Ben McKenzie knows it’s a bit surprising when fans hear he’s been investigating crypto for the last few years. Best known as teen heartthrob Ryan Atwood from The O.C., the actor, 47, also has an economics degree — and when he first learned about cryptocurrencies, alarm bells went off.
In his new documentary Everyone Is Lying to You for Money (in theaters now), producer/director McKenzie takes on the current crypto craze and outlines why he believes it’s a full-on scam. “You are not dumb for not understanding crypto,” McKenzie exclusively tells Us Weekly. “They try to make it sound complicated to confuse you. It’s just a scam, it’s just a mania, it’s just a crime and we don’t have to put up with it.”
Below, McKenzie talks about his money habits, life with “gracious and supportive” wife Morena Baccarin, new TV plans and which O.C. character should star in a crypto-based reboot:
Are you typically a saver or a spender?
We are in middle age and have three children we’re raising in NYC, so I would like to say that I’m a saver. We spend, however, an enormous amount of money, because it’s just the cost of living in New York. So, an aspirational saver, a practical spender.
What did your parents teach you about money?
One of the things they taught me is the value of owning your own home, which, unfortunately now, is increasingly near impossible for [the] younger generation. My wife [Morena Baccarin] and I are privileged to be able to afford it.
What was your first job ever?
Delivering pizzas for Mr. Gatti’s, a chain in Austin. It was a good job, man. I could listen to my music in my car, 16 years old, and people would tip. I go back and forth on whether having an official job at a young age is a good idea. It depends on the situation, but certainly, having respect for money and understanding the value of it for both good and ill is something we’re trying to convey to our kids.
What was your first show business gig?
I got in the union by very happenstantially auditioning for a voiceover for a Diet Dr Pepper commercial. It was my first-ever voiceover audition and it was one line. It was about the Holland Globetrotters, as opposed to the Harlem Globetrotters, because the joke was Diet Dr Pepper tastes like Dr Pepper but without the calories. And the line was “You the man, Hooter.” That one line got me into [SAG]. Because it was a national commercial and because of the union [and] their protections, I was able to get by on that and waiting tables and doing all sorts of other jobs until I got The O.C.
Do you remember the moment you first felt financially secure?
When I booked The O.C. pilot… At the time, it was a life-changing amount of money. I had a $500 car. I was crashing at a friend’s apartment and I needed the cheapest car I could find… It was a 1986 Cadillac Deville, 228,000 miles on it, no AC and no radiator, really. And when I got the series, I decided to buy myself a car. So the picture I have is of the Cadillac and the Infiniti splurge. That was the symbol of the fact I had made it.
What was your best investment?
You’re gonna think this is cheesy, but it’s my relationship with my wife. It is so hard in life to do it on your own… I’m just deeply grateful for meeting her and for her being brave enough, foolish enough, to marry me. Best investment by far.
What’s your wife’s interest in cryptocurrencies on a scale of one to 10?
There’s no negative!? Morena is so fantastic in the movie… she’s kind of a surrogate for every woman in the world. Because I cannot tell you how many women have told me that they have some guy who keeps telling them about crypto; it’s a very male phenomenon. So, Morena’s interest in crypto is zero, as is my kids’, but she has been so gracious and so supportive letting me do this crazy thing.
Have you thought about what kind of project would appeal to you to do next?
I want to get back into television, because I really do miss the camaraderie and collaboration that happens in both the development process, but [also] the shooting of it. Writing a book is quite lonely. Making a documentary [is] really kind of lonely, too. So I missed that. I’m developing a series, but I don’t know that I can say much more about it. It’s a legal drama, political thriller set in New York.
Which O.C. character do you think would most likely fall for a crypto scam?
I love Tate Donovan personally, but it’s totally Jimmy Cooper. I mean, obviously, right? SEC investigation in the show, definitely hawking crypto. And what would be interesting about doing that, not that I’m proposing it, per se, is [to look at]… Tate’s such a lovely, likable guy that it’d be interesting to examine that, right? The rise and the fall. [You] feel for him and feel for the family. So, yeah, when we get The O.C. reboot going, we’ll have to work on Jimmy Cooper’s crypto endeavors.
What do you hope the impact of the doc will be?
I hope people will be entertained. Everyone knows somebody who’s invested in cryptocurrency, but the point of the doc is not really to speak to [the] five to six percent of the population that’s really into it. The point is to speak to the rest of us, the 80-plus percent of the country that’s never bought crypto. The vast majority of the public is very skeptical of it, because all they read about is the crime and the corruption and the people who lose their money.
I want to express to those people that it’s not you, it’s them. We’re in a bad place right now where crypto has worked its way into our system via the president’s newfound love of crypto and dismantling of regulation and all of that. That’s very dangerous, but we do have the power, if we hold our representatives to account, to change the tide of history and to put this thing back in its place where it belongs.
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