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 Sterling Beaumon plays the young version of villain Benjamin Linus on Lost. |
The young Ben initially didn't know anything about the adult Ben.
But that was a good thing.
"I'm not supposed to be like Ben yet," said 13-year-old Sterling Beaumon, who plays the young Benjamin Linus in Lost.
"Ben is not Ben yet."
Hmmm, good point.
Lost airs Wednesdays on A and ABC, and starting this week, Beaumon will appear in a string of episodes as the question of "how Ben became Ben" gets answered.
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"That's one of the things we're going to find out," Beaumon said.
The adult Ben, of course, is one of the main villains on Lost. He is played in delightfully creepy fashion by Michael Emerson.
And even if the young Ben isn't necessarily supposed to be like the adult Ben yet, there's something about Beaumon's portrayal that brings Emerson's portrayal to mind. It isn't so over-the-top that it's cartoonish, but it's subtle and it's there.
"The first time I did it, everyone kept saying, 'Oh, he's so much like Ben,' " recalled Beaumon, who first played the young Ben in a single Lost episode in 2007. "But I really didn't know how to do Ben."
Chalk it up to astute casting, we suppose.
Beaumon already has a lengthy acting resume. His TV appearances have included spots on ER, Bones, House, Heroes, Cold Case and Scrubs. And later this year, Beaumon's voice will be among the voices propelling the animated feature film Astro Boy (alongside the voices of Nicolas Cage, Kristen Bell, Donald Sutherland, Eugene Levy, Matt Lucas and Freddie Highmore, among others).
A native of San Diego, Beaumon was a competitive figure skater when he was little more than a toddler. He's still obsessed with ice, but now hockey is his passion.
"My roots are in Canada -- my grandma is from Montreal," said Beaumon, who seemed thrilled to be speaking with a Canadian because of the hockey connection.
"Don't you guys get mad with Detroit saying it's 'Hockey Town?' "
Uh, yeah, actually.
Anyway, when Beaumon first got the call to play young Ben for one episode in Lost's third season, he already had decided he disliked the show. But it didn't have anything to do with the show itself.
"I had never seen Lost, but I hated it, because I was on another show -- it was called In Case of Emergency -- that kept getting pre-empted because of Lost," Beaumon said.
"After I found out I'd be working on Lost, I started to watch it. But I had made it only to the end of the first season by the time I had to go to work on it, and Ben wasn't even in the first season."
Somehow it all worked out, though. The creators of Lost clearly liked Beaumon's work, because now he's back.
Complex shooting schedules being what they are, has Beaumon ever even met Emerson?
"I have met Michael quite a few times now," Beaumon said. "He is one of the nicest guys ever. He is one of the best actors, and he's so educated."
It must have been weird, though, when Beaumon first met the adult version of himself, so to speak.
"Actually," Beaumon said, "I think it was more weird for him."