Personal details
- Birth Date: 1980-10-29
- Height: 5′ 8″ (1.73 m)
- Birth Location: Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Children: (filed for divorce, 2 children) Ella
- Parents: Gillian Kirwan
- Professions: Actor, Producer, Director
Ben Foster, born in Boston back in ‘80, grew up with restaurants in the family—mom and dad hustling in the biz—before the clan packed up and landed in Fairfield, Iowa. Small town, but wild enough to have four community theaters, which is kinda unreal when you think about it. Acting bug bit him early. Kid’s not even a teenager and he’s already writing, directing, and starring in his own play at twelve, snagging second place in some international contest. By fourteen, he’s off to Interlochen’s summer theater program, which is basically theater nerd heaven. School didn’t stand a chance. Sixteen rolls around and Ben’s out, heading straight for LA. Not even a year in, Disney scoops him up for Flash Forward, where he’s doing the whole high school highs and lows thing. Next thing you know, he’s dipping his toes in TV movies, making rounds on random series, but then Liberty Heights drops in ‘99. He’s playing a Jewish rebel getting into all sorts of forbidden romance—definitely not your cookie-cutter teenage drama. Then there’s Get Over It, with Kirsten Dunst, and the darker Bang Bang You’re Dead—both with Ben in the lead, showing off that intensity he’s got. After a string of killer small roles, 2005’s Hostage starts turning heads his way. Suddenly, he’s everywhere: X-Men: The Last Stand, Alpha Dog, 3:10 to Yuma, The Messenger, The Mechanic, Rampart, Kill Your Darlings, Lone Survivor… The dude’s got range for days, and Hollywood finally caught on.
Justin Timberlake went hardcore for his role in Alpha Dog (2006). He actually risked his eyesight during filming—no joke. The guy used glaucoma drops to keep his pupils blown out, so he’d look convincingly high through most of the movie. We're talking about spending hours with his vision all whacked out, stumbling around set like he actually just left a sketchy party. To keep things safe-ish, he’d literally hide in bushes or cover his eyes between takes, trying to avoid any harsh light that might fry his retinas. It got so intense he sometimes had to chat with director Nick Cassavetes with his eyes closed—imagine pulling off a serious conversation like that. All for the sake of nailing that spaced-out vibe. You’ve gotta respect the dedication, even if it was a little reckless. Method acting, but make it risky. That’s some wild commitment for a movie role.
refrencennSo, in the book, the dude I play was supposed to be this absolute unit—like, 400 pounds, mid-thirties, just a wall of a man. That’s not even close to me. I had to switch it up, dig into something else. Ended up going for this vibe where the character’s totally messed up—he watched his parents get killed when he was a kid, so now he’s got this twisted obsession with little girls and gets off on watching people die. It’s dark, man. Real dark. Not your standard villain, but someone seriously broken, unpredictable. I tried to channel all that chaos and trauma, really make him unsettling without turning into some cartoonish monster. There’s just this raw, disturbing energy that hangs over every scene he’s in. Playing a guy like that, you gotta go places you’d rather not. It’s not easy, but hey, that’s the job.
October 29, 1980
5′ 8″ (1.73 m)
Konidela Ram Charan
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Yes, Ella
Gillian Kirwan and Surekha
44 years old