From: tvguide.com
Ben McKenzie has come a long way from The O.C., and this week’s Southland is one of his strongest. He spends much of the episode harassing the newly released con who raped his mother, risking his career as he oversteps his authority while making some fateful errors of judgment elsewhere on the beat. In the wrenching final scene, his mother reveals the assault wasn’t as black-and-white as it appeared when he was a child, and as he comes to grips with the reality, he loses his grip and weeps in anguished remorse. Well played.
American Way Magazine – Jan. 15, 2011 Issue
After an untimely cancellation, the critically acclaimed Southland got a new life on a new network. Star Ben McKenzie talks about the show’s best season yet and the upsides of playing a police officer on TV.
When NBC canceled Southland in 2009 to make room for its (short-lived) prime-time Jay Leno experiment, the backlash was immediate. But Ben McKenzie, who plays LAPD rookie Ben Sherman on the gritty cop drama that debuted its third season earlier this month, let his Halloween costume do the talking for him.
“I found a Jay Leno mask, which wasn’t a perfect likeness, but they got the chin right,” he says. “When people didn’t think I was Richard Nixon, they got the joke.”
Luckily, the Southland saga ended happily when it was picked up by TNT. “There was always tension between the show we wanted to make and the show NBC was comfortable airing,” says McKenzie, 32. “Being on cable really frees us up to go for broke.” While the show’s storylines are often harrowing, the mood behind the scenes is anything but. McKenzie even admits to filming one driving scene, when actors are only shown from the waist up, sans pants. “I didn’t plan it very well,” the former O.C. star remembers. “The boxers I was wearing were bright red, and I have pale, pale legs. It was pretty striking.”
Despite the on-set antics, the cast is serious about getting the details of police work right. They go through intense training and use members of the LAPD as extras, who are happy to speak up if something’s amiss. “Yeah, the feedback loop’s pretty tight,” McKenzie laughs. “They are not shy about it.”
But McKenzie says it’s been fun to hear from people who aren’t typically fans of his work — people like the security guards at the theater where he performed in The Glass Menagerie last fall. “I don’t think they’ve seen The Glass Menagerie — I don’t think they have all that much interest in it,” he jokes. “But they’re big fans of Southland.”
Though McKenzie describes his off-camera life as “pretty quiet” — he likes to read, watch college football and hike with his dog — he admits that his affiliation with the show could come in handy should he ever find himself on the wrong side of the law. “Thankfully, I haven’t needed it,” he says. “But I’ve certainly kept a lot of business cards should a situation arise. They’re my get-out-of-jail-free cards — literally.”
Source: americanwaymag.com
This adorable picture was posted by Michael Ausiello on his new site.
Playing an L.A. cop can weigh heavily on an actor, so what better way to lighten up the mood than by channeling Charlie’s Angels?
That is precisely what three stars of TNT’s Southland did during a break in shooting the episode airing this Tuesday night — and TVLine has this exclusive peek at stars Ben McKenzie, Michael Cudlitz and Regina King striking the pose made famous by Sabrina, Kelly and Jill. (We’re purists; no other angels ever existed. Apologies to Shelley Hack).
Now in its third season, TNT’s Southland airs Tuesdays at 10/9c
From USA Today:
Ben McKenzie had a year off between filming the second and third season of his ensemble police drama, Southland, which returns to TNT on Jan. 4 (10 p.m. ET/PT). But unlike during his breaks from The O.C., which brought him instant fame in 2003, this time there was little talk about his travels to Spain, Turkey and London.
“If that is true, and I pray that it is, then that’s the best news ever,” says McKenzie, 32. “I like it when (the paparazzi) look at you and are like, ‘He’s a little old. I don’t really even want to bother with who he is or isn’t dating.’ I think it’s fantastic.”
In fact, when McKenzie, who plays rookie Officer Ben Sherman on Southland, was hunting around for new projects, he specifically sought out a role and a series far removed from his old teen soap. Getting typecast, “that to me was terrifying. In a way, all of us off (The O.C.) benefited backhandedly from it not being (Beverly Hills) 90210 and lasting 10 years. We’d all have bigger houses and drive nicer cars, but how big a house do you need and how nice a car do you need?”
Yes, Southland is also set in Southern California — but in diverse Los Angeles, where things can be a lot grittier than in affluent Orange County. And with the show’s third season produced for the first time for cable ( although season 2 also aired on TNT, originally it had been made for NBC, until the network canceled it andTNT picked it up), the show will be able to take an edgier turn.
“L.A. is more ethnically and racially and socioeconomically diverse than it’s been portrayed on television,” says McKenzie about Southland’s more “realistic” view. “We’re trying to embrace L.A. for the chaotic environment it can be and use that to our advantage when we’re trying to find stories to tell.”
McKenzie thinks there are also differences between Southland and other cop shows, which typically “portray a very black-and-white, morally unambiguous world: There are good guys who are the cops and there are bad guys who are the people perpetrating the crimes.” On his show, on the other hand, “the cops are seeing a lot of bad things. The cops are good people, but they have their faults. A lot of crimes are not solved.” The world of Southland “is more ambiguous than that standard cop show.”
As Officer Sherman’s confidence as a cop evolves, McKenzie’s confidence as an actor is also growing. “I don’t feel I ever was given the opportunity to do what I believe I’m capable of doing on The O.C.,” he says. “This is a different thing.”
Other recent interview:
WSJ Blog – Ben McKenzie on Southland’s New Season
Atlanta Magazine Blog – McKenzie still running as third season of “Southland” debuts tonight on TNT
Two Cents And Five Questions With Ben McKenzies
Digital Spy – ‘Southland’ star confirms budget cuts
Starry Constellation Mag: Ben Mckenzie and Regina King Interview
Digital Spy – ‘Southland’ star ‘enjoys action scenes’
TVSquad: Michael Cudlitz & Ben McKenzie Talk ‘Southland’ Season 3
From Variety
The heart of the show remains the team of L.A. cops played by Michael Cudlitz and Ben McKenzie, which I’ve previously compared to “The New Centurions,” the Joseph Wambaugh adaptation that featured George C. Scott as a gnarled veteran teaching the ropes to a young Stacy Keach. This season, Cudlitz’s character continues to wrestle with back pain and a pill addiction, while McKenzie’s rookie is becoming more assured — and finding new extracurricular activities, including what amounts to an LAPD groupie.
Throughout, there’s a simple thread to the show — namely, that the nature of the job requires cops suffer and sacrifice, and the best of them can’t shed their humanity despite seeing things that will invariably test it.
Produced by John Wells, “Southland” might not have ever been a major hit for NBC (indeed, the numbers were borderline by TNT’s standards), but given its quality, cutting this series loose after just six episodes reflects some of the collateral damage of the Leno experiment. And with “Men of a Certain Age” currently playing as well, the Turner network — known mostly for meat-and-potatoes dramas — has clearly classed up its game. More here
From The Wall Street Journal
The exceptional writing and pitch-perfect acting of “Southland” is not to be missed. Each week the characters see the worst in humanity and struggle not to be subsumed by it, not to surrender to cynicism—even if that means anesthetizing oneself with prescription drugs or alcohol. More here
From The San Francisco Chronicle
The characterizations are carefully nuanced in “Southland,” and the performances are equal to the quality of writing. The TV landscape is awash with cop shows, but few come close to the quality of “Southland.” Its fans should be grateful that it’s found a home, at last, on TNT. More here
From TV Guide
I’d be content if Southland consisted of nothing but Cooper and Sherman on patrol. Their testy partnership, complicated by issues of class (Sherman is from a rich family) and sexuality (Cooper is quietly gay), is fascinating to watch, and there’s palpable tension in their daily grind, even at its most routine. In the opening hour, they go from the depths of banality (a belligerent woman returning a doll, a flirtation traffic stop) to the chaotic danger of crossfire in the aftermath of a police shooting. You never know what the next call will bring, and the immediacy is riveting. More here
From Entertainment Weekly
Southland has blossomed into a procedural with the soul of a serial drama. Every crime — murder, bank robbery, changing lanes without signaling — is a mini-masterpiece of L.A. noir. But the real draw is the cast, especially Michael Cudlitz, whose John Cooper is a magnetic portrait of nobility spiraling into decay. A-.
From The Boston Herald
“Southland’s” cast remains one of its best selling points. King radiates compassion and fearlessness. Playing a cop coming into his own, McKenzie continues to make interesting choices, practically withdrawing into himself to shield himself from the horrors on the streets.
Prematurely canned by NBC and saved by TNT, “Southland” is gassed and ready to break some ground. More here
Read a lot more reviews of the third season of Southland HERE
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Southland (2009-2010)
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