Talking to Ben McKenzie about his new crypto doc
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Sam Bankman-Fried interviewed by Ben McKenzie, right, in "Everyone Is Lying to You for Money." Photo: Courtesy of Neil Brandvold via Easy Money Productions
We caught up recently with Ben McKenzie, the actor and author who grew up in Austin and was a heartthrob in the TV show "The O.C."
Driving the news: McKenzie, 47, is in town Monday promoting "Everyone Is Lying to You for Money," an investigative documentary about cryptocurrency that he directed.
- He's in conversation Monday at 4pm with Evan Smith at the LBJ School of Public Affairs. The film will also screen at AFS Cinema in early May.
Background: McKenzie, an Austin High product who now lives in New York, is the son of Austin poet Frances Schenkkan and attorney Pete Schenkkan.
- This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
How are you feeling about Austin, whose changes seem bound to the tech bro culture you're making a film about?
"I have deep affection for Austin. I want my kids to know the town I grew up in — and my 10-year-old sleeps with a Bevo stuffed animal each night. I'm trying to indoctrinate them as UT fans.
- By the same token, when I see a Cybertruck ... it's so antithetical to the liberal, contrarian, iconoclastic sensibility when I was growing up."
But isn't there something contrarian about crypto, too?
"Crypto did start off with a cyber punk, liberal/libertarian version of the world. At this point, it's been squelched, perverted into what is libertarian anarchism. 'We don't need money ... We'll just build the most beautiful computer code.' It's very dangerous and furthers the fracturing of social consensus."
President Trump looms over this film — and we see him promoting his own cryptocurrency.
"He says he's not just a good president, he's the greatest president who has ever lived. It's a trait he shares with conmen, to create a conception of themselves as legitimate businessmen."
Does being a celebrity help you land interviews?
"For sure. They want to meet Ryan Atwood from 'The O.C.' And they also underestimate you because Ryan Atwood from 'The O.C.' surely couldn't ask a serious question."
What's your next project?
"I want to go back to television. I'm working on a legal drama with David E. Kelley inspired by the Eric Adams corruption investigation — of the search for justice in a world gone mad."