Jonathan Bennett - Celebrity Interview
Jonathan Bennett
Interview By: Dan Deevy
DanDeevy@TheCinemaSource.com
What could possibly be more fun for a young actor than playing a dashing, cuter then cute country boy who spends his days driving fast cars and his nights chasing fast women? Why, getting paid to do it of course!
It was an absolute no-brainer for newcomer Jonathan Bennett (Mean Girls)when the opportunity arose to play a young Bo Duke in the latest incarnation of the three decade spanning phenomenon, The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning
“Ohh of course, I was a huge fan,” he begins, “I grew up watching it, so when the opportunity came up to play Bo I thought; I get to slide across the hood of the General Lee and jump in the window?!? Done.”
As simple as that sounds to those of us who have never tried it, the skills of being able to pull that off seamlessly are harder to come by than one might think.
“You would think it’s so easy to jump into a car window, but I’m 6’2”, so to jump up and try to get my legs through the window around the steering wheel past the gear shift, it’s not easy. My legs are like 6 feet long I think!”
Unfortunately for Jonathan before even getting to the window he had to conquer the hood! “Ohh yeah and then sliding across the hood, you think there’s gonna be some kind of wax or something that’s gonna help you get across… No. The hood of a Dodge Charger is like seven feet or something ridiculous, it’s like the widest hood you’ve ever seen and me trying to get my fuckin’ clumsy legs up and slide over does not happen easily.”
One wonders how his predecessor, an even taller 6’3” John Schneider was able to pull it off for so long. “Well he did it for what, 47 years? So you probably get used to it then. We had five weeks to learn how to do it.”
And in that five weeks producers did their best to teach Jonathan all that he needed to know to look good both getting into and speeding away in the legendary super charged, General Lee.
“I remember the first time we did it they took us out to a driving track and had me practice driving and learn ways to make the General Lee look really good when you’re peeling out and things like that. And we also practiced sliding across the hood,” he says, “The first time I did it I just cannon balled right on top of the hood. I just ran, jumped up and fell smack in the middle of it and the hood just caved in! I looked at the prop guy and he said, ‘don’t worry about it we have more hoods,’ so he went and replaced it. So yeah, it took me about a good probably 30 times before I actually got across.”
Some actors will walk ...
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