Benjamin McKenzie: Out of 'The O.C.'

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: "A more recent project of yours is a film called Johnny Got His Gun [which is based on Dalton Trumbo's 1930s novel and was previously made into a movie in 1971]. Will that be released in theaters?"

BEN MCKENZIE: "I don't know. We shot it in the early weeks of fall last year. We've been sort of working in post with it. It's a film version of the play version of the book, if that makes sense. The book was a big deal, especially during Vietnam, and it was turned into a one-man play with Jeff Daniels. So we decided to film me doing the play. I'm in a black box theater, and there's no audience. It's sort of a hybrid, between, like, a Lars von Trier Dogville and Spalding Gray, you know, Monster in a Box, something like that. It's not quite a play, not quite an ordinary feature. It was really a lot of fun for me to do, and something different."

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: "The character must have been a huge challenge - you play a war survivor who's lost all his limbs and facial features."

BEN MCKENZIE: "Yeah, he basically has no ability to speak - he communicates through Morse code by tapping his head against his bed. He has no eyes, nose, ears, mouth. But because it's a play, I'm shown as I see myself, full-body, fully capable. You have to sort of physicalize that."

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: "How did you get into that project?"

BEN MCKENZIE: "The director [Rowan Joseph], who's been involved in L.A. theater - and New York as well - approached me about doing a film of it. And I'm somewhat political, and I loved the book and the play. I just fell in love with the words, you know? Dalton Trumbo was one of the best screenwriters and novelists of his time, and the book itself has its own place in American history…" [more]