Exclusive Interview: Benjamin Hollingsworth Chats Virgin River Season 3

Benjamin Hollingsworth is a dynamic talent who has brought a diverse range of characters to life on the stage and screen. From playing an aspiring model trying to find his place in the world to a cocky doctor who will do anything to succeed, Benjamin’s endless credits include projects like The Joneses, The Beautiful Life: TBL, Code Black, Nancy Drew, and more.

Currently, he’s starring as everyone’s favorite resident bad boy, Dan Brady, in Netflix’s Virgin River.

Pop Culturalist had the pleasure of speaking with Benjamin about the ups and downs of this industry, Virgin River Season 3, and who shot Jack!

Career

PC: How did you discover your passion for acting and storytelling?
Benjamin: Oh my goodness. When I was really small, like four or five, I went to this festival. My parents brought me to a Busker Festival. There were a lot of busking acts from all over the place. There were comedians. There were jugglers. There were magicians. There was even a touring Shakespeare company. I remember sitting there watching King Lear having no idea what was going on. All that I knew was whatever was happening was really cool and engaging, better than any cartoon I’d ever seen with the sword fighting and the passion.

It all seemed very high stakes and I loved it. I remember my father was into acting. He didn’t pursue it as a career, but he still acted throughout my childhood and did regional theater. I saw him on stage and saw him as not my dad. I thought, “That’s a cool magic trick that he’s pulling off.” That started my obsession with storytelling, immersing myself into a character, and trying to be a team player. I love it to this day. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

PC: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your career?
Benjamin: That’s a great question. David Duchovny had a big influence on me early on. When I was first getting out of theater school, I studied for three years and hadn’t done any film or TV. It’s a totally different muscle. A lot of what works in theater doesn’t really translate to film and TV. Sometimes, although the story and the idea of breaking down a scene and making stronger character choices are the same, the tools and the way you express it are very, very different.

When I was twenty-three, I did a movie with Demi Moore, David Duchovny, and Amber Heard. David and Demi played my parents. Amber played my sister. The movie was called The Joneses. I was watching Californication at the time, and I was a huge fan of it. Secretly, I was watching episodes in my trailer in between takes with David and really idolizing him at the time. Some of David’s greatest work is in Californication.

He took me under his wing in a sense, because I was open with him about the fact that I had no idea what I was doing, although I had a strong passion for it. He almost gave me lessons. He’d be like, “Watch this, kid,” and he’d go out and do literally nothing. [laughs] He would do literally nothing in the scene. He said, “Did you see that?” I was like, “I’m not sure I did.” He’s like, “Exactly.” He’s like, “Sometimes all you got to do is get out of the way and let the words do the work.” That was a fascinating session, and I still work on it today because sometimes actors get in the way of the storytelling; they’re trying to make it too much about themselves and not identifying with that piece of the story. David Duchovny, to this day, still has had that impact. We keep in touch.

I have one other funny story on set. This was my first big Hollywood movie, so I was getting a little nervous in between takes or in the scene or whatnot. David had this little fart machine, and whenever things were getting a little too serious, you’d hear this fart. I can’t imagine the studio listening to our dailies. [laughs] They would have no idea that it was a fart machine. It really threw me off whatever I was thinking at the time and brought me to the moment. It was great. He also enjoyed it. Lionsgate must think I have some flatulent issues.

PC: That’s a great story. You’ve had a lot of success throughout your career. When you look back, is there a particular moment that stands out to you?
Benjamin: For the success that I’ve had, I’ll talk about the most difficult time I had. While doing The Joneses, I met Ashton Kutcher on set, who was married to Demi at the time. He had this new series that he was doing for the CW. It was basically based on his life as a model in New York, coming from a small town in Iowa and having no idea about the modeling industry or business. He lands in New York and has to navigate it alone. It sounded really cool. Mischa Barton was going to do it and it had a bunch of really talented people attached. I signed on to do it, and we shot it in New York.

I just came off doing this movie. I was still very young. I moved to Manhattan and got this beautiful apartment. Gossip Girl was happening at the time and they took us under their wing. We were living it up in New York with the Gossip Girl crew, with Ed [Westwick] and Chase [Crawford]. I literally thought nothing was going to touch me. We were on episode seven, and I was in my dressing room in Kaufman Studios—I had Charlie Chapman’s dressing room. Kaufman Studios is the oldest studio in all of North America. I remember on the wall, there were all these signatures from greats like Anthony Hopkins, Denzel Washington, Robert Redford. It was nuts.

I remember it was around Halloween and one of the ADs came into the dressing room. She knocked on the door. She was like, “Ben, we’re done. It’s time to go home.” I was like, “That’s weird. I only have three scenes left in the day.” She was crying. I’m like, “Why are you upset if we’re wrapping early? That’s not a bad thing.” She said, “No, we’re done. It’s over. We have thirty minutes to get out of here.” I’m like, “I don’t understand. We’re done for the day? Did they run out of tape?” She said, “No, we’re canceled.” I was like, “What does that mean?” I was so young. I didn’t know how the business worked. She said, “No, the CW canceled the show. We have thirty minutes to get out of the building.”

We brought out the garbage bags and all packed our stuff into them. We went to the closest drinking establishment and proceeded to drink ourselves into oblivion. I remember that day because on the taxi ride back to my place, I drove by the billboard that I’d seen every day on the way to work. The campaign was us naked. I had my hands over my crotch. The billboard was like sixty or seventy feet tall inside one of the buildings in Manhattan. They were literally taking it down as I was going back. I remember I had a shipment of furniture coming the next day. I woke up hungover and ding dong, all the furniture arrived at my house.

I was like, “No, send it back. I can’t afford it. I’ve lost my job.” So, to talk about success, that’s how quick the industry can be. It comes in waves. Entourage did a really good job showing it. One day, you’re on top of the world, the next day, it’s all gone. As much success as I’ve had on the outside, there have always been a lot of ups and down. You have to weather the storm. That’s was one of the pinnacles, followed up by one of the crashes in my career.

My good friend, Nina Dobrev, was on another CW show at the time, The Vampire Diaries. That went on for eight or nine seasons. It was fun to see where she went. It’s interesting to see all sides of this business.

Virgin River

PC: You’re currently one of the stars of Virgin River, and the series has been incredibly well received. What do you think is resonating most with audiences?
Benjamin: In the middle of this pandemic and during the golden age of TV, we’ve seen a lot of very dark dramas like The Handmaid’s Tale. It’s important we have shows like that, but it’s like, whoa, every episode you’re like, “Argh.” I think what’s resonating with audiences is the sense of community. There’s a sense of passion, love, understanding, and tragedy. The human condition is very much present. We’ve all been shut off from the outside world and in our own bubbles. This is a reminder of the community that we used to live in where we looked out for people and functioned on a cohesive level. That’s very comforting for people.

We’ve got some great actors on the show, we’ve got really good writers, and the beautiful surroundings in which we shoot also helps. Robyn Carr has tons of stories that are masterly weaved together by Sue Tenney, our showrunner.

PC: When you’re working on a project that’s being adapted from a popular book series, it creates the opportunity to really flesh out these characters. When you initially signed on for this project, did you have any idea that it would start off as a recurring role and then lead into a series regular? What were your expectations?
Benjamin: When I got the offer, it was for a recurring role. I had just finished Code Black at the time, which was a medical drama on CBS that ran for three years. It was very much a network show. I was unsure if I wanted to jump right back into TV or if I wanted to try doing some films. I thought, “Hey, a recurring contract. I think that might be the best way to go here. Let me keep my options open and see how it goes.”

When I got to work and started to see what the potential might be for Brady and what angles we could potentially take, Sue reached out and was like, “Hey, we’re back for Season 2. We’d love to have you.” I had some other things happening. I was like, “Well, I need to see Season 1.” She sent me the first season and it was great. I was like, “You know what? I’m all in. Let’s do it.” We talked about where we want to go with Brady and what the overall vision was for me. That made me excited. I was like, “Let’s do it.”

PC: Season 2 ends with a major cliffhanger and fans have quickly added Brady to their suspect list. I know you can’t say who shot Jack, but what was your reaction when you found out who was responsible for it?
Benjamin: I still don’t know.

PC: Oh.

Benjamin: I don’t think anyone knows who shot Jack yet. [wink] It’s one of those things that I get asked in the street all the time. People don’t want a photo with me; they just want to know who shot Jack. [laughs] I’m kidding. But, it is a very, very, very important question. In Season 3, that will be on everyone’s mind, and Brady is in the thick of it all. Will you find out by the end of Season 3? I can’t tell you.

PC: Great teaser. When you’re playing a character whose moral fabric is so different from your own, what challenges/freedoms does that bring to you as an actor?
Benjamin: I always say that whenever I play an antagonist or someone who’s on the fringe, it gives me the opportunity to not have to look out for: “Would my character do this? Am I going to lose the audience? Are they not going to like me? If I do this, will I lose people here?” That responsibility comes with some limitations of what you can and can’t do, whereas when you don’t have that, you just rely on instinct and impulse; you can make choices within the scene and in the moment, especially with a character like Brady. He’s edgy and very impulsive. You get this intense, unpredictability to him, and that’s great. I love playing that. It frees me up to do things that are unexpected and push the envelope.

PC: You’ve also teased that we’re going to get to see a different side of Brady this season. What can fans expect from Season 3?
Benjamin: Sue, our showrunner said, “There’s going to be a funeral, a hurricane, a new love interest, a fire, and something else.” I can tell you that Brady’s a part of one of those. I can also say that you’ll see a little more Brady, and he’ll be doing things that you’re not used to Brady doing. He’ll be doing things that he shouldn’t do, and he knows that, but he does them anyway.

PC: Final question for you. In addition to being an actor, you also started writing during the pandemic. How was your work behind the scenes influenced your on-camera acting?
Benjamin: Writing is a totally different muscle in the storytelling element. Usually, I’m coming in, and I’m going, “Here are the puzzle pieces. How do we all fit them together?” Writing is a blank canvas. It allows your imagination to wander and expand to the edges of where you think it can go. There’s no budget when you’re writing in your imagination. You don’t constrain yourself to, “How much would this cost?” That’s all for someone else to figure out—it’s pretty amazing.

That said, I’m not writing Avatar. [laughs] It’s a career piece that’s an adventure that has never really been done before. It’s about log drivers who used to essentially walk on logs to move those logs from where they cut them to the mill. It’s a dangerous job, as you can imagine.

How it relates to acting? It allows me to understand what the writer is putting on the page, what they think it could be. I’m servicing that. It makes you realize how important the words are and making sure we’re giving respect to the writers a bit more and how important their job is. When they’re at their best, it makes our jobs a lot easier.

To keep up with Benjamin, follow him on Twitter and Instagram. Binge-watch Season 3 of Virgin River today.

Photo Credit: Brad Everett Young