Hainsley Lloyd Bennett - Bazza on Pennyworth!

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett – Interview

 

[00:00:00] Jeff: And there’s a spoiler country today on the show. We had the fantastic Mr. Hensley, Lloyd Bennett. How’s it going, Mr. Bennett?

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: I’m doing very well, sir. How are you?

Jeff: I’m doing very well. Well, I must say I’m really enjoying watching.

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: Great, great to hear. I’m glad you

Jeff: liking it. And if I heard correctly, I read that it was Lena Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance in the boys’ life.

This boy’s life that inspired you to become an actor. Is that true? That

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: is absolutely 100% correct? Yes. So what

Jeff: was it about the performance that made you want to become an actor after watching it?

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: I mean, I think for most people in order to Caprio is if not your favorite actor, he’s definitely in your top three.

He’s just mesmerizing. He’s amazing. But I think that was one of the first films I saw when I was younger and I didn’t even know I wanted to be an actor at the time, but I just found myself. Reenacting and emulating scenes from that film, without even realizing it, I obviously struck a huge cord with me [00:01:00] and.

Th the depth and nuance of his performance just hit me. And it still stuck with me to this day. He’s one of my favorite actors. And I think it was, that was, that was a few jumping off points, but that was definitely my earliest memory of knowing I want to perform. Not necessarily, I want it to be an actor, but I know I want it to be in front of a camera.

Jeff: Well, I definitely would say Leno to Capra is one of those actors that I didn’t appreciate, I think, early on in his career, but the more movies I saw with them, the more I appreciated what he brought to movies. Yeah. You know, like I think me, if you can, was a fantastic inception, what’s eating Gilbert grape.

They’re all great movies. I think around Titanic is where I first kind of blew him off as an actor. But then I walked, had watch and I was like, you know what? This guy is phenomenal.

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: Yeah, he is. And he’s just, he’s so detailed in his work. He’s had such an extensive long career with working with the biggest directors in the most varied [00:02:00] roles.

And not, not for a moment in any of his films or any of his performances. Have I ever doubted his ability as an actor, which is very rare, even the really good actors that might be a moment in a film or a scene where you’re like, Hmm. Okay. That didn’t quite land to me, but there hasn’t been one bomb note from him.

He’s yeah. He’s incredible. So

Jeff: does that make you want to take as diverse of roles as humanly possible over the course of your career?

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: Yeah, I mean, I think one of the skills as an actor is you, you want to grow and you want to challenge yourself. But I think you also need to know sometimes what you can’t do as well, but I guess you only learn that by experimenting and going outside of your comfort zone, I would never want to be pigeonholed.

Cause I think I bought myself, you know, I wouldn’t want to, you know, so after pennyworth I. Ideally, I wouldn’t want to play somebody who is, who has similar [00:03:00] characteristics to basil. I’d want to be somebody who maybe was a bit more energetic or frenetic, or had a darker personality, something.

Completely different or at least a shift, different to keep myself entertained and to stop the industry from trying to put me in a very small box. I

Jeff: agree with you a hundred percent. I am I’m I’m a high school teacher for my day job. I always tell my students it’s okay to fail that when the most important things you can do is be wrong and fail because that is the lesson in itself.

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: Yeah.

Jeff: And while you’re because of your influence comes from Leonardo DiCaprio, when you’re acting, do you think to yourself, there could be someone watching me and being inspired to act because of what they’re seeing me. Do

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: you know what I, I didn’t, I hadn’t thought of that before, but as I’ve mainly from doing the show, I’ve had people message me and say, That they felt [00:04:00] inspired to want to be an actor or something I’ve done in the show has inspired them.

And I’ve had some other friends who have sort of seen my journey as an actor, say that my. My performance of my journey as an actor has inspired them. And I hadn’t thought about it consciously, but I think there’s something quite powerful about just being and doing. And you often inspire people unintentionally.

It’s never my intention to inspire people, but I guess by being. Your genuine, authentic self that might just inherently inspire people. So, yeah.

Jeff: Yeah. I mean, I think that that’s fantastic. I don’t think as an individual and I think a little bit about inspiration as a teacher, I don’t think you can force inspiration, but you can be the model for it.

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: Yes, I can. Yeah, I completely agree. I think if you have you know, people C a N energy from people, people respond to different frequencies and whether or not you’re intentionally trying to inspire people. If you do something [00:05:00] that resonates with people. They just inherently will become inspired by it.

So I never, I never intend to do things to inspire, but it’s always received gratefully if somebody is inspired by me.

Jeff: Yeah. And, and because you are an acting, you do have a successful actor. You have that responsibility, I guess you can’t have a bad day. You know what I’m saying? Like far as your performance, we can phone it in one day.

Cause someone may be the one performance someone sees and goes, you know, that made the difference to me. Whether or not they wanted to be an actor or they want it to be, I don’t know, whatever.

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: Yeah. I mean, if you love it, if you love what you do. You are really particular and protective of the work.

Obviously you try and be as experimental and you trust your collaborators, but you know, if you love what you do, you want it to always be the best that it can be anyway. And there’s a weird level of, you know, different actors handle it differently. There’s a weird level of perfectionism. That’s some people have some actors feel like they never got it.

Right. You know, their whole career, like Johnny Depp, for [00:06:00] example, he doesn’t watch any of his own movies because he just doesn’t want to see it. He does the work and he lets it go. Some people will go back and watch what they’ve done and they’ll pour over their performance. I don’t know if there’s actually a right or wrong way to go about it, but.

As long as for me, as long as I feel like I’ve given it, my all and I trust the collaborator that I’m working with and they believe I’ve done the best version of what they want, then I’m satisfied. So, so where do you

Jeff: land on that spectrum of being able to either let the work speak or kind of, or pour over what you’ve done and kind of, I won’t say pick it apart, but definitely analyze

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: it.

Oh, I mean, not. That’s an interesting one. Funnily enough, all the stuff I’ve done, that’s been on screen. Because the weld has been built and I feel like I felt sort of distance from the character that I’m playing. I can be quite impartial about it. I look at it [00:07:00] not just as my performance, but as a narrative as a whole.

So I’m, I’m quite good. I can be quite objective about my performance. And that so far, I haven’t disappointed myself very early on in my career and stuff like short films and stuff. When you’re still sort of get into grips with who you are as an actor and the craft of it. And you do look back and you go, Oh, I could have done that a bit better, but I am.

I’m quite solid. Now I feel quite good about my performance and I think your barometer gets better. The more you act the longer you’ve been acting, the more you sort of have an internal barometer about whether or not you feel you hit that Mark. And usually I’m in sync with whichever director I’m working with.

And we both kind of know I got it. So I’m think I’m quite a happy medium. Yeah.

Jeff: And I’m sure that pays good, great dividends for you as an actor. I do wonder if those who do not feel comfortable watching themselves work or missing a lesson there by actually doing that, I will say as someone who does these [00:08:00] podcasts, I will say I’m hesitant to listen to my own.

Shows I listened to the other interviewer shows, but I haven’t, hasn’t listened to my phone.

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: Yeah. I mean, it’s a weird one because you don’t want to get into, you don’t want to become a narcissist. It’s a really unusual balancing act as an actor where you have to be almost obsessive and a detective about what you do, but also impartial enough that you can see yourself neutrally and it’s, that is a.

Not nearly impossible, but a really, really difficult thing to be able to do. You have to look at your own face pretending to be somebody else. And judge, whether you did that balancing act correctly. And even with stuff like self-tapes, actors will pour over a self-tape for something. And the problem is if you watch it too many times, it could have been fine.

The first two times you watch it. But then the good stuff has sort of disappeared because you’ve got an over it and then you [00:09:00] start to create problems that were never there. So you’ve got to be really careful.

Jeff: Yeah. I would say that as an act. I do wonder if there’s a danger of sometimes getting too much into your own head when you’re doing something.

I think of like athletes when they talk about. When they get into slums, often it becomes something that becomes self-propelling when they get into their heads too much. Or it was also supposedly I think I just feel, or they call it the yips. When you get into your own head, when you’re fielding and you can’t throw the can’t throw the ball anymore.

Is that ever an issue as an actor getting too far into your own head doing a performance?

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: Well, it can be. It’s kind of like again, it’s that balancing act cause I sort of liken it to floating in water. So if you’re two tents. You’ll, you know, you’ll sink. If you’re too frantic, you won’t, you know, you won’t get that.

You gotta be able to float properly. So you have to find this really unusual balancing act as an actor where you’re sort of just bury yourself in that moment between action and cup. You just block everything out and just [00:10:00] focus all of your senses and your energy on what is happening in this moment.

Some actors actually are just really technical and they can be doing a scene and saying the words and thinking about what they’re going to have for dinner. I mean, good luck to that. And if they can do that I guess sometimes if you’ve done enough takes depending on what type of scene you’re doing, you can do that.

But. Yeah, you have to have technical ability and, you know, emotional ability and balanced the two. That’s not something that I don’t stray off that far, but yeah. I like to be in the moment. I think that’s the best way to go about it.

Jeff: So, and it also sounds like you’ve had quite a very experienced that is helping you as an actor.

I read also that for a little while you were considering being a comedian. Yeah. This is true. Standup comedian.

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: Yeah. I mean, I loved it. It’s all part of loving a creative performative process. So when I was growing up, I was quite a quiet child, but I realized [00:11:00] that when I did decide to speak, people listened and they laughed.

And so just that element opened up to make people laugh, really interested me and all the elements that came around that. And at the time, you know, you had people like, you know Eddie Murphy was a huge influence at the time. And in the UK, there was like Lenny Henry. And it was lots of sketch shows and stuff like that.

And I just want it to be able to do anything that was performative, that was came fairly natural to me. Well, I had no idea how to become a comedian at the time. I was the only young. So I was like, how the hell would you become? You study comedy, you know, how’d you become a comedian. And then I was like, Oh man, I could be present because when you’re present, so you have to be charismatic and funny, but it’s a field you can sort of go into, but even that’s a bit tricky to go into.

And from then I was like, well, actually acting, you can actually study. And get to do all of the performative things that you like, which is how I ended up as an actor.

[00:12:00] Jeff: Did, did you ever go and get as far as attempting to perform up or you never made it to the court to that

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: level? No, I didn’t. I didn’t, I didn’t get to that level.

I ha I’ve thought about a lot. I’ve got a few friends who are up comics and. I, you know, I, I see them do a set or they send me videos of it. And I, I, I think about, and I’m like, I think I’m too far gone down that road of being a, not to, to be like, I’m gonna throw all that in and go back to square one as a standup.

So unfortunately, no, I didn’t get that far.

Jeff: And like I said, it’s fascinating. The more I was looking reading up on your, your history. And I was fascinated by it, cause I said, not only did you have the spirits as a stand-up, but when, but before you even attended the quest or theater school majored in English and psychology, which I thought was absolutely fascinating.

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: Yeah. I think that that came from my I’ve always been fascinated by people. So body language subliminal messaging psychology, the way the human mind works. [00:13:00] Tribalism, all these different things. So I was always fascinated by people and I love language. I used to read incessantly when I was a child, I was just obsessed with words.

I used to like read the dictionary. I was amazing at scrapple. Nobody could beat me. I just loved language. And so yeah, to me, those two things fit. Perfect. I want it to be as considered being a lawyer. Cause I loved arguing. I was really good at formulating arguments and rebuttals and counter-arguments and stuff like that.

But loving psychology and English. Those two things again helped me become an actor because I did my love of psychology allowed me to naturally look at character work and interpreting words in that detective style that you do as an actor and my understanding of language, loving English. I had a deep understanding of, you know, grammar and text and you know, what the writers were [00:14:00] trying to convey just by the way they would write a sentence.

I was really gonna looking at, I am just looking at a sentence of being like, well, they’ve got a comma there, which means that’s probably a change of thought and there’s a dot.dot. That means they’re pausing for thought and exclamation Mark care, which means it’s a statement, little things that. You didn’t love language necessarily.

You wouldn’t pick up those cues, but it just really helped me as an actor.

Jeff: So when you’re developing how you can perform a character using your psychology background, are you developing almost like a psychology, a psychological profile of the character you’re performing?

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: Yeah, it depends on how much information is in the script.

So for Pennywise, for example, there was a brief character synopsis, but. For the auditions that wasn’t that much to go off of. So you sort of get an essence of not necessarily a psychological profile, but an energy. Like a temperature for that person. So [00:15:00] everybody, you know, has an energy. Some people have a frantic energy, some people are really still and have a cool energy.

Some people are really like charismatic and warm, so I’ll just try and get a feel for their energy and like their rhythm. And everybody has a, a rhythm and a cadence to the way that they talk, depending on what class they’re from what accent they have. And you merge those two things together and you have a, you know, a sort of an immediate sense of the character.

And if the writing’s really good. Sometimes you just read how something’s written and it jumps, you just sort of get imbued with this person and a voice comes out to you and it just jumps off the page.

Jeff: Are you one of those actors that likes to be in dialogue with the writers on a staff like pennyworth

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: Oh with pennyworth because the character is.

From Barbados and I’m, my parents are from the Caribbean. So [00:16:00] there are certain things where anybody who is a native of that dialect would know that people wouldn’t, wouldn’t say. So unless somebody is right, you know, I’m not sure where, where are you from for example, Oh, I’m

Jeff: from Rhode Island in United States.

So

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: you would know that people in Rhode Island, that’s just slang words and terms that people from Rhode Island would, and wouldn’t say, and there’s certain inflections. And cadences of sentences that people from Rhode Island would, and wouldn’t say, and unless the writer was from there, they might get it 70, 80%.

Right. But as a native, you’d be able to look at that and go, no, someone from Rhode Island wouldn’t say that, or they wouldn’t say it like that. So with pennyworth because I had that knowledge, they allowed me to rephrase and re-sentence certain things. But if it’s not something I inherently know, as in, you know in terms of dialect, [00:17:00] if I, if they’re happy for me to have an input and me and the character are starting to merge as one, then yeah.

I’m happy to do that. But if they’re like, Nope, I’m the writer. You’re the actor. Just shut up and say the lines. Okay, cool. I can run with that as

Jeff: well. I would think that’d be the worst case scenario, having writers who would not interested in the input of the act, who I would think has not only an ownership of the character, probably almost a better insight because you spend most of your day in the head of that character.

Yeah,

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: I guess it depends because if you’re talking about a longstanding TV show, then you know, you probably have various writing staff. And you as the actor, you’ve sort of lived with that. I mean, I’ve been in it for a few seasons. You’ve lived with that character. So you have a bit more ownership over it as well.

Cause it’s a bit more collaborative if it’s a, a film though, or your work working with writers, like, I don’t [00:18:00] know the Cohen brothers, for example, who are really specific about. Every word, being saying, it being said, as it’s written, then you just gotta run with it because that’s the way that director and those writers that’s the way they piece together that puzzle.

Some people are more collaborative and some people are like, no, I’m, I’m building a mosaic. And I need you to, to say this piece precisely like David Fincher’s like that he is a perfectionist and he will get you to run tight. I’m not, not that I’ve worked with him, but I’ve, this is what the actors say.

He’ll get people to run takes 20, 30, 40 times and change tiny little ways about the way you say the word to build this perfect puzzle. So. So

Jeff: one of your earliest breakout roles was on kingdom of Evan, where you, if you play the, the primary character. Yeah. How did that show come about or your involvement in the show? [00:19:00]

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: I just auditioned for that. So there was like a, it was like an acting website that we have in the UK. It was called costing called pro and you can apply to acting jobs yourself. And so, yeah, I just applied to that and it was one of the first. Jobs that I got, that was a comedy cause I don’t really get to do comedy very often as an actor, even though I love comedy.

So every time somebody lets me audition for a comedy, I’m really excited about it. So yeah, I auditioned for that and I really got along with the, the writer and director of it and we had a mutual love for. That sort of you know, curb, your enthusiasm the office spinal tap, that sort of dry irreverent humor.

And we kicked and he hired me and yeah, that was it. I got that

Jeff: gig. So for, for the American audience audience who may not be as familiar with kingdom Bevin, it’s basically about Jesus Christ coming down to earth and Paz hanging [00:20:00] out at a an apartment fly that kind of like the dream

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: pretty much Jesus, well, some time away from heaven, he wants to live among the normal people.

And so yeah, he Looks to live in a flat, amongst normal people and craziness and sues. And it’s my house that he moves into. And I, I play Evan. So it’s a play on words, kingdom of heaven. Yeah.

Jeff: I mean, so I th the show is kind of, would be kind of an allegory for religion. I would suspect

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: I kind of, as an allegory on religion, our perception of religion and diabetes.

And how the whole thing, depending on your perspective could be real or could just be a tale of a normal man. Doing normal things that were rewritten in history to be more fantastical than, yeah.

Jeff: Is that what fascinated you about doing the show? Yeah,

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: I mean, playing with you know, religious [00:21:00] tropes and our idea of religion and sort of this fish out of water comedy Was really interesting to me and being able to be at the center of that with two, you know, two actors who were very talented and writers that were very talented, was just appealing to me.

And I just really jumped at the chance to do something that was different. That was a comedy because I just do so many dramas. Most of my work is dramatic. So I jumped at the chance to do something that was funny.

Jeff: W was there any risks that you felt in doing a show that kind of poking fun at Christianity and Jesus?

Because honestly that’s something that some people are very sensitive

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: about. Yeah. I mean, I guess the climate of the time, this was a kingdom of everyone was quite a while ago. So we weren’t really in that really sensitive era, like kind of we are now. And I think British people as well, usually take things in good faith.

If it’s a comedy, nobody usually gets too sensitive about it. So I wasn’t really [00:22:00] worried about it in that context. And it didn’t, it wasn’t denigrate in Religion. It took things that are in the Bible and sort of spanned them and commented on them as opposed to trying to be derogatory. So I think we were quite safe in that area because I’ll

Jeff: just imagine it would be like if the show did air in the United States, the reaction to it, that there would definitely be.

A good 40% of the country who would probably go

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: apeshit, why they should say, yeah, there’ll be half of the country who will be like, yeah, this is really fine. And other people will be like, you can’t say this about Jesus. You’re both right. To be fair to people who don’t like it, you are right. People who do like it, you are also correct.

You know, it’s, it’s completely subjective, but as long as. As long as it would be allowed to add, I’d be happy. And then you guys make your mind up about

Jeff: it. And, and, and, and I do think it is what would the show is discussing is probably something worth having a dialogue on if people were relaxing enough to

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: have it.

Okay. Yeah. I think that’s what it’s about. [00:23:00] Like, just having, being able to have dialogue, you know, and in having that dialogue, acknowledging that without any malice. Some people from no intention may get it wrong, quotation fingers wrong, but you have to risk offending somebody to be creative. You know, that that’s what S what being experimental and edgy is not.

Everybody’s going to like it. Some of the most interesting often things that have been created are devices for some people for that very reason.

Jeff: And it’s kind of fine to make this transition, but in some way maybe it was me, this is a bad comparison, but I’m going to say it anyway. Cause you know what though that making a show like pennyworth is on some level risky as well because the fan base is so tightly invested in the character of Alfred within the context of Batman.

Was there any view that that was. There was a risk, there’s a risk in [00:24:00] that show as well.

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: I’m not sure actually, because I think where pennyworth is concerned because these things are sort of treated as not, I’m not gonna say it’s an elsewhere story, but it’s not, it’s not firmly fixed in any particular Canon or timeline.

So if you don’t like it, it doesn’t have to be your outfit so to speak. Do you know what I mean? Cause it’s set in cost. It’s set. When he’s young, it’s taking cues from the continuity from Christopher Nolan’s Alfred. So he sounds like Michael Kane. He’s he’s SAS, but we are firmly saying that he grows up to be.

Michael Cain’s Alfred either. We’re just taking cues from him. So this could be just a complete elsewhere old story. Nobody’s saying that this is canonical.

Jeff: When are you, do you find though that the comic audience almost handles these characters? Like a religion on somebody?

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: Oh, completely. [00:25:00] Absolutely.

But I, I do get it. I completely understand why Because you feel so close to these characters, do you know what I mean? Yeah. So you, you grow up with them. You, you, you feel ownership over them and they are your heroes. You feel so strongly about them. And if somebody. Doesn’t depict the character, I guess, in the way that you deem that they should be, you can take it really personally.

I remember we’ll see any people been there, people still to this day are having discussions, arguments. Who’s the best Spider-Man is it Toby? Is it Andrew? You know, is it Tom I’ll? I didn’t like man of steel. I love man of steel, you know? I don’t like Henry Cavill, you know, I prefer Tyler  it’s like, I know, but that’s a good thing.

Now we can. We’re so spoiled for choice. We can have those discussions and it’s a great space to be in. I’d rather be, I’d rather be [00:26:00] flooded for choice and we agree and disagree than like we have not.

Jeff: I agree. A hundred percent. I do think at times it gets a little talk toxic with Blake. What’s going on with the Zack Snyder, Snyder verse arguments back and forth, which is all day long.

But I, I do think it’s both nice that there is that passion for these. Almost well, modern mythology, but at the same time, I do worry as well. Does it at times become unfortunately hostile for those involved?

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: It can do. Yeah, it can. But I think if we sort of take it that it’s born out of passion, you know, people wouldn’t be this reactive to it.

If they didn’t care. And I think even though sometimes the outcome can be toxic, actually it comes from a place of love because people didn’t give a damn, then that’d be liable. I don’t care if it’s crap. I don’t even like, you know, insert whatever franchise or brand is. So ultimately it comes from a place of love and [00:27:00] passion and we disagree.

And yeah, I mean, it is what it is. We, we. We were all winners in this because we, we, everybody gets a show at that most, even the most obscure characters are making it to the screen. So where we’ll winners at the end of the day?

Jeff: I agree. I will say there’s a lot of characters that have made to the big screen that my nine or 10 year old self who was buying comic books would never have believed in a million years would ever see on screen.

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: So he’s, he’s. It was a character that’s made it to the big screen or little screen that is most shocking to you.

Jeff: I, I will point point maybe ant man, I don’t think he has ever thought of Batman as being a feature character. The fact that it’s such a significant part of marble Zooniverse is fricking shock.

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: Yeah, that is actually, that is, yeah, you’re right. I never would have thought aunt mum would’ve made it, but then again, I could say the same thing about God is the galaxy and actually said the same thing about iron man is huge now, but any lover of comics knows that he’s like a BC level [00:28:00] tear character.

 

Jeff: You know, I agree with you a hundred percent on that. I, I will admit iron man seemed like a weird way to start a franchise, but then now that you see it, you’re like, how could it have started any other way?

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: And I think that’s all about the level of. Love and creativity, because if you understand a character or a franchise enough, I think as Marvel has proved, you can make anybody a household name.

You know, the industry thought, Oh, you’ve got to be one of the top tier superheroes for it to sell. You know, you’ve got to be a Spiderman or Batman or Superman or one of the main ones, but. As we’ve seen with, you know, all these Marvel films I’ve come out. Even if like she’s Shazam, most people don’t know who she is.

I’m his average person doesn’t know who she is, but if you understand the character and you deliver it with love, it can connect with audiences. And that’s the great thing about it.

Jeff: I agree with you a hundred percent. I mean, I don’t think I ever would have thought that Aquaman would be [00:29:00] billion dollar blockbuster.

I mean, I mean, I love the character ACO man from back in the day, but I never thought that that would translate to a successful movie.

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: I mean, he’s an example of updating a character successfully. Nobody thought acronym was cool. Nobody, nobody, nobody, you know, maybe with some of the new 52 stuff, but nobody would have picked out Aqua man as their favorite superhero.

Yup. And then updating his, you know, who he is, what you let Snyder making in Polynesia and give him them these tattoos. And but give making Jason Mamoa that character and that look, and I was just like, wow. Okay. You’ve made Aqua man. Cool. And I, I, I’m a huge iCommand fan. I think the film. Was a lot of fun.

Jeff: I really do too. I mean, either the perfect film. No, but it’s like you said, it’s like shit, ton of fun. I mean, it hits, it hits all the right [00:30:00] notes. Mamoa who I was initially. I was concerned with him as he was alchemy. Cause I didn’t. I wasn’t accustomed seeing him in the role, but then once you see it, you’re like, yeah, this works.

This is an undocumented didn’t know I wanted, but I want not that I know

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: he’s there. Exactly. And that’s the power of, you know, creative teams coming together and forging something. That’s interesting. And now I can’t imagine Ackerman being, or looking any different way. Yeah,

Jeff: I agree. I mean, I can’t wait to see what our command to eventually but I mean, it sounds like you’re actually a con a big fan of comic books.

Is that correct?

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: You are spot on loved comic books since I was, I don’t know, really young five, six, my brother used to collect comic books, so I didn’t buy them myself, but my brother David, and I’d read them and we’d watch all of the Saturday morning cartoons religiously. X-Men Spider-Man. Obviously Batman, the animated [00:31:00] series.

Oh yes. The spectacular Spider-Man, which I think is one of the it’s up there with probably Batman, very, very close. I don’t know which was first or second. I’d probably say Batman’s maybe a smidge above because there’s more content, but in terms of quality, I think spectacular Spider-Man and Batman, the animated series are probably two of the best.

Cartoon comic book adaptations that narrow,

Jeff: Oh, I would agree. A hundred percent Batman. The mini series is one of my all time favorites and I, and I, and I’ve had, I’ve been lucky to have the opportunity to talk to the people involved, doing the show and it’s been, you know, it’s a great pleasure have that show was so phenomenal and Batman beyond was always like the first real time.

I’ve seen an attempt to go beyond the comic books and it worked perfectly.

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: Oh, yeah. Batman beyond was brilliant. So Terry McGinnis. Yeah. Amazing. I didn’t question it for one second. You know, I was, my oldest is silly and old [00:32:00] Bruce mentoring, this kid, and now I just completely bought into all of it. Yeah.

Another great animated show. 100%.

Jeff: Yeah. And like, and I, and some of the episodes, like when they brought back Mr. Freeze, I was like, Holy crap. I mean, it, it, it took ideas that you didn’t, once again, think you wanted and you see it in your life. That’s the only way these stories could have gone, you know?

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: Yeah.

Completely. And I think if they, I don’t know if they could get whatever creative teams they get to do the animated stuff in Warner brothers to do not to do the film, but I don’t know, consult something, always smash out the part with the cartoons. What are the justice league cartoons one will the cartoons like a red sun or they’re all brilliant start to finish.

And they’re very consistent on the cartoon side. Unfortunately, there’ve been a bit more hit or miss on the film side. So maybe if these two divisions could [00:33:00] consult, somehow they could get the same kind of consistency in the live action stuff. W would you

Jeff: agree with the difference being, I feel like the ones who may have been making the cartoons, Bruce, Tim, Paul, Denny, have those guys trust the material where some of the films feel like they don’t trust the material?

I

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: think I said, I think. Some of the people that have come in on the film side, they feel like creatively, they are bigger than the source material. So they’ll come in and they’ll go, Oh yeah, yeah. I know this is what it says in the comic book, but I’m going to change that and I’m going to, I’m going to rejig that.

And that’s where I think maybe the hit and miss element comes in because some sick stuff you can adapt and it can come out. Okay. And other stuff, you change it and it ruins it. Whereas. You know, Kevin FYGI, for example, he is almost religious in pulling stuff directly from the comics and not just a visual [00:34:00] image Marsh to be like, Oh, look, that looks like the dark Knight returns that shot.

No, not like that. Like I’m going to take. Complete story, arcs story beats, Easter eggs from the comics. I’ll adapt them where I need to, but majoritively, I know that they worked because this was a successful comic run and I’m going to move it to the

Jeff: screen. Yeah. That’s I think that’s a perfect summation of the two franchises.

I feel like. Th the people in charge of DC movies feel almost embarrassed by the characters that they have all marble says, these are our characters and they’ve been, you know, they existed for 50 years. We love them. You’re going to love them too, if you just put them on, you know, the right way. And I do feel that there’s a bit of a difference with DC, feeling a little embarrassed by, you know, these are the characters from the sixties, you know?

No, you’re not gonna like them with our kids’ shows. Let’s try to fix them, you know, and that always bothered me.

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: Yeah, I think, I think that’s it. And I think they understand the inherent qualities of their characters. So something that’s always been [00:35:00] interesting is. What looking at what Zach Snyder did with Superman and Batman.

And there were certain parts of both of those films that any comic book purist would never touch soon. For example, Batman having guns on his car and shooting cars and them exploding. So any sort of comic book purists would be like, well, hold on. Why is he got 22 caliber guns? On his car when you know, one of the core tenets of his character is no guns.

Let alone no killing.

Jeff: Yeah, I agree. I mean, I think when you look at Batman and in BVS, you look at your things for yourself. I can understand where they’re going with some of the ideas like that, me becoming more aggressive. I can see it, but there was a line there that you think to yourself. Once you go to that line, you lost your character, you know, like you should [00:36:00] approach it, but you can’t go beyond it.

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: Yeah. You can push him on. I’m a huge advocate for Ben Affleck. Just throwing that out there. He’s the closest thing visually to Bruce Wayne. He literally looks like the comic book drawings insane. So I was a huge advocate for him being Batman. He’s got the look he’s got the build. I think he was perfect.

Unfortunately, the film. Wasn’t as perfect as a cost as he was.

Jeff: I agree with you. I think it had moments of genius that warehousing, I think is still pretty cool, but the warehouse fire, it felt like Batman. There’s a few scenes when when there’s doomsday and you see Batman kind of participate in the fight a little bit and you think, okay, that could see that in Batman, but I will say as, as, as an entire whole, yeah, you, you, you feel like it, it, it, it lost his ground at some point.

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: Yeah, I think some of the essence got lost. I think the essence of the, in making that, that because of the [00:37:00] tonality of the film, I think Superman spirit was lost in that film. The essence of who Kallel is got lost in that film, there were just certain moments where you just say, we know. Clock color, wherever you want to call him, he would never do that.

It just wouldn’t happen.

Jeff: I agree. I, I think it felt like the creators of these movies felt had, had an inkling of what Superman was. Cause he keep pointing out hope, hope, hope, but they never put it on screen. That it, they tell you that he’s hoping they never

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: put it in. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. They’ll have him again.

And this goes back to a visual. The visual storytelling, which is what’s axon is amazing. So he visually knew how to communicate what Superman was, but in terms of his actions, he didn’t communicate who he was. So after that Senate hearing with the, you know, grandma’s warm P or wherever it was where it [00:38:00] blows up and then he flies away.

Would never happen, right? That wouldn’t be an explosion where people are hurt, killed, injured, et cetera. It would never be a moment where he is that self-reflective where he’d be like, you know what? I can’t deal with all this destruction and death. I’m just going to disappear for a bit.

Jeff: I agree with you.

I agree with you a hundred percent on, on how they handle it. I really do feel that like I said, some of the basics really were there, but it really had it like to foundation. And like I said, I th I felt when you see the movies that. They almost realized it could be like someone, you keep having to point out what the character is instead of showing it.

Yeah. You, you, you, you lost it. And the problem with like those trailers for man of steel were so fricking genius, the trailers seem to understand it, but not the movie.

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: Yeah. It’s what, it’s your show. Don’t tell, you know, show don’t tell and yeah, there wasn’t enough of that, but you know, still, still a [00:39:00] device and film got lots of people.

Really like man of steel personally, I am a big man of steel fan. I really like it, but I also understand the I’m not going to say they’re necessarily Donna Reeves fans, but I guess maybe the more eighties nostalgic Reeves people, don’t like the more, maybe more dour, grounded tone. Wasn’t helpful enough.

But my argument with that always was, it was it’s cool man of steel because he’s not Superman yet. That’s the way I saw it. This was Superman. Batman begins in Batman, begins Batman wasn’t Batman yet by the end of the film, he was Batman to the, by the time we go into the dark night, we’ve got full on Batman detective.

Fighting skills. He knows who he is, et cetera, man of steel. I saw in that exact same vein. [00:40:00] He’s not Superman yet. He doesn’t really, he doesn’t know what its purpose is. He doesn’t know his place in the world. So all of his. Truly altruistic qualities, preserving life never killing those things haven’t come yet.

So by the time he kills his OD and sort of shows himself to the world, even though there was destruction in my head, in his next movie, which I had in my head, wasn’t Batman versus Superman, I thought was going to get his own movie. He would have been Superman or the man of tomorrow where we got the Reeves ask.

I’m going to save a cat from a tree. Truth justice and the American way. Do you see what I mean?

Jeff: Yeah. Oh, I agree with you. A hundred percent. I found a minute till I do have my DVD collection. I found it, I would say entertaining, but I I’m, I’m not hesitant to call it good, but definitely entertaining.

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: Okay.

Jeff: We’re going to, at least I had a lot of fun and I [00:41:00] thought it was enjoyable, but I do think most if I stopped and just some details within it, where. Once again, I have prompted it. Wasn’t the death of Zod. I must admit this, the death of his, I didn’t bother me at all. I thought I got it. Don’t say I was kind of, I’m kind of fine with that moment.

But once again, I will agree with you that. One of the things that I think Mars municipal to me a little bit is the fact that Batman versus Superman didn’t build upon it.

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: I agree. I think that was where it, it felt like a wasted opportunity to add to this new kind of legacy that you’ve made for Superman.

And that’s where it missed the beat. And that’s what was more disappointing that they didn’t continue that story in the following movie. So it was more my disappointment cause I was really interested to see him become. That man of tomorrow, but Hey, ho

Jeff: yeah. I, I think I agree with you completely. So what were the common books that you grew up?

Was there a particular character that you love more than all the others?

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: Spiderman was, he’s always been my guy spidey and I think it’s because. Yeah, there was something about him [00:42:00] just being a normal kid that I just found really, really relatable the drama, how interconnected his life was with everything.

Really just resonated. And I think it does resonate with you as a kid. Cause when you see somebody having problems at school, girlfriend problems, money problems, work problems. But then he puts on a mask and this kid is fighting super supervillains. It’s like the ultimate escapist fantasy on London, Batman as well.

But there’s an element is weird. I never felt like I could be Batman. You know, I felt like I could be bitten by a spider. And it could happen. I’m like, I’m never going to be a genius billionaire himself, but like human perfection and goes out and is a detective and fights crime. I was like, it’s cool to [00:43:00] watch.

And I love this character, but the likelihood of that happening is, nah, it’s not going to happen.

Jeff: Do you think Spiderman, what has been done correctly in either versions? Oh, I need the

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: burdens. Oh, I see. This is what’s interesting. I think, I think Tom Holland Spider-Man. It’s the closest personality depiction in terms of his age, personality, et cetera of Peter Parker.

But I don’t think he has the best films, Tobey, Maguire, and I love, I love Toby Maguire Spider-Man and his Peter Parker, but his Spider-Man isn’t the spidey that I envisioned in my head.

Jeff: All right. I can totally buy that. I guess my parents are pretty close. I liked Tom Holland. I do feel that they lack the uncle Ben connection in the movies and the [00:44:00] boy genius.

Cause I, I, I think they make them too reliant on the characters around him. Like Tony stark, where Toby McGuire was more on his own. But once again, I think Tom hall felt more like Spiderman, you know?

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: Yeah. Like, that’s exactly how I feel about it. I think as the character, when I think about the different areas of Spider-Man, so, you know, I guess the Raimi versions is like Ditko Spider-Man OLS lost era Spider-Man and I would say.

What would I say? Andrew golf filters, PVA. He is the amazing Spider-Man. He thought that that era, that late teens era, but you, I, when I see Tom Holland, he is the cartoon spectacular Spiderman. He is the live action version of that, which to me is the closest depiction of Spider-Man. But unfortunately, [00:45:00] Some of the, the soul of who peer pocket is, was ripped out because there’s no uncle Ben he has stocked tech.

He doesn’t have money issues and he doesn’t really have consequences in the same way that Peter Parker normally

Jeff: does. Oh, I agree with you. I feel that what Tom Holland is missing is an actual Spider-Man movie. Well, you know, that that’s a solo movie, because like I said, when you the movies, I enjoyed the movies a lot far from homeless, a great movie.

But once again, you had to, I think there’d be, they would’ve been better off if they had just removed Tony stark from the movie, you know what I’m saying? His, all his supplies and she, and all of that, I think we made a stronger movie, my opinion, but same time they were fun. They were, you know, they were fun.

And you got the sense that. The least loved their character.

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: Yeah, I agree. I understand connecting him to the wider universe cause he’s part of that universe. I just think you take away some of the soul of the character. [00:46:00] When this kid that we read up reading comic books, we know he made his own suit and his own web is now he gets a million pound stock text by the suit.

It loses some of that street level. I’m just a sixth, 15 year old kid. Trying to help versus now I’ve got a stark tech suit, which has 500 types of webbing linked to a AI. It just changes some of the soul of the character that moves it away from being pure

Jeff: Spiderman. Yeah. I agree. And I, I do like the idea of spare man as a bit of a loner, because he is, he’s a nerd.

He’s kinda a bit of an outcast. I think that was also missing part of him that he is that loner outcast type character. Yeah. You know, I agree.

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: And I agree with this. So somebody say this. He Aaron, Tony are opposite ends of the spectrum. I don’t think really. I know they’re doing it for the MCU. Peter, wouldn’t look up to [00:47:00] Tony.

He will be, this Peter’s is blue collar, regular guy. And I think aunt may even says it in the MCU firm. She doesn’t like Tony stark. And I think ordinarily Peter would feel the same excellent films. They changed

Jeff: that I must say I never really thought about it that way. That’s that’s, that’s, that’s really interesting.

Yeah.

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: He’s a blue collar guy, every man local hero. And although we love Tony stark as an audience, we all know he’s really an asshole really. And so Peter would, I think pizza would see him and feel that way about him more so. And his driving, his moral driving force. Isn’t Tony, it’s Ben, but they removed.

And I think that’s what changed the soul of the character. We don’t hear about him. We don’t see him. He doesn’t mention him. There’s no flashbacks. And so making Tony that father figure. You’ve [00:48:00] sort of changed Spiderman a little bit by doing that, I agree

Jeff: a hundred percent and you’re right. They, they, they, they, they inferred uncle bamboo.

They never actually even say the name ones.

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: I know, weird, weird, unusual choice. Did you see his initials on a suitcase? And that’s it?

Jeff: Yeah. It’s, it’s weird when you look into some of this stuff and you’ve been, you pay attention that yeah, there, there are some really oxidative ignitions that Marvel’s doing well, but I think because they’re so wrapped in the universe, I think there’s a tendency to just ignore

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: them.

Yeah, that’s obviously that’s payoffs and trade offs for being part of a wider universe. And in that instance with PR wanting to tie him so much to other heroes, it for certain fans, it’s taken away from some of that loner purist pier that we’re used to.

Jeff: That’s really cool. And I really do like that.

You’re a combo fan. I mean, did, how did that feel then being in a show like penny worth? I mean, even though, I mean, it’s kind of like Bamiyan, but kind of nod. So give you the thrill that you are technically part of the mythology now.

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: I [00:49:00] mean, yeah, I mean, for me that was like the ultimate geek dream. I love origin stories, wherever it be in comic books, cartoons and films.

And so for my first like big studio TV show to be part of an origin story of somebody that is closely affiliated to Batman and to play his best friend. Was like other worldly to me and a lot of the Easter eggs that happened in pennyworth and a lot of the small references only I understood the context of them because I think I’m the only like real apart from Bruno and Danny, I think I’m the only sort of.

Comic book purist there.

Jeff: So what fascinated you about the character of a Abaza? Is it practically right? Basil always Abaza beyond that, his connection to pennyworth what is it about basil himself? That was fascinating

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: to you. He’s [00:50:00] interesting. I think as a character, because. He’s from Barbados and he’s actually in terms of his personality, he’s very different to his two army colleagues.

He’s from money, he’s Oxford educated. He doesn’t need to do this. He doesn’t need to be in the army. He’s probably more. Akin to Lord Harward or Thomas Wayne. That’s the sort of circles he would frequent. He’s from money. He’s Oxford educated. He’s upper to, he’s not upper class, but he’d be upper middle class.

So the fact that he chooses to be part of the SIS. And chooses to do the things that he does. I think makes him really a really interesting character. If I basically saw him as like, he’s like a Caribbean James Bond, he kind of went into  if he wanted to

[00:51:00] Jeff: now w and, and kind of intrigued when you mentioned about basil is that once again, he fought in world war two in thinking about that, did you, did that inform how you portrayed him?

Cause obviously. There’s issues, you know, so he’s been through war a little, you know, PTSD and whatever. Did you incorporate that, or did you think about incorporating that into your performance? Speaking

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: about the history, the pennyworth history there, that depictions of which Wars happened when and where is not the same as our real life timeline?

So the war that they fought in was in Asia. I think it was yeah. Malaysian pirate. So they, yeah, they were in Asia. They’d done various tours. But yeah, I did speak to Bruno about which was, it was, and he, but he was very Hesitant about giving us too much specific information just in case he changed his mind as he was writing it.

You know what I mean? [00:52:00] Yeah. That’s interesting. Nothing was, that was a loose part of like, yeah, this, this is the army they fought in and this is what happened, but don’t be too married to that because as I’m writing it, it might shift. So I just had to make some internal choices about the war that we’d seen.

Myself, without getting too bogged down in specifics that, that that’s

Jeff: really kind of it. I always just assumed it was world war II, but I guess the same time there’s also would be concerned with aging, the show, you know, the character, because once it’s Alfred is in 2020 with Batman, then I guess you would have to be like 90 something years old, which I guess would be that where they want it to go.

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: Yeah. Yeah. The timeline is completely different. It’s not a historically accurate UK. It’s like a weird. Amalgamation hodgepodge of different historical events mashed into this weird off-centered DC timeline. So I think that’s good. Cause you can’t get too comfortable [00:53:00] and try and place them somewhere.

Cause we’re in our own timeline

Jeff: now. Because basil is SAS. And because he, and it shows a loaded with gunplay in action, you have to go through extensive training to be competent at, as an actor of, you know, looking like you really are this expert.

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: Yeah, we did a lot of we did a lot of stung training and a lot of gun training too.

Learn how to fly the weapons. We had a few different fight coordinators in series one. And then we got a new one, two new ones in series two. And yeah, we’d rehearsed for like, you know, sometimes hours. On a fire scene and then we’d have to sometimes change it when we got to the actual location and change up bits for the camera.

And, you know, you get helped out by really good stuntman and, you know, generous camera angles. But a lot of that physical activity is real. Well, for me, that was just a kid in the candy [00:54:00] store bit because as a kid, that’s all me and my brothers used to do is like play fight and try. And re-enact Jackie Chan fight scenes and stuff like that.

So meeting a stunt coordinator and. Working on stunt moves was just like how? Yes,

Jeff: I can’t. I can only imagine he said I watched a show, a show like pennyworth and some of those action scenes and they are impressive, impressive as hell. I mean, they’re really well choreographed. Yeah, they

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: did it. They did a great job with the, with the fight scenes that really sickly done no shaky cam.

All done in camera. Usually everything was done in one take and they filmed it each time so they could edit it properly. Yeah, they did a really good job and we didn’t really on, on the fight scene stuff. We didn’t have another unit do it. It was the main director. So they gave it the same amount of love and attention as everything else.

Jeff: And, and also those scenes also help inform the character of [00:55:00] basil. And I think when a scene that was also very interesting is in the second episode of pennyworth the interrogation scene of Jason ripper. Yes. Which Beza is very proficient in that torture and it kind of. How did that inform you about the character and a PA in his potential backstory?

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: Yeah, there was a few things that I don’t want to say. They came out of left field, but they were definitely interesting. And yeah, that, that torture scene was one of them. I remember Matthew, the producer came to me and was like, you know, we really need you to, to nail this scene because up until that point, we’d only seen the really calm, laid back methodical.

And so it was the first time I needed to switch into another gear as an actor and show a more physically dominant menacing side to him. And so that showed, that made me make some interesting decisions about. His [00:56:00] backstory why he so cool most of the time, but then he’s able to show that level of aggression.

So for me, it just goes to show that he’s calm out of choice that Dave boy is an inherently. Angry person. He just angry because he’s angry. Bozar is cool because he is he uses his head more than anything and he chooses to be cool, but he shows that he can channel that anger and he can also lose his temper.

So

Jeff: do you think the anger. Is I’m trying to think the best way to phrase it. Do you think that aggression is the more real Bezar that he’s not showing or is the cooler collective methodical basil? The one that’s the true one with he can just access this darker part.

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: I mean, yeah. That’s, that’s interesting.

I, my take on it is that the , [00:57:00] this isn’t cannon and this isn’t part of the story, but my backstory for buzzer was that he was actually. A like delinquent, belligerent child, very angry grew up in money. So he was spoiled and that was part of that. He was out of control. So in my head, his, his dad enrolled him into like all may school to straighten him out, send him off to boarding school.

In Barbados and then subsequently went to the UK. So yeah, inherently he is, I’d say he’s an angry person then through educating himself and channeling that energy through going through the army and then the SAS he learned to discipline that kind of like an angry person who learns Kung Fu. And that’s to channel his anger.

Jeff: I really love that you created a backstory for the character. That is, I mean, even it’s not in Canada, it’s at least cannon for you and that’s fantastic. Yeah. Yeah.

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: That’s it, you know, when [00:58:00] somebody chooses to deliver anger in that way, you sort of have to make a decision about why that is so that you can make it really specific.

You know, people aren’t, people don’t show that anger in certain ways for no reason. So I had to make sense of, well, why is he so cool most of the time, but now that he needs to turn it on bang, he can turn on anger. So that was the reason I chose.

Jeff: So in your determination was Bezos and Alfred’s relationship so tight because of sort of like troops in a foxhole or there’s, there’s something else about Alfred that makes basil want to.

Gravitate towards him.

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: Yeah, that’s an interesting, the question I, in my head, I, again, this isn’t cannon, but in my head, I always imagined that basil was friends with Dave boy first so that they are friends and then Alfred and Dave boy became friends. And then [00:59:00] I then became friends with Alfred. So I w in my head, I wasn’t friends with Alfred first.

I met David boy in the army. We were friends. And then Dave boy met Alfred and they became friends. And through that, we all formed this bond where we were all this, we became this trio, but if you’ll notice in the show, You, you never see Dave boy, sorry. You never see Alford and buzzer. Huh? I never noticed that.

Never. You never see them in the pub. You never see them hanging out, but you do see Alfred and dipole learn and you do see Basser and dipole alone, but you never see. Alfred ambassador line. So I said that was my reasoning

Jeff: for it. I like that. And I actually never noticed that at all, but I do think that’s an invention that he was made have been friends with Dave boy first, do you think it has to do with the fact that there is that common [01:00:00] commonality of that anger or whatever as part of what made a found like a sort of connection or was there some other,

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: I think they shed the anger.

I think. Me and Ryan who plays Dave Boyd discussed it. I think their commonalities is that they’re not native to England. Dave boy, Scottish, he’s not English. And basil is from Barbados. He’s not from the UK, so they bonded. Mutually, because essentially they were in their own ways, outsiders from everybody who was born British in the army.

Jeff: in a very interesting insight into the

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: characters. Yeah, that’s that’s and again, this isn’t kind of, this is just what we discuss as to why our bond is what it is. And they sort of counter balance each other’s personalities Dave boys, very vibrant, outgoing, and, you know, devil may care and basil is very calm and [01:01:00] methodical.

And so they kind of balance each other out Bozar can become a bit more loose and free when he’s with Dave boy within reason and vice versa, I can help. Dave boy, be a bit more methodical and, you know, look before he

Jeff: leaps. And I do think the chemistry is very strong between you and Ryan.

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: Yeah, me and Ryan are with, you know, and, and Jack, we’re all great friends, but I met Ryan first at the audition.

So we became, we were the first pennyworth friends. If you will. I met him at the first audition and we exchanged numbers and said, we’d keep in touch about who got the job. And we remained friends since. And then obviously we did a screen test with Jack and then we involved Jack in this WhatsApp group.

And actually that’s how our pennyworth WhatsApp group started. It was just me and Ryan. Then it was me, Ryan and Jack. And then as I met more people in the show, I just, I did them to that group until [01:02:00] now all the cost members are in this one little pennyworth group.

Jeff: That’s that’s really cool. What, what, what do you think about the fate of Bauza without giving away too many spoilers?

The fate of basil on pennyworth?

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: I think it was an interest. It was an interesting choice. It was surprising to me. And speaking to Bruno about it, I understand his choice. Within his own logic for doing it, it’s not necessarily the way I saw it. And I didn’t see it happening at that point in the story in the largest, the scheme of things and the way it affects the characters around him.

I can see the logic for it. Would I have necessarily done it in that way? Probably not, but I understand his reasoning behind it. Do you think

Jeff: the impact that it does have on Alfred? Do you think that’s worth the loss was such a valuable character as Bassa?

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: Ooh, I mean, that’s a good question. I mean, that’s something I think that the fans really need to decide.

[01:03:00] I can only speak about what I think from a very sort of insulated perspective, but you know, the people who watch the show. I think they’re the ones who would be better equipped to be like, Oh, you know, I, I, I do. Or don’t like it for these reasons. And you know, people will vote with their, with their viewerships or their reaction.

You know, they like it now be intrigued to stay and they’ll watch the show if they don’t, they might decide to leave because they don’t like what happens. So. We’ll have to see what the what the audio says

Jeff: you said, or basil is basil set to appear later in the series, either through flashback or some other means.

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: It’s not, hasn’t been decided yet. That was something that was like up in the air and I’ve been in contact with them about it. So I, you know, I’m, I’m waiting to find out myself.

Jeff: And I mean, obviously as, as a longtime fan of comic books, there’s a, there’s a reality of comic [01:04:00] books where no one’s ever truly dead is definitely just dead.

I mean, there’s no way around it. He’s dead.

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: Well, I mean, with, with these universities and these characters, you just never know. You, you, you know, you’re, you’re a comic book fan, you know, people get fridged all the time and you’re like, Oh my God. And then like, you know, a couple of issues later. You’re like, what the hell?

How did that? Yeah. And that’s very common with TV shows, especially comic book TV shows. So I wouldn’t rule out anything at this point, honestly, and as the show has grown and as it evolved. It has become, it’s moving further towards a bit more of a, I don’t want to say mystical, but it’s not like super, super grounded as the show goes on.

So anything can happen.

Jeff: So what I’m [01:05:00] hearing is Beza isn’t necessarily dead,

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: forever chance. He might not be.

Jeff: All right. Let’s make sure that that was said and repeat it. So the fans can, and the producers can know that basil hopefully will come

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: like you. Who knows? I don’t write it. So. You know, with, with comic book with comic book continuity and logic, you know, that they can make any fantastical thing happen.

 

Jeff: Now I read a tweet of yours where you state that you learned everything about craft and business from pennyworth. I’ll. I will, I will be a different beast from here on in. So what did he mean by that?

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: Well, light Pennywise is my first series regular role. And I learned so much about myself as an actor.

I worked with more directors than I’d ever worked with in this short period of time. I learned more about the business, you know contracts and. Money and producers and execs and all of [01:06:00] these things that you can hear about, but you don’t really get to experience firsthand. And two, you are a series regular on a show.

And so, because I learned all those things on every level, business and creative, I would just won’t be the same actor now going forward. My confidence going into an, a series regular show or a film is much higher working with new directors, much higher understanding the business of acting. All of it. I’m a different beast.

It’s like I was in a, a championship fight, you know? And I can go back with new renewed energy for any further championship fight I get into.

Jeff: Well, well, there’s one other quote I really like of yours as well that I think connects you in your Twitter feed. You wrote hard work, eliminates fear. Yes. So what do you mean by fear of what exactly and how does that hard work eliminate it?

[01:07:00] Well,

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: fear can be anything from insecurity, nerves, doubt and hard work as in, you know repeating, repeated of anything. So wherever it’s learning your lines learning the stage directions, getting into character, just repeating all of the things you need to do constantly removes the ability to be nervous.

So as a, as a, if you’re a sportsman, you played basketball. If you practice 10 hours a day doing free throws from the free throw line, when you’re in that championship game. Your nerves are going to be far less than if you didn’t put in those hours of work. And so it’s that kind of fair.

Jeff: So is that why you, why you worked so hard in perfecting your craft and is it also hardworking the pursuit of more roles or is it [01:08:00] in perfecting the craft?

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: It’s both really. I mean, the more work you put into something through repetition. The better your muscle memory is. And the more confident you feel, you know, it’s just like, you know, we were all at school. If you really, really crammed and prepared for a test, how comfortable did you feel when you went and did that test?

But if you at least to do that for an hour the night before, and it’s barely in your brain, then you go and sit down and do this test. You’re just a lot more nervous. Cause you’re not sure that. You did all the things that you needed to do?

Jeff: Hmm. That’s a no, that’s a very good point. So what are you working on now?

What’s coming for you?

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: I’m S I’m just auditioning for lots of things. So potentially waiting to hear back because of Corona is frozen a few days, but I’m attached to a video game project potentially. Very cool. But I’ll wait to hear about that. I’m not sure what’s happening. And in general, I’m just.

Auditioning for, you know, [01:09:00] different networks and TV channels, CW among among them. So I’m just waiting to hear back Coronas men that some productions have been halted, which means the costing process has been slowed down. So I’m just waiting to hear back from certain things.

Jeff: So w will you keep, keep me and spoiler country updated with as things progress?

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: Oh, 100%, bro. Follow me on my socials or follow you guys back. And as soon as anything changes or gets updated you know, I’ll be posting it anyway. Well, yeah, we’ll we can talk on there and if you guys want me to come back, I will be more than happy to do that. I

Jeff: would absolutely love, love for you to come back and I am following you already on Twitter.

So I look for jailhouse interviews and I’ll make sure the spoiler country follows you as well on Twitter. Are you also on other platforms? I am I’m on

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: in the morning, Instagram, just for my, my name hazy Lloyd Bennett or the last day of may 31, but you can find it under my name. Verified. It’s just me.

So you can follow me [01:10:00] on yeah, on Instagram, I’m on Instagram and

Jeff: Twitter. Well, fantastic. I’ll definitely we’ll follow you and make sure the spoiler country pacifically followed you, that follows you as well. And yeah, anytime you have something to promote, I want to talk about come right back.

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: I look very much forward to doing that, sir.

And as soon as I do have something I want to promote, you’ll be the first guy I hit. I promise

Jeff: I greatly appreciate that. Have a fantastic day, sir. And thank you so much for joining us. Thank you to you, bro. I appreciate it. No problem.

All right, but that was so well, and I thank you again for being a great guest. Thank

Hainsley Lloyd Bennett: you bro. I appreciate it. And yeah, we’ll chat soon. All right. Have a very good day. Bye bye.