Ben Lawson Talks ‘Designated Survivor’ [Exclusive Interview]

For Ben Lawson, Damian Rennett’s treachery on ABC’s Designated Survivor surprised even him.

“I was like, wait a second! Am I a double agent? What the hell?” Lawson stated when I spoke with him recently about his exciting role on Season 2 of ABC’s premiere political drama.

If you are familiar with the show you know that Damian Rennett is a British MI-6 Operative who started out working with FBI agent Hannah Wells. That is until he was discovered to also be in league with Russia. This led to Hannah shooting him.

Now he is back and, as a guarded resource, he’s helping to keep the Kirkman administration protected. All the while dealing with both Hannah and Chuck’s mistrust in him.

Together, we dove right into discussing the heart of the show and why it is so well received in the present atmosphere.

Lawson thinks that today’s audiences respond to President Kirkman so positively because he “operates on a more hopeful list. Not politically, I suppose. He faces tough problems and manages to do the right thing, but at a cost,” Lawson said.

“The Kirkman White House is so different from the real-life White House. I think people, a lot of people anyway, really want or need this White House right now because it’s very hopeful. I think these same people feel despair with reading the newspapers. I’m very lucky and grateful to be a part of the show — to be a kind of beacon of hope right now,” he added, voicing just how much he appreciates the opportunity Damian has given him.

The other great thing about Designated Survivor is that Damian isn’t just a two-dimensional character. This is something Lawson especially loves.

“I think Damian’s intentions are good, but he’s in a position where he has to juggle a few things. I think that’s a lot more interesting to play, as an actor, than someone who is just drawn as a good guy or a bad guy. Initially, Damian was just, a sidekick. And that’s a boring role,” Lawson explained before continuing his explanation of Damian’s intentions.

“Damian has ties to Russia. We have the position that he’s in. And certainly, his behavior is questionable but, what we are seeing is that there’s some empathy. I’ve certainly found some empathy in why he behaves the way he does. Because you know, what drives him is not evil. It’s not a bad guy. But he’s had to be untruthful.”

Lawson believes Damian really just wants to help protect the ones he cares about.

The discussion of who Damian is on a personal level led our conversation to how he manages to play such a complex character.

“When we see a character that’s untruthful we go ‘oh you know we shouldn’t like you. You’ve transgressed.’ Then we look back at their reasoning and ask ‘can I get back on board with that?’ That’s interesting as an actor and a kind of human quandary. You know? We’ve all sort of gone ‘I’m gonna have to be deceptive to a point. It’s for the greater good,'” Lawson detailed.

This explanation led our conversation about Chuck, who’s had to wrestle with this struggle a bit especially working so closely with Damian.

When asked about Jake Epstein, who plays Chuck, Lawson had only positive things to say about him. “I know that I love him but the stuff that we get to do, we get to play together, has always been my favorite part of the show,” he said.

“I’m playing a kind of international spy who’s part action hero and you know he’s got the James Bond love story. That’s bloody great perks to play but what I’ve always loved is how much Chuck and I never got on. Chuck was there first and then a guy who’s opposite him in every way comes in. And now we’re at the point where things aren’t going so well for Damian, and finally, Chuck has shot forward,” Lawson continued, laughing a bit towards the end.

Lawson also spoke to the fact that Chuck uses that shift in power to his advantage now.

“He’s like ‘I was right all along.’ The pleasure he takes in bringing Damian down, bringing him to his knees. It’s really enjoyable. It’s been great to play alongside him. Early on, I could do just anything like sitting there cracking my knuckles and Chuck would be so annoyed, and now it’s the opposite.”

“When you have those human relationships. You can’t just have the politics but you also have to have those interpersonal relationships. Even if it’s something as simple as an alpha and a beta male working together. That’s really fun to play. Especially when you get on as well as Jake and I do,” Lawson continued.

As for what we can expect from Damian moving forward, Lawson teased that there is a big episode for his character coming up.

“All I will say is I think he’s taken quite a journey. I was hoping for redemption for Damian and I think that we will see that coming up. Probably, I think it’s next week. It’s quite a big episode for Damian and I would like to think in some big ways he’s redeemed in the eyes of the audience.”

Lawson’s passion for musical theatre was something he was excited to talk about as well.

“I trained and worked in the theatre in Australia. Gosh. I mean right now I recently took my mom again — I’d seen Book of Mormon before — and I took my mom to see it. She still goes to mass every Sunday so I wasn’t sure what way it was going to go but she absolutely loved it,” Lawson said.

“My mom was always into musical theatre and I think that’s how I got into it, growing up. With the albums playing you know. My mom’s not a theatre person but she was into musical theatre so it was great as an adult to give one back to her. To show her how much it’s changed, you know.”

Finally, Lawson shared what he’s been binge-watching most recently, which includes a show he’s been a bit behind on.

“The one I just binged watched is a Netflix documentary, Wild Wild Country. I just watched that last week. It’s a six-part documentary series about a cult in Oregon in the 80s. Yeah, I’m super into that true crime or documentary stuff. So that’s what I’ve recently binged. But, on the scripted side, I had never seen The Office before. The American Office.”

Then he laughed and added, “If you’re a Brit or Australian you know The British Office like the back of your hand. I could quote you every one of those episodes. But, I’d never given The American Office the time of day until about a month ago, and now I’m currently up to Season 6,” he said. “So I’m playing catch up. I’m about ten years behind the rest of the country.”

You can catch Ben Lawson on Designated Survivor airing Wednesdays at 10/9c on ABC.

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