Ben McKenzie opens window on his world, ‘Southland’

By Kelley L. Carter, USA TODAY
LOS ANGELES — Ben McKenzie says he doesn’t lead an exciting life.

“I’d be the most boring Twitter-er,” he says with a laugh over breakfast. “I’d be like: ‘At home. Again. Walking my dog. Again.’ ”

The biggest thrill in McKenzie’s life? His new series, Southland, which premieres tonight (10 ET/PT). The NBC midseason replacement is a far cry from The OC, in which McKenzie played Ryan Atwood, a troubled teen in Orange County, Calif., who was given a second chance.

REVIEW: ‘Southland,’ ‘Unusuals’ don’t make the grade

In this new role, he’s Los Angeles Police Department rookie cop Ben Sherman, who goes head-to-head with a by-the-books boss. It’s a different twist on the procedural cop show, because there’s not a crime being solved every week. It’s a raw and uncensored look inside the police unit, but the series also shows the home life of the police, the criminals and the victims.
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“I always felt like I was a little out of place on The OC because I was a little bit older and I’d been to college,” says McKenzie, 30, who graduated from the University of Virginia. “Yet, I was doing this show that I was very grateful for and had a great time making, but it didn’t come naturally.

“The thing that’s strange about doing Southland is how bizarrely comfortable it is. I can finally breathe and relax. I’m not so much playing myself, but in a way this character is much closer to myself.”

And stylistically, McKenzie liked that the show’s creators wanted to try something new. The series has a reality-show quality, in the same vein of Cops.

“It doesn’t do any good to try to look backward and duplicate what’s been done before on television. You have to count that people’s tastes have changed, their attention spans have shortened. And you really need to provide them with the immediacy of watching a scripted show that looks more like a real live series of events,” he says.

“Hopefully we can get both the emotional payout of the drama with the authenticity of a cop show.”

McKenzie is single, and taking his time: “It’s more of a concern for my parents. I’m like, ‘First of all, you don’t really want to have a grandkid by me right now. There’s a few steps in that process. You want me to have the girlfriend first, right? Then the wife? Then the kids?’ ” He says he hopes the OC faithfuls follow him to his new series.

“What I really like about the character I’m playing now is that he’s ambitious. He’s a very focused guy who expects a lot out of himself,” McKenzie says, polishing off his breakfast salad. “He’s going to take it and succeed or he’s going to die trying. And I sympathize with that point of view.”
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