GN: Benny O. Arthur when you got  'Django in (2020) what was your reaction and process to approach the role and project ?

BA: Django came super unexpectedly. It was 2021, so peak covid and we were going in and out of lockdowns. I was supposed to be starring in a small theater production but at the time I was confronted with the loss of someone dear to me in my family, which ultimately led me to dropping out of the production. So for a while I was just at home dealing with this sort of emptiness day by day, questioning whether I had made the right choice. Along came this really super vague, secretive casting call. I remember thinking: “these are a lot of super long scenes to tape by myself”, but I ended up doing it for fun and to occupy myself with something that I really love doing. So I sent it off, thinking nothing of it. I believe that was on a Monday. Skip to Thursday of that week and I get a call from my agent asking me if I have anything planned for the next 7 months and if I could start horseback riding lessons the following week. And before I knew it, I found myself in Romania shooting this western series with an international cast. It was super surreal going from day to day uncertainty to being thrust into a huge new chapter in a completely foreign place. I was really unsure if I was ready for any of this, but something or perhaps someone told me to just do it and it was the best decision I could have taken. Because we were shooting a period piece a huge part of the preparation was in the way spoken. Before Django, I’d never been to any professional speech training. Seeing as the story is set in the Wild West, we had to do a Southern American dialect of that period, the 1860s. We had a great dialect coach, Sam Lilja, who trained us and was always there to guide us.

GN: How was it attending  State European School (SESB)?

BA: Attending SESB schools in Berlin was really special and I credit the start of my career to them to some extent. It was at these schools that I first started getting involved in theater. Especially for Germany it was something out of the ordinary to be able to attend international schools, where you came in contact and grew up  with kids from all over the world. It was through a parent of a kid at one of these schools that I landed my first professional gig in a production at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

GN: Any stories working on "Berlin Alexanderplatz"?

BA: Berlin Alexanderplatz was the second movie I ever did. And even though I only had a really small part in it, it was really special because of the people that I got to work with from the writers to the director and the super talented cast. It was also the first film I ever went to a film festival with. Being a Berliner, It was always super exciting going to the Berlin film festival, seeing cinema legends come to your hometown and getting to see films from all over the world showcased on the big screen. So it felt all the more like a pinch me moment when I got to attend the Berlinale not just as a guest, but as someone presenting a film, walking the red carpet with the cast and crew. It was my first time doing the red carpet at any film festival, and then to get to do it on home turf.

GN: Call My Agent  anything you can tell us ?

AB: I can’t really say much about Call My Agent just yet, as I don’t want to end up on Disney’s hit list (No, I am not writing this with Mickey Mouse standing next to me with a gun pointed to my head) but I will say that it’s another one of these crazy full circle moments for me personally because when I was shooting Django in Romania, the original Call My Agent was my comfort show being away from home for so long. I’d come home after a long day of shooting and would put on the show to unwind and relax. I also took up learning French again watching the original show to practice. So it’s really surreal, that a few years later, I would find myself in the main cast of the German iteration of this amazing show.

GN: What does the word goodnight mean to you ?

BA: Goodnight is like a magic password you enter into a time machine before you skip to the next day or chapter or whatever you got coming your way.

Talent: www.instagram.com/bennyoarthur/

Photos: www.instagram.com/fagittariusx