some years ago that I found myself going to Austin for different appearances and events. It's a very charming city.
McKenzie: It is.
Tavis: It really is. I mean, I didn't know what I - I mean, I wasn't turned on to the politics of Austin, but the city itself is really a very cool place.
McKenzie: Yeah, no, it's got a ton of music, a huge university there, so there's a lot of college people, and great tech business. So it's pretty affluent, it's pretty open-minded, and it's got a great atmosphere. It's a little hot in the summer, but other than that it's a great place to be.
Tavis: Speaking of Texas, you were back for the primaries, and I read somewhere that you and Kerry Washington, who's been a guest on this program, the two of you were reaching out to young people on behalf of the Obama campaign? Why is he your guy?
McKenzie: Well, he's my guy, I had the chance to meet him in person back in the fall, he came out to L.A. and spoke to a group of young people in the entertainment business, and I knew as soon as he wasn't hitting us up for money and he was actually going to talk to us, I knew that was a good sign.
Tavis: Well, money is the last thing his campaign needs.
McKenzie: He doesn't need any money from anybody.
Tavis: He don't need your money, yeah.
McKenzie: No, he doesn't.
Tavis: Maybe your vote, but not your money.
McKenzie: Well, that's actually, that brings you to a good point, which is actually that I think the reason that he doesn't has a little bit to do with his populist message is that he's raised all this money from not the thousand-dollar-a-head, $2,300-a-head head honchos; from quote, unquote "average people," but they really are people contributing $100, $200.
Anyway, I just really find him an incredibly capable, incredibly thoughtful, articulate guy who is also a real person. When you talk to him you don't feel like you're just getting some sort of tried and true delivery without any substance behind it. He has some life experience.
Tavis: I've known Barack for a lot of years, he's a personal friend and been on this program before, in that very same chair, in fact. Because of who your audience is and because of who you and Kerry, we just saw in a picture a minute ago, because of the young folk that you and Kerry are reaching out to - and a lot of young folk on this campaign who are doing this.
But as you well know because of the work that you're doing, he's connected to so many young people, and I'm hoping - much is made of the fact that his campaign, unlike Hillary's, has brought in all these young people, these new voters, etc., etc. That's the argument in favor of Obama, everybody gets that.
My concern is or my question for you is what happens if Obama doesn't win the nomination? What happens if he doesn't win the presidency? I see such rabid support for him amongst young people, which is a wonderful thing; don't get me wrong - I'm not casting aspersion on him.
I'm just hoping that if he doesn't deliver, if he doesn't win, that they won't be crushed. And I see so much enthusiasm amongst people. You see what I'm getting at?
McKenzie: Well, I see what you're getting at and I'm not trying to compare you to Hillary in this regard. He's been criticized often for being hopeful, for being - the audacity of hope.
Tavis: You know the stump speech; go ahead, (unintelligible).
McKenzie: Yeah, right, exactly, right, I can pretty much deliver it at this point, yeah.
Tavis: You got that down, bring it on.
McKenzie: But your point is very valid. But at the same time, I think what I come back to is listen, I'm a lifelong Democrat and I'm a Texas Democrat. So I've had my heart broken for a long time. It's been a long time.
Tavis: It's been a while, yeah.
McKenzie: Yeah. We will rise again at some point - not the south, but Texas Democrats. But I've had my heart broken a lot, but you do have to believe. At a certain point, all you can do is embrace the challenge and work as hard as you can. And Texas is a really good example. He lost the popular vote by about 100,000 votes, which in and of itself ought to be a huge victory. If you flash back to January or December -
Tavis: Oh, she was so far up front.
McKenzie: So far. And think about Texas as a base camp for Clinton. They have all of the embedded Texas politicians; they have huge support among the Latino community, huge support among working class people in Texas. So for him to come even that close is a victory.
But then what a lot of people missed was that he actually won the delegate count in Texas when you added in the caucus. He lost the vote overall, but he won the caucus and he came out ahead in delegates. So big, big win for him.
Tavis: He's got more than 88 minutes to make this thing happen.
McKenzie: Thank god.
Tavis: Pacino does not in the new movie "88 Minutes," starring Al Pacino and one Benjamin McKenzie, formerly of "The O.C." Good to see you again, man.
McKenzie: Yeah, good to see you.
Tavis: Glad to have you on.
McKenzie: Thank you for having me.
Back to April 14, 2008