Ben Mendelsohn is a man who's hard to take your eyes off, on screen. In person he looks much younger, and less downtrodden than any of his characters. And that's understandable, because the compelling characters he so often plays are conflicted men on the edge of society, hardened and wearied by their circumstances, unhinged and full of dirty secrets.
Sitting down in a Sydney hotel room to talk about his latest role as black sheep eldest son Danny Rayburn in Netflix series Bloodline, Mendelsohn is a brighter, lighter, far more genial presence than the sorts of guys he portrays.
But he does share their cheeky grin, their easy drawl, somewhat "derelicte" styling, and distinctive mannerisms - the key to why he's made a career being "that guy", a magnetic actor with captivating blue eyes who steals scenes, but is rarely a leading man.
But now that's changing for the 46-year-old Los Angeles-based Melburnian.
Having broken into the international scene with his frightening role in acclaimed Australian drama Animal Kingdom in 2010, he took a key role as a drugged up mischief-maker alongside Brad Pitt and Ray Liotta in Killing Them Softly, then an easy-going bank robber partner for Ryan Gosling in The Place Beyond The Pines, a power-hungry board member in The Dark Knight Rises, a useless, wayward father to Jessa in Girls, a sleazy businessman in Gosling's directorial debut Lost River, slave master in Ridley Scott's Exodus: Gods and Kings, and a psychopathic expert diver working with Jude Law in Black Sea.
And this year he's also appearing alongside Ryan Reynolds as a down and out gambler in acclaimed Sundance film Mississippi Grind, plus he's just been confirmed as the villain in Star Wars spin-off Rogue One.
He's an eccentric desperado outlaw opposite Michael Fassbender in the Western Slow West which was filmed in New Zealand: "I grew up loving the John Wayne and Clint Eastwood Westerns. The Outlaw Josey Wales was a really big one for me," he told Indie Wire.
Yes, Mendelsohn has been much in demand, and meeting him in person, it becomes even clearer that beyond his onscreen talent, he's an entertaining guy who would be a pleasure to work with, and that's perhaps why writers and directors are falling over themselves to create roles for him.
Bloodline creator Todd Kessler explains "We only approached one guy to play Danny, and that was Ben. We knew it was him all along." And Slow West's Scottish writer-director John Maclean specifically wrote the role of roguish, grand-coat-wearing outlaw Payne with Mendelsohn in mind. "I started thinking of Ben and he was always my number one choice. His character in Animal Kingdom had the sort of danger and darkness I wanted for Payne. He's one of those actors who is able to play a character you're not sure whether to love or fear."
While some actors might be wary of being typecast as a bad guy, Mendelsohn said: "I think you've gotta enjoy the bad guys, to a certain degree. Unless what they do is so terrible, I think you're supposed to enjoy the bad guys.
"Vincent Price was probably one of the most enjoyable and successful bad guy actors of all time. He was doing terrible stuff, but we enjoy watching it.
"To me, that sort of character is what you want to aim for. You want to be enjoyable for an audience. What happens when a bad guy is enjoyable is that the audience gets to be bad for a little moment, too, and that's nice. It's nice, within the confines of watching a film, to get to be the bad guy."
His character in Bloodline, Danny Rayburn, isn't so clearly a nasty piece of work though. He has some menacing qualities, and harbours a real burning anger for the mistreatment he receives from his family.
But as the series unfolds, your sympathies and allegiances shift, and Danny's story turns out to be one of a victim, just as much as it's one of a black sheep. It's ultimately a tale about the difficulty of family dynamics, and the roles that are stamped on you from birth.
"There is a real universality to that feeling of being trapped in a role in your family, and I think that's one of the great strengths of the show, it's applicable just about wherever you go, it seems," explains Mendelsohn, who has two brothers of his own.
It wasn't just the role of Danny that attracted him to the series though, it was the whole production: the writers, the other actors, and the opportunity to contribute to shaping the series from the top. He clearly relishes the opportunity to expand his work.
"I met with all three guys [Todd and Glenn Kessler and Daniel Zelman], and we had a very very long breakfast that morphed into a lunch kind of thing, and they laid out what they were interested in looking at.
"And to me it felt like there was a lot of room within that to be a contributor, and a lot of space to move as an actor. They basically said 'Here's the palette we're interested in, and we'd love to see what you draw or paint within this sort of canvas.'
"I think it was the feeling that we were really going to be able to delve deep that attracted me. It was just an immediate thing of 'Ooh, ooh, this is feeling good', and once it started to take shape, I just couldn't stop feeling like "Oh! Oh! Oooh, oh wow! Wow.' It actually got scary."
He clearly enjoyed the opportunity to spar off his fellow lead Kyle Chandler - who plays the golden brother John - over such an extended period of shooting. Boxing metaphors are used to describe the steps by which the pair dance around each other as the relationship between John and Danny jabs and whirls between suspicion and guilt.
Mendelsohn has equal praise for his other co-stars, including Sissy Spacek, Sam Shepard, and Linda Cardellini.
"They're all going at each other right from the get-go, so it was exhilarating. These are such serious people to work with, I mean having Sissy Spacek as your mum, you know you're in a pretty serious ballpark," he laughs.
The other main character in the show is the Florida Keys, which creates as much atmosphere with the sunshine, waving palms, and lapping waves, as it does with the humidity, swamplands, and dust.
Mendelsohn had some hard days filming in the heat, or in the rain, half-drowning in brackish swamp water, and fending off sea-lice, but clearly it was all worth it.
"You'll accept a lot of discomfort if you feel like what's left will be good" he says with a grin.
He's not the only one who feels like "what's left" is good stuff - critics all over have lauded his captivating turn as Danny, and Ricky Gervais recently tweeted "Dear @TheEmmys, just give Ben Mendelsohn his Emmy for @Bloodline now. The rest of us won't mind :)"
Yes, it seems Ben Mendelsohn is having a moment. And the world is starting to sit up and take notice.
Who: Ben Mendelsohn
What: Starring in Netflix series Bloodline, and Western adventure film Slow West.
Where and when: Bloodline is available on Netflix now, and Slow West is in New Zealand cinemas next Thursday May 21.
- TimeOut
Dolly Parton will receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for her charity work.