
Ben Mendelsohn interview
Australians & Hollywood: Ben Mendelsohn interview
This is a transcript of an excerpt from a 2018 interview with actor Ben Mendelsohn on the Aussies in Hollywood podcast, hosted by Jenny Cooney. Courtesy Jenny Cooney.
Audio of Ben Mendelsohn, giving a speech at a G'day USA event in Hollywood:
Now, there are many Australians over the decades that provided me with bed, board, a car. If you didn't charge me rent, there's a good chance you're in this list: Simon Baker, Rebecca Rigg, Dominic Purcell, Rebecca Williamson, Andrew Dominik, Robin Tunney, Peter Wilson, Heath Ledger; Naomi Watts is not in that list but she's a big inspiration, and so is Nicole Kidman.
Speaker 1 (Interviewer Jenny Cooney):
Was it really a matter of couch surfing for a long time?
Speaker 2 (Ben Mendelsohn):
Look, absolutely, for a really long time. There's no way I would have – I just didn't have the wherewithal to be paying for places and this and that. And also I didn't want to be sitting around here with nothing going on in a house, alone. That was just a nightmare scenario. So I was very fortunate that there was a group of people in the time that I had come up and come through, that did have good working lives here.
And Rebecca and Simon, that's Rebecca Rigg and Simon Baker, were a real linchpin of the Australians of my age in LA. They had this place, and it was a good scene. There were good people around, and they're really good people, and she's a fantastic person.
Interviewer:
I think it's ironic that Nicole had the guesthouse in the beginning, and people like Simon and Rebecca stayed with her, and then they passed it along.
Ben Mendelsohn:
Yes.
Interviewer:
And Heath was famous for doing that too.
Ben Mendelsohn:
Yes, absolutely. And Heath’s place, and that was much, much later, but Heath’s place, that was the most fun I'd ever had being a guest in a house.
Interviewer:
Really?
Ben Mendelsohn:
Heath wasn’t around. He was working somewhere, but there were a bunch of guys in that place. And that place was – that was a lot of fun, that time. That was a very, very good time.
Interviewer:
So did you ever get to that point where – because there's only so much rejection you can take...
Ben Mendelsohn:
Well, it just became the idea of, well, this is stupid, and you give it X amount of terms, and then you go, well, this isn't happening, and so I'm going to have to think about what else I do with my life. So, yes, that happened.
Interviewer:
When did that happen?
Ben Mendelsohn:
That happened a few times. But I guess it was around about 2007, just pulling a rough-enough sounding date. By about that time – 2007, 2008 – it was pretty obvious that nothing was happening. My 30s were ending, and I was going to have to think about what I was going to do with the rest of my life. Now, I knew I could go back, and I could work at home, but I didn't know that – I thought, I don't really – I'm not sure that that's what I want to do. So I had a time limit on it, and then that time limit ran out. And then I thought, what am I going to do?
And as is the nature of these things, you get a job or something happens, and you tick along for another 6 months or so, and that happened. And then I got a tonne of work at home, and that was around about – I don’t know, 2008, 2009. And the last job of that, I think I did 5 or 6 things in a row, and the last one of those was Animal Kingdom.
Audio excerpt from Animal Kingdom (David Michôd, Australia, 2010):
Detective Senior Sgt Nathan Leckie (Guy Pearce): G'day Josh, I've got some bad news, mate.
Andrew 'Pope' Cody (Ben Mendelsohn): He knows the bad news.
Leckie: Josh, I'd like you to come down to St Kilda Road with me, if that's OK.
Cody: Hey, what's he done? Tell me, I'll make sure he gets disciplined.
Leckie: You come with me, Josh?
Cody: What do you want to talk to him about? Talk to me about it.
Leckie: We'll speak to you again at a later time, when we're ready.
Cody: I might have some information for you about those two murdered police.
Ben Mendelsohn:
And when that finished, I turned 40. The day after that finished.
Interviewer:
And did you know immediately while you guys were working on that –
Ben Mendelsohn:
Absolutely not.
Interviewer:
– that it had the potential?
Ben Mendelsohn:
No, absolutely not. I knew that I didn't know as well. I'd stopped watching myself many years before, so –
Interviewer:
Have you seen it –
Ben Mendelsohn:
– it’s still my attitude.
Interviewer:
– since?
Ben Mendelsohn:
No. No, I’ve never seen it.
Interviewer:
You’ve never seen Animal Kingdom? Wow. Have you seen any of your films?
Ben Mendelsohn:
Yes, I’ve seen a couple of them.
Interviewer:
Let me guess, Star Wars?
Ben Mendelsohn:
Yes, I've seen Star Wars. I've seen Star Wars.
Interviewer:
You had to see yourself with Darth Vader didn't you?
Audio excerpt from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Gareth Edwards, USA, 2016):
Darth Vader (voiced by James Earl Jones): Director Krennic.
Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn): Lord Vader.
Vader: You seem unsettled.
Krennic: No, just pressed for time. There's a great many things to attend to.
Vader: My apologies, you do have a great many things to explain.
Krennic: I delivered the weapon the Emperor requested. I deserve an audience to make sure he understands its remarkable – potential.
Ben Mendelsohn:
We got taken to Skywalker Ranch. We all got flown up there to see it before it opened.
Interviewer:
Well, that's like, that movie, I'm imagining, was one of those pinch-me moments for you, I would imagine, being in that world.
Ben Mendelsohn:
Yes. Look, that was – I say this a bit, and I'm bored of myself saying it, but –
Interviewer:
They’re clean, I swear.
Ben Mendelsohn:
– I would say that if I could have told the younger me, don't worry about it. One day, you'll be in Star Wars, I would have saved myself a lot of drama, and a lot of worry.