Introducing Ben Ratner

BAILA LAZARUS EDITOR

Ben Ratner laughs out loud once in our hour-long interview. It almost seems incongruous, given that his expression hardly ever wavers from the pensive or studious. But it's the thought of his character Rob in his latest movie, 19 Months, that has Ratner chuckling.

"19 Months is, at times, closer to me than I care to admit," he says. Closer than he cares to admit? In 19 Months, Ratner plays a dysfunctional, jealous, possessive, almost psychotic boyfriend. But he tempers the comparison.

"I have a lot more exterior focus than that character," he adds. "I have a lot more interest in other people than I [have] in my own thoughts."

An interesting observation from a performer who has spent so many years of his career, from the early 1990s until now, creating projects that are autobiographical.

"Maybe as a writer or artist you feel you haven't paid adequate respect to your family or culture," Ratner, 36, says thoughtfully, adding that autobiographical works are a way of showing respect for and thanks to your family.

"Instead of doing it by taking out the garbage, I'd rather do it by making a movie about it," he says.

And making movies is what Ratner does. After trying a brief career as a competitive boxer in high school (a few broken noses and concussions put an end to that objective), playing bass in a local band after that, then working for local impresario Sam Feldman, Ratner finally started taking a few acting and writing courses, as well as stand-up comedy workshops, and slid right into his niche.

"As soon as I got into acting, I felt so at home," says Ratner, who points to Jewish comedic culture as a source of inspiration.

"For me, people like Woody Allen, Lenny Bruce, Bob Dylan and Dustin Hoffman were the Jews that I identified with. Culturally, I always was drawn to the more outspoken, brash, emotional side of my family ... and that was a big part of being Jewish - having a family that wasn't afraid to sit down and fight."

Ratner, who now teaches acting, believes that everyone who's an actor is, at their core, acting for one person, one relationship in their life.

"For me, I think I wanted to make my dad laugh," he says. "My mother's love was always unconditional but my dad's love was more challenging.... That's why I try to bring a lot of humor to all the roles I play."

Humor yes, but it's a humor that's as dry as salt flats. Ratner has carried off his last two major roles (Rob in 19 Months and Noah in Last Wedding) prompting great laughs from the audience but hardly ever cracking an on-screen smile.

In Last Wedding he played a morose, hen-pecked, neurotic newlywed in a doomed relationship. Superficially, the character does seem to suit the self-described broody actor. But, as he did with 19 Months, Ratner distances himself from the role he plays.

"I'm a lot more expressive than the character in Last Wedding," maintains Ratner with a stoic face. "I was nervous about how I, as an actor, would be perceived. If people would judge me or if they'd see it as the character....

"I didn't want to do [the character] weak so I tried to find a way of doing the character as emotionally detached, so that's very different from me in that way," he adds. "

In 19 Months, as the possessive boyfriend, Ratner's character has a less-than-easy time trying to cope with the fact that his girlfriend is interested in someone else. Even though they had agreed that a relationship only has a shelf-life of 19 months, Rob is obsessed with his girlfriend and refuses to let go.

In one of the funnier scenes, Rob, in trying to move on with his life, hits on his next-door neighbor, an unusually tall woman. Director Randall Cole decided to play up the visual disparity (Ratner is below-average in height, himself) by having the two of them in a wide shot walking down a sidewalk together.

"It's not unusual to have a woman towering over me but that woman was tall," says Ratner. "Randall knew what he was doing. He knew how to get a cheap laugh."

Ratner takes the joke well, though.

"If you look at the history of film, Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, Alan Ladd, were all short guys so [I'm] continuing that tradition. There might have been a couple of jobs where that's been an issue. But unless you're walking down a street in a wide shot with a woman who's six-foot-two, it doesn't really matter."

It also doesn't matter if you're writing, directing or acting in your own projects.
Currently in the works for Ratner is Moving Malcolm, a film about "moving from being a young adult to being an adult and changing your destructive ways." Ratner directs and stars in that movie, alongside local actors Babz Chula and Jay Brazeau. The film will start shooting next month.

After that will be Spadina, set in Toronto in 1936, about a Jewish boxer (Ratner) who gets a chance to fight in the Berlin Olympics. He feels he'll do more for his people by going to the games and winning a medal than by staying at home and joining an international boycott.

On board is local entertainment columnist David Spaner, as co-writer, and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici. The script is still in development.

In the meantime, 19 Months is due for general release later this year and Ratner will soon see if people draw a connection between his persona on screen and off.

Ratner sees a difference. Although he admits he can be judgmental, "I think I'm a nicer guy than that character," he says, dryly.

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