Benjamin Hollingsworth – Code Black

By starrymag | October 12, 2016

By: Jamie Steinberg

 

Q) What are the recent projects that you are working on?

A) “Code Black” has been keeping me extremely busy. We just don’t have a lot of time when we are shooting to do much else. Other than my son, I did a small film over the hiatus called The Big Grab with Adelaide Kane who plays Queen Mary on “Reign” on The CW. I’m kind of developing a hockey script that is a period piece and will feel like Cinderella Man meets Remember The Titans, but for hockey.

Q) What made you want to be a part of “Code Black?”

A) I have always wanted to play a doctor. I know it sounds funny, but partly because they are society’s unsung heroes. They don’t wear capes; they wear latex gloves. They go to work in the most difficult conditions and they literally save peoples’ lives. People’s lives are changed at their hands and I think that is the most magical super power that you will find in today’s world. ER doctors can really change people’s fate. The other reason I wanted to do it was because I always wanted my mom to be able to say, “My son is a doctor on TV.” [laughs] She can say that now. The other reason is because I think it is really cool that my grandfather was a surgeon in WWI on the front lines and my mom’s mom was a nurse on the front lines in WWII. So, there is a bit of a doctor pedigree in my family.

Q) How was Mario Savetti originally described to you?

A) He comes from the wrong side of the track. He had a drug addiction that he had to overcome. Against all odds, he became a doctor who was competitive and untrusting. He had tattoos on his biceps. The tattoos are, unfortunately, not mine. They tell a bit of a backstory too because essentially the drug abuse that he had was during his teens and we kind of have an upside down crack pipe with a devil genie coming out of it on my forearm and then on my biceps are two religious tattoos (one of praying hands and one of the Virgin Mary) to honor his faith and help him get out of his drug problem. All of this is backstory that doesn’t really get touched on too much on the show, but you will see a little bit more on the second season.

Q) Was there anything you added to the character that wasn’t originally there for him?

A) Yeah, I think a lot of the backstory that I talked about some of it had been filled in but I worked with the makeup artist on the tattoos. He does a fantastic job and I need to give him a little shoutout – Steve LaPorte. Marcia Gay Harden is not the only Oscar winner on the show. I believe Steve has one of them because he did Beetlejuice back in the day. He does all our prosthetics and makes the show look very real and gruesome. He and I designed the tattoos and they kind of tell the backstory. Also, as an actor, you have to take what you are given on the page and kind of fill it in with color. That is what makes an interesting story and gives your character texture. Those are kind of the little things I decide about Mario along the way that give him his attitude and give him his edge.

Q) Where do we pick up with Savetti this season?

A) This season you see Mario in a bit of a different light than what you got to know him as in the first season. He is learning lessons that most people learn from their parents, but you find out Mario didn’t really have the best parents. They weren’t active in his life and weren’t there for him as a kid. He didn’t really have a role model. Early on you meet Mario’s dad who comes into the ER and he is the last person Mario wants to see. His dad was a drunk, a deadbeat, an opportunist and abusive. He was definitely the world’s worst role model. He shows up when Mario is just starting to get comfortable and there goes the chaos with the troubled relationship with his father. You get to see, again, where Mario comes from and why he is the way he is. But you also get to see him as a second year resident. He is tasked with looking after the first year residents and teaching the first year residents. You see that he has shifted as a character. He is no longer that competitive untrusting fellow with a poor bedside manner that we met in the first season. You really get to see Mario 2.0 and you get to meet by Savetti, Sr. who is played by Eric Roberts.

Q) Jillian Murray told us recently there is less romance this season, but where does Mario’s feelings for Heather currently stand?

A) I would say that we are less entangled. The thing about Heather and Dr. Campbell (Boris Kodjoe) being together Mario kind of put a kibosh on that at that point because he thought there was maybe something there with her. Then, he saw she resorted to another relationship that in some ways she used Campbell to get what she wanted. Mario is a man of morals and a man that prides himself on being loyal. I think it kind of turned him off to Heather. With those new residents coming in, you start to see the beginning of maybe something happening with one of them. You have to tune in to see which one!

Q) Is there someone you would like to have more scenes with this season?

A) Rob Lowe! We have had a few scenes so far this season, but nothing that was really head to head. With Marcia, funny enough I hadn’t gotten a chance to work with her. We shared a few scenes in the first season, but we hadn’t had any scenes where it was just me and her on a case together. I would really like to have some scenes with her or Rob or both of them to kind of put Mario to the test a little bit more and really push his character to see where that can go.

Q) There is such great chemistry between the cast. Was there an instant connection?

A) It was really pretty much there from day one. Everything was just instant. We met each other in medical bootcamp. It wasn’t like your typical cast relationship where everyone sits around a table read and you are introduced to them more as their character and not people. We all showed up at medical bootcamp all as newbies. We had no idea how to do intubation or a central line. I didn’t know how to pronounce half the medical terms before! Now, I know the procedure to theoretically save someone’s life. We were all new at the time and we all embarked on the journey at the same time. There is a kind of real team building atmosphere that we created where we are all going to learn this and honor the craft. We have a real craft that we want to honor and a real story that we want to tell. We want to do it as authentically and honestly as possible. So, we all rolled up ourselves and learned not just the lines, but how the doctors would carry themselves and act during producers. We would breakdown everything together and that leaked into going out for dinner, drinks or coffee together. Now we have a softball/baseball team that we play on together on weekends. We are just inseparable. We really truly are a team and we live together as “Code Black.” And when new people come in we welcome them with open arms and help teach them the medical because we remember what it was like for us on day one. That team environment is so essential to creating that chemistry because really we shadow doctors. I have spent almost one hundred hours just shadowing doctors. The rapport they have together – you work twelve hour shifts together. You are exhausted and you know what is going on in each other’s lives. You have the big wins and the big loses together. Life lives and dies in front of you. This is the most intimate space you can share with someone and for us to honor that we create that on set.

Q) What have been some of your memorable moments from behind the scenes?

A) There are so many! This last week we have a scene coming up where we are in a decontamination shower that is essentially an ambulance bay. We are drenched with tons of water and we do about twenty-five takes of it. Luckily, we were blessed to shoot in beautiful downtown LA. It was 85 degrees outside so we survived. But stuff like that is when we bond. We did the up-do towel look and we pose and joke about the most serious “drenched rat” look. Literally, there are about 250 moments I could recite to you. We go to work and do this really serious medical drama, but we also find the fun and the joy in it, too.

Q) You are a part of social media. Do you enjoy the instant fan feedback you receive to episodes?

A) I love it! It’s like taking the pulse of an audience. You can feel when they are excited and respond to something. It’s really rewarding. Before social media, it was more a removed process. You would see people in the street and someone would say, “I really liked you in this!” Now, all of us do live tweeting. We make an effort to live tweet if we are not working. We love it when people tweet us about a moment or a look we had on our face. It is really cool to see what resonates with our audience and we are all listening. When I like a tweet, it’s not an assistant doing it. It’s me. It’s something I really genuinely like. It’s an interaction that is available today that wasn’t available a decade ago. It allows the interaction between fan and artist to be a little bit closer. Coming from a theater background, you are used to having this emotional connection. There is an instantaneous result of what you do on the stage so you can feel the audience laugh or cry. You can hear a pin drop in a theater. We’re getting closer and closer to that with film and television.

Q) Do you find yourself being recognized more when you are out?

A) Yeah. That kind of goes with the gig. It’s something that I am at a level now where I really appreciate it. It’s humbling for me and I don’t take it forgranted. I always love it when someone says “I love Code Black” or Dr. Savetti. It hasn’t gotten to the point of even coming close to being annoying. Our fans are so respectful and passionate that it is nice to share in that with them.

Q) Is there anything else you would like to tease about this season of “Code Black?”

A) There is a lot that is going to happen. Our season premiere is only a little taste of what the show can be and will become. Each episode feels intimate and I think there are some really exciting stuff upcoming for the fans. You are going to have to (like last season) wear your couch seatbelt because it is going to be a bit of a wild ride. Make sure you have stocked up a lot of Kleenex and don’t eat a big meal while watching the show.

Q) What would you like to say to everyone who is a fan and supporter of you and your work?

A) I would just say thank you. I can’t express enough how grateful I am to be given the opportunity to go to work with such great actors and to be on such a fantastic show that I, myself, am a fan of. When I get a script, I am just as excited as I think some of our viewers are when they watch the episodes. I really look forward to my scripts. The minute I get them, it doesn’t matter where I am, I read it with the same kind of fascination and excitement as some of our fans. Without our fans, which are some of the best in the world, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do and we really truly enjoy what we do. So, thank you.