Interview ‘Population 11’ actor and executive producer Ben Feldman

TEM (The Extra Mile) :Can you describe the series for me, for those who might not know a little bit about it?

Ben: Yes, the series is sort of a fish-out-of-water situation. An American guy, me, well Andy, has traveled to the outback in the middle of nowhere in Australia to solve some mysteries, all of which are essentially spoiler alerts, but it has to do with the disappearance of his father and a large sum of money and possibly some crime, and he’s thrust into this weird world of the strange personalities that you find in tiny towns in the middle of nowhere.

TEM: Right, and so Population 11 takes place in the outback of Australia, which is one of the only places in the world I promise to never go because of how dangerous it is. Can you tell me, how was it filming there? Have you been before?

Ben: No, I’d been to Australia before, but even the cast had not been to, you know, they were constantly looking around being like, Mike, just so you know, this is not Australia. It’s very different. I mean, we were in a town called Derby, filled with just delightful, sweet people who were all thrilled to be there, amazingly, because it is just so remote, and there was no stop sign. I ate dinner at a gas station. There was like deadly snakes and bugs and crocodiles right outside my door. But that made it really cool. It was an adventure. You don’t often feel like you’ve gone on an adventure. You know, I did a series here that was 11 minutes away from my front door, and I pulled onto a lot and had a trailer. It was nice and air conditioned. And it sometimes feels good to like go somewhere where almost everything is homicidal and terrifying.

TEM:  Do you have any  stories from while you were filming?

Ben: Um, nothing. I mean, we didn’t get in any trouble or any danger. We were always pretty close to danger, but not in danger. We shot a scene, I shot a scene chained to a dock, um, probably like a hundred feet above a body of water filled with like multiple eight-foot hungry crocodiles. And the chain was there so that if I were to slip, it was a fight scene, so if I slipped, because the dock’s like this big, there’s something there to save me from being, um, literally eaten. Um, and you know, you’d stumble, the set would shut down because there’d be a King Brown snake slithering in between base camp and where we’re supposed to shoot, um, a baby. I actually stepped over a baby once and was like, oh, there’s a little baby King Brown over there. And they’re like, we’re shutting down this door and drop shooting for the next two hours. Apparently the babies are more dangerous because they’re, they’re more venomous and they, they’re, they’re like irresponsible with their venom. Like they’re, they’re kids, so they’ll kill you right away. Um, but we had a lot of fun. It was fun. It’s, it’s absolutely stunning out there. Um, and it’s just surrounded by beautiful water and, and, um, every, everywhere you look, it’s just, you’re just blown away.

TEM: So you play Andy in Population 11. Can you describe him a little bit and how he’s different from you?

Ben: He’s not. But beyond that, I mean, it was actually really easy to do this for me, because in order to play an American who’s been thrust into this world at the last second, knowing nothing about anything, and trying to figure out what was going on while everybody else kind of knew each other and was in this weird little, like, club, Australia club, was exactly what was going on. I mean, I lived very much in parallel with Andy’s arc and his journey on the show. So for a lazy actor like me, it was great. I didn’t have to do much. I just had to show up and be confused and horrified by everything, which I very much was.

TEM: Now, I have to mention, you’ve been in so many incredible projects, but most notably two of my favorite films of all time, which are As Above, So below and Cloverfield, two concrete gems that I still rewatch even to this day. Both are making a resurgence on TikTok. My question to you though is, how long do you think Andy would survive in As Above, so Below, and or Cloverfield?

Ben: Cloverfield, I mean I was in there for a second. Cloverfield is a tougher one. That’s like a natural disaster essentially. As Above, So below, I feel the same way when I think back on shooting that as I do on shooting this just because that was also an extremely strange, difficult, uncomfortable situation because we, the same way population 11, I was actually in the outback in this real town in the middle of nowhere. Cloverfield, we actually were stories below Paris in real catacombs sneaking around. It was barely sets. And so, you know, that was a different kind of uncomfortable part doing that movie. I think Andy would survive for a while and I think he’s pretty resilient as long as there was some sort of selfish, something dangling, a carrot dangling in front of him. He does pretty good on purpose.

TEM: What’s one thing that you would say, Ben, that you want people to feel when they’re watching the show? Like, while you were making it, while you were filming it, what was the one thing that you’d hope came across when it all came together?

Ben: I wanted, I was, we took a lot of pains to make sure that because we were kind of surfing a lot of genres at once, I wanted to make sure that that sort of the transitions between all of them were, I want someone to watch it go. I never realized that something funny could also be creepy and scary and also silly and also kind of punk rock and sort of all these things at the same time. I wanted it to feel like a different flavor than you’re used to tasting, if that makes sense. And of course, we wanted to preserve a mystery and keep people constantly guessing and excited and wondering what was going to happen next. But yeah, that’s it. I read it and I thought, I don’t know if anybody else will like this, but I know I love this. And in my opinion, the best shows are the shows that make every single person feel that way. Like, this was made for me. There’s no way everybody else likes this, but this is like exactly my thing. And that’s what this show feels like. And that’s what I hope it is for people. Yeah, well, I’m sure everybody’s going to love it. I’m so excited for everyone’s opinions to come rolling in once they start watching it on Paramount+.

You can stream the first episode of Population 11 on Paramount+ on August 1, 2024