Hollywood can’t take the edge off Ben Mendelsohn, who isn’t afraid of the dark side

EMMY-winning Australian actor Ben Mendelsohn confesses he had no more qualms about playing a lead paedophile than he did building the Death Star.

BEN Mendelsohn might have been suddenly and somewhat belatedly embraced by Hollywood’s mainstream, but he’s not about to retire the “Full Mendo” any time soon.

“I think I will get a couple more bites at the cherry,” chuckles the 48-year-old actor.

“The classical period of that term — it was coined by (Melbourne comedian) Mick Molloy, I don’t think I will be using it personally — is probably contained.

“But I would hope that some of the things I have been in talks about will come to fruition. And that should satisfy those wanting to experience that.”

Mendelsohn’s Emmy Award-winning performance in the Netflix drama Bloodline, as the black sheep in a wealthy Florida family, recalls the raw, edgy charisma of some of his unhinged early performances.

Ben Mendelsohn as Orson Krennic in Rogue One. Picture: Jonathan Olley

But Orson Krennic, his ambitious Imperial apparatchik in the Star Wars spin-off, Rogue One, was much more of a company man.

Audiences have yet to be introduced to Mendelsohn’s character in Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi thriller Ready Player One.

RELATED: Mendelsohn taking well-deserved break

But the “villain” he plays Una, the story of a young woman (Rooney Mara) who tracks down the man who sexually abused her as a 13-year-old, is disturbingly ordinary — that’s the whole point of the psychological drama, based on the acclaimed stage play Blackbird by David Harrower.

And in his next high-profile project, Darkest Hour, Mendeloshn has been cast against type as King George VI to Gary Oldman’s Churchill.

Although the role would appear to be well outside his comfort zone, the actor says he wasn’t particularly daunted by the prospect of playing a member of the English royal family.

His role in the gritty British prison TV drama Starred Up (the performance that landed him the role in Joe Wright’s biopic) scared him much more.

Mendelsohn plays a sympathetic sex abuser in Una. Picture: Supplied

“That’s easily the part I agonised over most, the one that felt to me like the biggest risk. And that was to do with the old notion of going to England and playing an English character,” he says.

Una further extends the actor’s range. The feature film debut of acclaimed Australian theatre director Benedict Andrews explores some extremely difficult emotional terrain, but despite the unconscionable nature of what he does, Mendelsohn’s character is unnervingly sympathetic.

“My reading of it is that the whole thing falls over unless you have someone in there that is convincing in what he is putting forward,” says the actor.

RELATED: Mendelsohn is loving life on the dark side

Mendelsohn has played killers, addicts, drug dealers and even a man haunted by an incestuous relationship with his sister (Beautiful Kate.)

Being cast as the lead paedophile in Andrews’ Una didn’t cause him a moment’s hesitation.

“I essentially have no more qualms about it than building the death star and destroying an entire world,” he says.

“It’s a piece of fiction.

“But I get that as a viewing experience, it’s very intense.”

Mendelsohn with Ruby Stokes in a scene from the film. Picture: Supplied

English actress Ruby Stokes plays Mara’s character in the flashbacks as a 13-year-old who seems at once wise beyond her years and horrifyingly naive.

She and Mendelsohn got to know each other prior to filming.

“I went and spent time with her and her family because of the nature of the project,” says Mendelsohn, who has two daughters himself.

“I wanted everyone to meet everyone because it’s not easy work — perhaps even more so for Ruby’s family than Ruby herself.”

Mendelsohn might still be pushing the envelope on professional level. But personally, he’s comfortable at the prospect of turning 50.

“You start to realise that all these old buggers you have been listening to your whole life, who prattle on about how it gets better and you look at them and go ... really, you think?, you realise that they are actually right.

“It’s a much kinder, more pleasant emotional environment. You don’t have the same over-expectation of yourself.

“You are able to take the sweetness of life with a bit more gratitude than you are when you are younger.”

SEE Una opens today

Originally published as Hollywood can’t take the edge off Ben Mendelsohn, who isn’t afraid of the dark side