BlackBook Magazine

As the honorary Cohen on FOX's soapy hit "The O.C.," actor Ben McKenzie became an overnight sensation poised for tabloid notoriety. Surprisingly, he's since kept a low profile (with the exception of 2005's indie charmer Junebug). He's now back and ready to trade in his 15 minutes for 88 Minutes, a new crime thriller starring Al Pacino. Say hello to our not-so-little friend.

In a faraway land, not so long ago, there lived a royal family who threw lavish balls, wore costumes made from the richest of fabrics, and ate their weight in bagels. The princess, a recovering alcoholic, was killed off in season three. Her younger sister was a raging bitch. The court jester, for whom summer was more than a season, doodled his days away with comic books. But what of Prince Ryan, he who held court over the bottle-blonde denizens of Newport Beach on FOX's primetime phenomenon "The O.C."? For starters, 29-year-old Ben McKenzie ditched the Chino schtick to tackle Amy Adams, figuratively, in 2005's widely-praised indie Junebug. He then flew below the radar, both on and off camera, managing to escape the trappings that so often swallow young Hollywood whole. This week, the articulate actor blasts onto the silver screen with 88 Minutes, a popcorn-throwing nailbiter starring Al Pacino, Leelee Sobieski, and Alicia Witt. Up next, he'll anchor Johnny Got His Gun, a heady mix of Samuel Beckett's Happy Days, Lars Von Trier's Dogville, and Pat Barker's Regeneration. Below, McKenzie comes clean about his near-death experience with Pacino, his aversion to underwear, and his brush with becoming this generation's Luke Perry.

BEN McKENZIE: I’m so sick of hearing myself speak. Instead, I’ll ask you the questions.

BLACKBOOK: That sounds more like a therapy session than an interview.

BM: Lie down, honestly. Take a load off. What did you think of 88 Minutes?

BB: At the beginning, I found myself thinking, “Pacino, tick tock, get the lead out!” He doesn’t seem to be in much of a rush to, you know, save his own life.

BM: [Laughs.] You’re like, “Come on, where’s the Jack Bauer in you?” I do think, though, that he’s right to act the way he does—if I started getting these weird death threats, my first reaction would be, “This is a crock of shit.” Once Al gets going, though, it’s hard to stop him.

BB: What would you do with only 88 minutes left to live?

BM: Are you trying to tell me something? If so, this is going to be a really short interview—no offense. I’d probably watch half of an episode of “American Idol” and eat a tub of ice cream. I don’t even think I could reap the benefits if I started drinking and doing drugs. Life would be over too soon. What would you do?

BB: No! This is not my therapy session. Working opposite Al Pacino has to be quite intimidating, especially when his character says to you, “It’s my job to be convincing.”

BM: I’ve definitely had those experiences when we were in the middle of a scene and I’m trying to stay in character, and then he does his Al thing and you’re like, Oh, oh, I’ve seen that before! You’re doing that thing that you did in that movie I saw when I was ten!

BB: Al Pacino moments are often comparable to Christopher Walken moments in Hollywood. Any standouts?

BM: I’ve heard Christopher Walken eats a lot of garlic. But seriously, with Al, he wanted to rehearse all the time, he wanted to do a lot of takes, he wanted to really talk about the characters and their situations. I saw an incredibly dedicated actor, particularly for somebody who’s been doing it for so long.

BB: He could phone it in if he wanted to.

BM: He could! But he really didn’t. He always wanted to rehearse, always wanted to work harder, which is pretty inspiring given that he’s at least twice my age. I remember flying with him on a plane back from Vancouver—I hopped a ride on his private jet in order to get back in time to start working on “The O.C.” again—and we hit turbulence. That was the one time when I realized that he was just human and he freaks out about the same things we all freak out about. We were jumping up and down and I realized that he was just a human being who was worried he might die. He was kind of freaking out.

BB: Was it a relief to wrap “The O.C.” after four seasons? I mean, you were poised to become our generation’s Luke Perry.

BM: Yes, although I see myself as more of an Ian Ziering than a Luke Perry—but let’s not quibble over our “Beverly Hills, 90210” references. With 88 Minutes, it’s a relief to play someone who’s not monosyllabic. It was nice to be a little more verbose, a little more talkative. But yeah, you do worry that you’re going to be stuck playing the same brooding-guy-with-a-heart-of-gold forever.

BB: So many people are really interested in the lives of serial killers like John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dahmer. Do you have any morbid fascinations?

BM: I’m from Austin, so I’ve always been weirdly interested in the guy who did the UT tower killings in the ‘60s. He went on top of the tower with an automatic rifle and killed a dozen people or more. [Charles Whitman killed 16 people at the University of Texas at Austin in 1966.] I always thought he was kind of interesting.

BB: It’s ironic that interest in tragedy becomes somehow more acceptable as the body count rises. It’s as if death becomes unfathomable.

BM: Well, there hasn’t yet been a Lifetime movie of the week about the Virginia Tech killings because it’s too soon. We get our fix of the facts from “Dateline,” anyway. After a certain point, there’s something really sick about paying too much attention to [the shooter, Seung-Hui Cho]. I’d prefer to focus on the people who were killed instead of glorifying the murderer’s existence. But you’re right—if it’s a single murder perpetrated against a single person, it’s just a crime, but if multiple people are affected, it becomes a sensation, a miniseries. 

BB: Let’s change gears. How much do you hate the Hollywood scene?

BM: It’s a bit redundant. It also gets a bit claustrophobic when you’re partying all the time. But, you know, people have a lot of money out here and they like to spend it, and so they throw these lavish, over-the-top parties.

BB: Your co-stars on “The O.C.,” especially Mischa Barton, seem to have been sucked in by the glitz. How does that happen?

BM: I think it’s a personality thing. I have days and weeks where I like to go out and do the stupid stuff that people who aren’t yet thirty do. But, I don’t know. It’s for some people and it’s not for others. And it’s not for me.

Al Pacino and Ben McKenzie in 88 Minutes.

BB: You’re a welcome anomaly as a young actor who isn’t smeared across the tabloids.

BM: I try man, I really try. They just won’t run my pictures!

BB: Maybe you should stop wearing underwear.

BM: Here’s a secret: I have never worn underwear, ever, in my entire life.

BB: Do you keep in touch with any of your co-stars from the show?

BM: Adam Brody and I are still close. We see each other a lot, probably too much. I just got a dog, and he’s got a dog, so we do a little walking. They’re both pitbulls. I’ve seen Peter Gallagher maybe once or twice since the show wrapped. To be honest with you, life goes on and there’s no reason to get together unless you’ve formed some sort of deeper friendship.

BB: You’ve often said that you would rather work on less stylized projects, films that don’t rely so heavily on Hollywood magic. So why follow-up “The O.C.” with 88 Minutes?

BM: In terms of what I would actually watch on my own time, yeah, I prefer stuff like Junebug. That being said, actors have a lot less control over what we do than people might imagine. The reason I did 88 Minutes was to work with Al. All my scenes are with Al. They said, “You want to do a part opposite Al Pacino?” and I was like, Fuck, yeah, I do! Even if it’s not the kind of movie that I’m going to go see at the Cineplex, it was an experience.

BB: Speaking of experiences, you went to high school with the Bush twins.

BM: I did, I did. But they were at least three years younger than me. They were freshmen or sophomores when I was as senior. To be honest with you, I was too cool for them. I was like, “I’m not going to hang out with these people.” But they sounded like they would have been fun to know at that time. I missed out, apparently.

BB: You’ve been vocal with your support for Barack Obama. 

BM: I went to Texas for the primary caucus on a college tour with Kerry Washington. We spent three days going to various schools in central and south Texas, trying to get students to vote for him. I really believe in Barack. I think he could be a transformative figure, not only for our country, but also for the world.

BB: What holds up as being your most career-defining moment to date?

BM: I have a subscription to The New Yorker and they reviewed “The O.C.” when it first came out in 2003. They did one of those drawings, you know, one of their cartoon things, with Adam and me. That was pretty surreal. My dad bought the original.

BB: Was the caption something that nobody could possibly understand?

BM: [Laughs.] No, there were no obscure references to 17th-century poetry.

BB: Have you since been plagued by offers to play characters that are conspicuously similar to Ryan Atwood?

BM: Definitely. But I’ve done that; I know how to do that. And I’m not, you know, dying for money. Some people feel like, Yeah, why not? Strike while the iron is hot and keep doing the same thing over and over again. But I’d rather fail in the right way than succeed doing something that makes me miserable.