Ben Mendelsohn on coming home to work and why he’s a Melbourne Storm fanatic
After a decade in demand in as Hollywood’s go-to villain, Ben Mendelsohn reveals what he most misses about Melbourne and the special way the Herald Sun helps him stay in touch with his roots.
Entertainment
Don't miss out on the headlines from Entertainment. Followed categories will be added to My News.
He might be one of our biggest Hollywood exports of the last decade, but Ben Mendelsohn is still a card-carrying Melbourne Storm fanatic. And he means that quite literally.
“I can never go against my home city,” said Mendelsohn, who grew up and got his acting start in Eltham before relocating to Sydney where he fell in love with rugby league, and then Los Angeles, his home since Animal Kingdom made him an international star a decade ago.
“I carry Cameron Smith’s footy card in my wallet and I have done ever since I pulled it out of a pack of footy cards about ten years ago. I’d have kept Billy (Slater) and Ryan Hoffman in there too if I’d had them but the only one I got was Cam.”
Mendelsohn, who has appeared in blockbusters from The Dark Knight Rises to Star Wars: Rogue One as well as Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One and the MCU’s Captain Marvel, said he’d particularly missed his homeland since COVID-19 hit and stayed in touch with his roots by watching Storm games and listening to Herald Sun podcasts.
“I have been listening to all of Andrew Rule stuff,” he said. “Just today I listened to about 15 of his old Melbourne crime podcasts. There are some really great minds in Melbourne and I have a very strong affection even though I have been estranged from her for a very long time. I really love the place and I have never not felt like a Melbournite, even after a quarter of a century.”
Mendelsohn, most recently seen in Foxtel’s acclaimed The Outsider, is hoping to kickstart the cinema revival in Australia with his new movie Babyteeth, one of the first new big-screen releases as coronavirus restrictions ease around the country. The dark comedy, his first Australian film since Animal Kingdom in 2010, releases on July 23 and also stars Essie Davis and Eliza Scanlen.
“There had been a lot of blockbusters and I didn’t want to get away from what got me here,” Mendelsohn said. “I didn’t want to get away from Australia.”
RELATED:
BEN MENDELSOHN’S ACCA DACCA INSPIRED VILLAIN