SYDNEY — I’m afraid Dr. Vicki Belo will fall in love all over again if and when she comes face-to-face with Benjamin Walker. The guy looks strikingly like Liam Neeson and Australian actor Eric Bana, and somebody who was once part and parcel of Dr. Vicki’s love life. Yes, Hayden Kho.
You may be wondering: Just who is Benjamin Walker? Well, the name may not ring a thousand bells yet among some local fans but out there, it’s a name to be reckoned with. A graduate from the Julliard Actor Training Program in 2004, the towering (six-foot-plus) actor appeared in Flags Of Our Fathers, directed by Clint Eastwood for DreamWorks SKG, and Kinsey, directed by Bill Condon for Fox Searchlight Pictures. Perhaps his biggest claim to fame so far was playing the title role in the musical Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson which was first staged in L.A. and then on Broadway.
And now, here Benjamin is, playing another great American president in 20th Century Fox’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (distributed by Warner Bros., showing nationwide starting on Wednesday, July 4), produced by visionary filmmakers Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov (director of Wanted) based on the novel by Seth Grahame-Smith who has cleverly and brilliantly interwoven Lincoln’s real-life experiences into a setting of vampires (actually symbolic of the evils that prowled the land during Lincoln’s time).
Said Burton (whose latest directorial job is the Johnny Depp starrer Dark Shadows), on why he tapped Walker for the Lincoln role, “Ben brings humanity and a mischievous quality, which felt very real, to the role,” with producer Jim Lemley adding, “Ben captures Lincoln’s honesty, integrity, courage and sense of purpose.”
As a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) during a Hollywood press junket, invited journalists screened the movie prior to the interviews, but this time not the whole movie but only generous portions of it. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter has that distinct Tim Burton touch that makes you squirm in your seat and, in a 3D film like this, makes you dodge a bit when blood spurts like fountain from a head Lincoln the Vampire Hunter has just chopped off with his famous ax.
Here’s my interview with The Vampire:
You look like a young version of Liam Neeson.
“Really? I take that as a high compliment. He’s a handsome man.”
You did a very good performance in Kinsey.
“Thank you.” (Adding in jest) “I think they needed a really tall handsome guy and I was the cheapest one they could find.”
Were there vampires in your childhood?
“Not that I know of. But who knows, I might have dated a few, but…”
Oh, did they bite?
“Yes, they did…emotionally!”
Has your heart been broken by a vampire?
“Oh, sure, it has been. Yeah!”
What was your childhood like?
“I grew up in a small town in Georgia where my father had a movie-rental store back in the ‘80s when there was no blockbuster video. That’s how I learned to watch movies, and to study movies and actors that I liked. Then I went to boarding school.”
What kind of movies did you grow up on and who were the actors that you looked up to?
“I was really fascinated with all the film stars like Humphrey Bogart, the old ones. We had a house rule that we could watch any movie that we wanted on weeknights, all in black and white. I just loved Gary Cooper, Humphrey Bogart and Jimmy Stewart. These were people that I thought were willing to be actors and to be stars. Nowadays, we have some people who are stars but have no business being actors. The actors of yesteryear were attentive to details because they really valued their craft, so they made things believable and made you love them.”
Name one movie that you found memorable when you were a kid.
“One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. I was eight years old when I watched it.”
What was your reaction when you were offered the role of Abraham Lincoln?
“Awesome! Simply awesome!!!”
How much did you know about him before, during and after doing the movie?
“Hmmmm, I think a lot of Americans know Lincoln as a hero, we know that he ended slavery. But the more we learn that is substantial because it’s very important in portraying the man to be respectful and to know exactly what we’re talking about. I think what’s fascinating about Lincoln as a superhero is that he was an ordinary man who did extraordinary things, that he came from nothing and made himself one of the greatest men who ever lived.”
How did you prepare for the job? It’s so daunting, you know.
“We did a lot of research. I read books about him, about his politics and about his days in the White House. One very good book about Lincoln is Lincoln’s Melancholy which is about how he dealt with death and misery. It really gets you inside Lincoln. I look at Lincoln as somebody who’s like Peter Parker (the lead character in Spider-Man).”
What do you mean by “with nothing?”
“As I said, you know, he’s got no advantages in life, he’s got no money, he’s got no girlfriend, he’s ordinary in every way except when extraordinary moments crystallized in his life and that’s when he became extraordinary. You know, as Spider-Man says, ‘With great power comes great responsibility.’”
Wasn’t it challenging, or even scary, playing a great man like Lincoln?
“Oh, it is. You see, what’s dangerous about playing an icon is not allowing the character to be human. You must allow the character to be vulnerable or even silly. Luckily, Tim and Timur were open to making Lincoln a flawed, funny and conflicted man.”
You are so “presidentiable.” You played the title role in the musical Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson. And now, this. How was it playing Andrew Jackson compared to playing Abraham Lincoln?
“It was really fantastic playing the two presidents. I got to learn so much about American history and they were two of the significant men. It was such a learning experience. That’s what’s great about being an actor; from every part you play you get to learn something about a different way of living. In America, I think we have colorful, interesting leaders and two of them are Lincoln and Jackson.”
In school, we were made to memorize Lincoln’s The Gettysburg Address — you know, Four scores and seven years ago our forefathers brought forth in this continent a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal…Were you made to do the same?
“I didn’t actually…” (Adding deadpan) “I went to a public school and we barely learned anything. First time I saw Lincoln was on a five-dollar bill.” (Laughs)
Is there any other American president, living or dead, that you would like to also portray?
(Thinks awhile) “Hmmmm, I will have to think hard about that.”
(E-mail reactions at entphilstar@yahoo.com. You may also send your questions to askrickylo@gmail.com. For more updates, photos and videos visit www.philstar.com/funfare or follow me on www.twitter/therealrickylo.)