My guest this week is the fun and fascinating Ben Milliken. He’s a commercial actor originally from Australia whose career is taking off since he made the big move to L.A. He’s been in movies like Blue Crush 2 and a Mighty Oak, which came out this year. Ben’s also appeared in CSI Miami and the incredible Amazon Prime production, Bosch.
Ben has a fresh and honest approach to his work, and that shows when he talks about the adjustments he faced when moving from Australia to L.A. There was an initial shock of having to pay to see a doctor, which many newcomers experience, but also the childlike joy at discovering the amenities of a big city: “Here, I can order food or something at midnight, and it’ll show up! That’s fascinating to me!”
Before turning to acting, Ben was an amateur boxer for 10 years. “I’m obsessed with boxing,” he says. “You can’t fake boxing!” He’s transferred a lot of knowledge from boxing to his acting career. Not surprisingly, work ethic is vital to both professions—you have to work really hard. But Ben also talks about how boxing taught him the importance of relaxation.
“A lot of people would imagine that a sport like boxing is all major aggression,” he says. “But you’ll see the best boxers in the world are relaxed, they’re not tense, they’re smiling—look at Floyd Mayweather!” Ben exclaims. “He’s always got a smile. You know when he’s in there he’s having fun.”
And you get the same feeling about Ben when he talks about filming Season 5 of Bosch—he’s having fun! “Everybody on that show is A+, from the top all the way down,” he says. “The quality and professionalism, the way the show is run, is absolutely fantastic.”
As a commercial airline pilot myself, I had to ask Ben about a particularly enthralling scene set on a plane. “It was gnarly,” he says, explaining how the plane was built on a soundstage and hooked up to a hydraulic system that went up as much as 15 feet in the air. “So, as we’re doing the fights and stuff like that the plane is moving on the hydraulic system—it is epic! I can tell you, it was one of the coolest set pieces I’ve ever seen.”
Listening to Ben talk about shooting this scene shows the delight he takes in being on set. It’s sure to put a smile on your face, like it did mine!