Virgin River’s Benjamin Hollingsworth Breaks Down Shedding Brady’s Bad Boy Image
Virgin River’s Brady (Code Black’s Benjamin Hollingsworth) comes off as a bad boy — broody and sexy with a motorcycle to ride, a chip on his shoulder, and the requisite leather jacket. After serving in the Marines, Brady struggled with readjusting to civilian life. He briefly bartended for Jack’s establishment until the two had a falling out. The allure of making large sums of cash drew Brady into working for Calvin, who was shipping drugs. When Calvin tasked Brady with killing a snitch, he realized that he has made a big mistake.
Ever since then, Brady has tried to make amends and right his wrongs, but there’s still a cloud of doubt looming over Brady. Brady begins Season 4 in jail, and his circumstances get worse before they get any better. Hollingsworth recently spoke with CBR about the appeal of bad boys. He dove into Brady’s redemption, exploring his softer side, Season 5, and even his desire to play Superman.
Benjamin Hollingsworth:I always like playing bad boys. I feel they are a lot more fun than the hero. They get to do more sinister things. For me, there’s no obligation to act a certain way. You don’t have to worry about being likable, so you can just play a character as honestly as possible without censoring yourself against things that might be seen as unpleasant.
It’s easy to speculate that he was “Shady Brady” for the hell of it. How much did you attribute that to his upbringing and his time in the Marines?
I think that when someone doesn’t have a stable upbringing, it lays the foundation for a bit of trouble. When you don’t have proper guidance, you may not form the best role models. You may not have a fully-developed moral compass. That’s definitely the case with Brady. He’s constantly looking for a father figure to emulate. It had been Jack when they were in the Marines. When the Marines finished, it put Brady into a bit of a tailspin as far as who to look up to. Of course, when Brady and Jack have a falling out, he turns to Calvin, and that’s not really the kind of father figure you want in your life. That really contributes to Brady’s bad boy persona.
Season 3 culminated with Brady being arrested for supposedly shooting Jack. How much fun has it been playing up that ambiguity?
That’s always a fun thing to do as an actor, is to be a bit of a red herring as far as having people question whether you have done something or not. It’s an important part of Season 3 and even an important part at the end of Season 2 to really make Brady a suspect that you are unsure about. A lot of people, throughout Season 3, feel like they got to know Brady a lot better. I think they had a hard time believing that Brady, the same guy that you got to know in Season 3, was the guy who would shoot Jack. If you hadn’t gotten to know Brady in the same way, the way people got to know him through his relationship with Brie, then maybe it would have been a little more clear-cut. People would have just assumed it was Brady.
At one point in Season 3, Brady tells Brie that he’s never met someone like her. What about Brie gets his motor running?
There are many things about Brie that gets his motor running. First and foremost, it’s her brain and sharp wit and her ability to stand up for herself. That’s unlike any person Brady has met before. That is the one thing he is super attracted to. Of course, there’s a physical attraction. They can’t seem to keep their hands off of each other, which is also a key quality to keeping your motor running. Then there’s also something that is bringing a different quality of Brady out. Brie challenges him to be a better person. She makes him want to be a better person. All those things contribute to that.
We’ve seen this softer side of Brady the last two seasons. What have you enjoyed about leaning into that?
For me, as an actor, you always like playing different textures in a character. I’ve done it before in a number of characters that I play that are antagonistic, but you end up finding out they are a lot more complex than you first imagined. For me, a lot of that is playing those different shades of the character. It allows you to go places that you normally don’t get to go. When you see someone be vulnerable after you’ve seen them be so tough, rigid, and closed off, it’s very rewarding both as a performer and an audience member.
Nonetheless, Brady starts Season 4 in the slammer. In what way has that affected his Virgin River relationships or his perspective on life?
He’s been in jail before, as we find out in the series. Being back there, it’s clear to Brady that he doesn’t want to be there ever again, certainly after that outcome in the first episode. I think it’s a wake-up call that he needs to change his ways and choose who he hangs out with a lot more carefully. He has got himself entangled in this drug world that he has to find his way out of. This is something he, obviously, cannot sustain and something he doesn’t want to be in. It’s something he was kind of sucked into. Now, he feels he has to do something to pull himself out of it.
A lot of this year is about Brady clearing his name and coming after Calvin, but there’s also a new player in town. Does it feel as if Brady is over his head and rolling with the punches as best as he can?
I don’t know if Brady is over his head, but I definitely think things have escalated. Things are no longer as simple as it seemed earlier with Calvin. Brady doesn’t really know who he is up against anymore. It’s certainly not the day-to-day he is used to. He’s not sure what to expect. Also, he’s feeling a threat that he may be putting the person he loves most at risk, and that terrifies him.
This is Virgin River’s fourth season, and the fifth just kicked off production. What’s it been like staying on this rollercoaster ride with just one character and watching his evolution?
It’s very fulfilling. The major difference between film and television is in film, you have this intimate journey that lasts a couple of months. You get to portray this character, and you play this piece of them. You usually create a big backstory, but a lot of that backstory doesn’t necessarily make it into the movie. It’s just part of your job as an actor.
In a TV series, you get backstory written for you. As the seasons progress, you get more and more knowledge about this character and the history. With Dr. Mario Savetti in Code Black, I spent three years with him, over 50 episodes, over 50 hours, getting to know that character. Same with Brady. We are starting into Season 5, so I have done 42 episodes with Brady. You really feel like they are your friend, in some way. When I read scripts, I get emotionally invested. “No, no. Why is he doing this?” Just like an audience member does, we become attached to them, and we form a relationship to them. Even though it is us that plays them, it doesn’t necessarily separate us from feeling the same emotions the audience feels when there’s a new plot twist. When Brady got stabbed, I was like, “No!”
Brady ends this season in a better place than he’s ever been. It’s almost like a clean slate. What are you excited to dig into for Season 5?
I think it’s an opportunity to mend things with Jack. They have had such a strained relationship ever since Season 2, where Brady begins seeking more money. Through that, he severs time with someone that earlier Brady looked up to and wanted to emulate and use as a guide. Now, he has this perfect opportunity to rekindle a relationship with Jack. After all, Brady is dating his sister. He’s in love with his sister. It’s kind of unavoidable. There’s going to be some sort of reconciliation, something coming to a head between the two.
I call it “comfort TV”. It’s something Virgin River also does very well. It’s giving people something that feels familiar, feels reassuring, and that feels wholesome. Sometimes our news, our world, and our society get so intense. I think there’s something about entertainment that provides a bit of medicine. That’s what this is. That’s what Hallmark’s formula does. That’s what Virgin River does really well. They are providing people with the opportunity to live in a place that is comforting and reassuring. It’s very valuable to our society that can sometimes get really abrasive and overwhelming. For me, that’s what I find attractive about that style of entertainment.
Lastly, you switch up genres all the time. Are you aching to play in the Marvel or DC sandboxes at all?
I’d love to do some superhero stuff. As a kid, that’s what I was doing. I was jumping from couch to couch playing Superman. If someone was kind enough to give me that opportunity, I would wholeheartedly sign up for it.
Let’s put it out there. Which character would you love to play?
I grew up a big Superman fan. I know there have been many iterations of him. I would love to play a version of Superman that was more of an antagonistic approach to it, where he was someone who had wasted his opportunities to be Superman. Maybe he fell into the world of drugs. Maybe he was homeless. Instead of Clark Kent, he was this outcast. Then, one day, he uses his powers to save someone, and that starts to become his therapy. We start to see this shell of a human become whole again. The drugs are his kryptonite, and he finds his way out of that through helping people. That would be very cool.
