Ben Mendelsohn spent most of his childhood in the US and Europe, but returned to live with his grandmother in Australia by the time he was in high school. He got into acting when he took a drama class because he thought it would be an easy course to pass. His first major role was in 1987 as Trevor in the Australian coming-of-age drama, The Year My Voice Broke.
After rising to fame at such a young age, it was no surprise when Mendelsohn found himself dealing with heavy drug and alcohol abuse. Throughout the 90s and early 2000s, the actor hit a relative valley in his career path before getting his act together and resurfacing with the 2010 AACTA Award-winning film Animal Kingdom. Some might even say that Mendelsohn is the Australian version of Robert Downey Jr., who also struggled with drugs and alcohol before turning his career around. In 2012, Mendelsohn broke into the DC Universe as the minor antagonist Daggett in The Dark Knight Rises.
While he is best-known for his villainous roles, Ben Mendelsohn has proved that he has a lot more to offer audiences, such as touching dramas like Babyteeth (2019).
Here is a list of some of Ben Mendelsohn’s best performances you should watch if you haven’t already!
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
In this prequel, Ben Mendelsohn embraced his bad-guy persona as Orson Krennic, the Director of Advanced Weapons Research for the Imperial Army, working on completing the Death Star. The movie opens up with him attacking the engineer behind the construction, Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen) so that the weapon could be finished. During this attack, Erso’s wife dies, but his daughter, Jyn, escapes and is taken in by the extremist rebel Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker). 15 years later, Jyn (Felicity Jones), seeks to rescue her enslaved father and destroy his creation.
Of course, Darth Vader is the main villain in this film, but Mendelsohn’s character is the forefront, tasked with completing a weapon that could destroy entire planets. He is everything you love you hate about a bad guy: arrogant, condescending, cruel, and slightly incompetent. Without the character of Krennic, the Death Star would have never been completed. Without Ben Mendelsohn, the character would never have been the same.
Animal Kingdom (2010)
This Australian crime-drama is what put Ben Mendelsohn back on the charts with his acting career.
The film follows a 17-year-old boy whose mother overdoses, leaving him to be taken in by his criminal family in Melbourne, headed by matriarch Janine ‘Smurf’ Cody (Jacki Weaver). The gang includes unpredictable and psychopathic Andrew ‘Pope’ Cody, played by Ben Mendelsohn, and his best friend and partner-in-crime, Barry ‘Baz’ Brown, played by Joel Edgerton (The Great Gatsby), along with two other uncles, played by Luke Ford and Sullivan Stapleton.
Once again Mendelsohn is playing a bad guy, but his nuance and performance in this film is nothing to scoff at. His character “Pope” is explosive at times, and soft-spoken in other moments. Mendelsohn brings a palpable tension to the dynamics of the Cody family and ultimately pays the price for his volatile behavior.
The Land of Steady Habits (2018)
Anders Hill (Mendelsohn) is a recently divorced man, struggling to make sense of his life. He shows up at an annual Christmas party, usually co-hosted by him and his ex-wife and their neighbors, the Ashfords. Feeling uncomfortable, he goes outside and proceeds to smoke marijuana, which has been laced with PCP, with the Ashfords’ son, Charlie (Charlie Tahan). Charlie overdoses, kicking off a whole new round of drama between the two families.
This isn’t your typical Ben Mendelsohn role. His character has flaws, but he’s far from being a bad guy. Mendelsohn shows a softer, more vulnerable side as he navigates his upturned life and tries to help his college-dropout son, Preston (Thomas Mann), find his own path as well. Even though he makes some pretty big mistakes in this movie, it’s refreshing to see Mendelsohn play a character that is at least trying to do the right thing.
Bloodline (2015-2017)
Family businesses can always get a little tricky, especially when the adult siblings start to squabble over finances. The Netflix original series Bloodline is an American drama-thriller set in Florida. Peace and quiet get tossed to the wind as soon as black sheep Danny Rayburn (Mendelsohn) returns home and announces his intention to stay and help his elderly parents with their seaside hotel. Because of his reputation and past actions, his 3 younger siblings, John (Kyle Chandler), Kevin (Norbert Leo Butz), and Meg (Linda Cardellini), respond to him with caution and suspicion.
Even though Mendelsohn’s character is only prominent in the first season, the events that took place because of his actions reverberate throughout the rest of the series. In spite of the fact that he causes so much trouble for his family, Danny is still somehow able to come off as a sympathetic character at times. It’s easy to play a villain that everybody hates, but to play a villain that audiences can sometimes relate to and even root for is a tightrope performance.
Ready Player One (2018)
Based on Ernest Cline’s novel of the same name, this movie is jam-packed with pop culture references from the 80s and 90s. Set in a dystopian future, people escape the bleak reality of their impoverished lives through a virtual reality gaming system called “OASIS.” The creator of the game, James Halliday (Mark Rylance) passes away and leaves behind a hidden “Easter egg challenge,” for players, promising ownership of the OASIS and the fortune it brought him. Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan) races to find the Easter eggs against an unethical corporation called IOI (Innovative Online Industries) headed by Nolan Sorrento (Mendelsohn).
It’s not hard to immediately dislike Mendelsohn’s character in this movie. He is greedy, murderous, and incredibly smug about it the whole time. He wants control over OASIS only so he can flood it with spam filled advertisements, ruining Halliday’s idea of what the spirit of video gameplay could and should be for users. Mendelsohn’s portrayal of Sorrento is everything you would expect from a psychopathic corporate suit, and much more.
Una (2016)
This movie is based on the play Blackbird, both written by David Harroway. It starts with a woman, Una (Rooney Mara), approaching a man named Ray (Mendelsohn) at his work to confront him about their past. He has changed his name, and she is shocked to find that he is happily married after doing jail time for his illicit relationship with her when she was only 13 years old. She is seeking answers, and he is doing everything in his power to make sure his past remains a secret.
This is perhaps one of Ben Mendelsohn’s most controversial roles since 2009 when he starred in the Australian film Beautiful Kate. Due to the extremely sensitive subject matter in Una, his performance had to be carefully crafted. His on-screen chemistry with costar Rooney Mara is surprisingly palpable as he almost convinces her (and audiences) that he had learned his lesson and just wants to move on, living a simple life after serving his time. While his character isn’t menacing, there’s something terrifying about how he can appear so harmless while hiding his demons just below the surface.
Babyteeth (2019)
Babyteeth is an Australian coming-of-age drama that follows the emotional response of 16-year-old Milla (Eliza Scanlen), who has recently been diagnosed with cancer, and that of her parents, Anna (Essie Davis) and Henry (Mendelsohn). Milla meets a boy, Moses (Toby Wallace) and the two of them start a relationship, despite Moses being 7 years older than her. Her parents are concerned about the relationship, but ultimately allow it because she is actually happy for once, since learning about her diagnosis.
Playing Milla’s father was a tender and sensitive role for Mendelsohn to play. Being a psychiatrist, he holds himself to a higher standard when it comes to protecting his family and helping everyone cope with and prepare for the inevitable. He has to make some very difficult decisions in how he can best help, which aren’t always the most ethical, in order to do what’s best for his daughter.
Lost River (2014)
Ryan Gosling made his directorial debut with this film set in the crumbling outskirts of Detroit. Lost River is a dark fantasy thriller about a town that has supposedly been cursed when it was flooded by a lake when a reservoir was built. Desperate to make some extra cash to care for her two boys and avoid losing their house, Billy (Christina Hendricks) seeks employment from Dave (Mendelsohn) but learns that the job he’s offering comes with some terrifying fine print.
Though his character in this film is relatively quiet, he has a tremendously menacing presence. Towards the end of the movie there is an oddly sexual dance that he performs while tormenting Billy. Gosling stated in an interview that on the day of filming that scene, Mendelsohn showed up with a boombox, played A$AP Rocky’s song “F***ing Problems,” and filmed the scene dancing to that song. He apparently caught the entire cast and crew off-guard when he did this, but they were all impressed with his commitment to the role.
Captain Marvel (2019)
Ben Mendelsohn plays opposite Brie Larson, Jude Law, and Samuel L. Jackson in the 21st film of the Marvel Comic Universe. Carol Danvers (Larson), aka Captain Marvel, tries to put together pieces of her past while hunting down the shape-shifting Skrull antagonist, Talos (Mendelsohn). Only after speaking to him, she learns that it’s her mentor, Yon-Rogg (Law), and the Kree Empire who are the villains in this story after all. Talos and Danvers team up to fight for their lives, and the lives of innocent Skrulls.
In this role, Ben Mendelsohn showed us the elasticity of his acting capabilities. He is intimidating and seemingly-evil when we are introduced to his character, but he also has a sense of humor. When impersonating Nick Fury’s (Jackson) boss, he compliments his own blue eyes. Later in the movie, there is a reference to Jackson’s other work in Pulp Fiction, when Talos maintains eye contact while slurping a soda. Some younger viewers might have missed the reference, but the scene had everybody laughing all the same. Mendelsohn will be reprising his role as Talos in the upcoming Disney+ miniseries, Secret Invasion.
Starred Up (2013)
This British prison drama focuses on Eric (Jack O’Connell) who has just Starred Up, by being transferred to a high-security adult prison from the juvenile prison. Mendelsohn plays the role of Eric’s father, Neville, who is serving a life-sentence at the same facility. While Neville does his best to get Eric to behave in accordance with the prison rules, he has a difficult time doing so when he is also involved with the gangster who “runs” the prison.
Mendelsohn has to once again show audiences his more sensitive side as he tries to look after his son. His character can be a little rough around the edges, but his performance shows that even behind prison walls, he will do whatever it takes to protect his son.
Darkest Hour (2017)
Directed by Joe Wright, this movie follows the early days of Winston Churchill’s (Gary Oldman) role as Prime Minister during the War Cabinet Crisis of 1940. When the former Prime Minister was forced to resign, he had to select a replacement that would be accepted by both parties and King George VI (Ben Mendelsohn).
King George VI had a stammer, for which he took speech lessons to improve in the 1920s. With Mendelsohn portraying him in the 40s during WWII, his speech impediment was almost entirely gone. Of course, the main focus of the movie was on Churchill, but regardless of the fact that Mendelsohn’s role in the movie was relatively small, it proved to still be pivotal. For this role he received an AACTA International Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
Mississippi Grind (2015)
Written and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, this movie features Gerry (Mendelsohn) as a struggling gambler and his newfound friend Curtis (Ryan Reynolds). The two of them embark on a road trip from Iowa, along the Mississippi River, to join in a high-stakes poker game in New Orleans. Gerry desperately needs the money so he can pay off his increasingly-violent and impatient loan shark, played by Alfre Woodard.
Mendelsohn’s character struggles with alcoholism, and gambling addiction. He is terrible with money and is often extremely unreliable as a friend, employee, and gambling partner. Despite all of these bad qualities, he still manages to be a likable character that you want to root for.
The Outsider (2020)
The Outsider is based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name. The limited series follows Ben Mendelsohn as Detective Ralph Anderson as he investigates the brutal murder of a young boy. The main suspect, Terry Maitland (Jason Bateman), claims to have been in a different city at the same time multiple witnesses claim they saw him in the area where the body was found, covered in blood. The shock of the beloved “Coach Terry” being charged as the suspect sends a ripple-effect of reactions throughout the town, which results in more bodies piling up.
Ben Mendelsohn playing a detective is quite a change of pace from how audiences are used to seeing him. He has an internal conflict with the fact that Coach Terry also coached his late son and ranges between wanting to kill Terry himself, and wanting to find proof that Terry did not commit the initial murder. He believes in cold hard facts and evidence, so when certain elements of the case don’t make any sense, he struggles. When Cynthia Erivo’s character, Holly Gibney, suggests the possibility of a supernatural influence, his hesitation to believe her costs the lives of multiple people close to him.
Ben Mendelsohn continues to pick up steam in his acting career with a part in the recently released film Cyrano (2021). He is also going to be starring in an Apple TV+ series called The New Look, which casts him as fashion designer Christian Dior rising to fame and fortune as he overtakes Coco Chanel.
Now that we’ve seen what this man is capable of, it’s impossible not to pay attention to what projects he does next.