‘Bloodline’ Star Ben Mendelsohn Tells Us Why He Offered to Have His Teeth Pulled for a Role

Ryan Gosling had to have been impressed

Ben Mendelsohn

Hollywood is full of daring, dedicated actors. None of them have a thing on Ben Mendelsohn.

The “Bloodline” star made his way into method-acting lore about five years ago, when the “Place Beyond the Pines” supporting actor reportedly offered to have his teeth pulled for his backwoods role in the film opposite Ryan Gosling.

When TheWrap spoke with Mendelsohn about Season 3 of his Netflix series, we also snuck in a question about the legendary story. And, wow.

TheWrap: Did you really offer to get your teeth pulled for the role?
Ben Mendelsohn: Yeah, I did. Well, I didn’t offer to get them pulled. There’s a couple that are gone anyway, so I offered to get them taken back out. He’s written as largely toothless and stuff, so I figure, if you’ve been dentally challenged, it’s not unreasonable to offer it up.

Look, I think it’s probably grown in the re-telling to a slightly more heroic, nut-so kind of a thing. But that’s more-or-less an accurate retelling of it.

I wouldn’t do it for this job.
If you do it for a film, and it lives however long that film lives — that’s got a certain beauty to it. Especially if you know you can just chuck ’em back in at the end. Yeah, there’s a bit of drama to go through, but what the f—? You only get one shot at this stuff, so you might as well go for it.

Check out all three seasons of “Bloodline” on Netflix now.

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