Benjamin Byron Davis Talks ‘Borderlands’, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3’, & More (GVN Exclusive Interview)

Benjamin Byron Davis is best known for playing the charismatic villain Dutch van der Linde in Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption 2 video games. Other than that, he’s been both in Ant-Man and the Wasp and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 and many more amazing projects. Davis will play Marcus in the upcoming Borderlands film, which is based on a video game franchise.

Below is the exclusive Geek Vibes Nation interview with Benjamin Byron Davis and our colleague KJ from The KJ Today Show.

KJ: Hello, Geek Vibes Nation. It is KJ, excited to be here with you from the Kinda Nerdy Network, and KJ Today reporting for Geek Vibes Nation. And with me today, I am really, really excited. There are so many geeky things that we get to talk about with you, sir, from Red Dead Redemption, and of course, Guardians of the Galaxy, and so much more. So glad to have you with us today, Benjamin Byron Davis. Do I get to call you Ben?

BBD: Oh, please call me Ben. Absolutely. The world is lousy with Ben Davises, so I chose to go with my full name just for clarity’s sake.

KJ: I’m in Indianapolis. There’s actually a Ben Davis High School here.

BBD: Ben Davis High School, their team is called the Giants, as a matter of fact, which I appreciate. I’m quite familiar with the Ben Davis High School. I’m quite familiar with the Ben Davis brand of clothing in Washington State. The Ben Davis variety of garden apple used primarily in cooking, I’m quite familiar with. Ben Davis, Benjamin O. Davis, for the Tuskegee Airmen, a very important figure in history. And then me, stuck with a name. Well, well, well occupied prior to my arrival on the scene.

KJ: Well, Ben, today we want to talk about, get right into, because so many people are just anticipating this movie [Borderlands] to the point that I want to start off by, are you feeling the pressure or were you and the cast and the crew feeling the pressure to make this highly anticipated movie version of the video game Borderlands?

BBD: Pressure’s one way to put it. I mean, Borderlands has such a robust history. It’s got such a deep and abiding fandom. Yeah, I would say there’s some pressure that was felt, but we could not have asked for a more stacked bench of actors to work alongside, and not just the actors, every element of production. was really dedicated to honoring the game, honoring the lore of the game, and by extension, hopefully, honoring the fans of the game. You know, I’ve got something of a history in video games and I have a great and abiding respect for the fans of Red Dead Redemption, and I’m growing an abiding respect for the fans of Borderlands, but I understand loving something so much. And so, I think everybody on the project, starting at the top with Eli Roth, who, by the way, we had Randy Pitchford with us, I think every day, on set, you know, correcting. Knowing the details of everything, which I was really worried about because the last thing I want to do is disappoint an excited fan with any missteps. But we took it quite seriously and we had a lot of fun.

KJ: It had to be, you know, a little different coming from, you know, you got to create Dutch, right, with Red Dead Redemption. And then the fan base came from there. So you didn’t have that pressure when you were working with Dutch. You just kind of got to develop the character. Did that feel a little bit different this time?

BBD: Oh, profoundly different. I mean, above and beyond any opportunity I have to mention Bruce DuBose and his work as Marcus throughout the titles of Borderlands, that was the North Star. And the last thing, you know, because I think that there is a world where I’m gonna have to watch some other actor perhaps play Dutch down the road. I’m just saying, you know, life is long, things happen. But so I was mindful every day that I was, I was picking up a mantle that was so well established by such a venerable performance as the one that Bruce DuBose gave. So that was my North Star. I listened certainly over and over again to all of his intros, but I worked as hard as I could. At a certain point, the sounds, if I was too devoted to making sure the sounds were right, I lost something of the spirit of the guy. So I’m hopeful that everybody likes what we found with Marcus. But honestly, the guy that I am most hopeful is pleased with the work is Bruce DuBose. But I certainly understood the mission. And I did not want to fall short by any stretch of the imagination.

KJ: And, you know, you mentioned Eli Roth and then you’ve got this cast. I mean, how amazing was it to just be on set with Kate Blanchett and Kevin Hart? And I mean, Jack Black. And I’m just imagining Jamie Lee Curtis. My gosh. I mean, did you just how did you even focus on your own character when you’re surrounded by so much talent?

BBD: It was, uh, it was quite surreal, you know, we shot during lockdown. So, it was a very kind of odd experience. Normally on a set, it’s a real sort of village and you get to meet everybody and you know, everybody down the list and you put faces to names. This was, everybody had a mask on. So you didn’t, it was except for the principals, but, you count on one hand, uh, actors that I’ve wished all of my life to be able to work alongside, uh, number one, every time would be Cate Blanchett and to get off a plane and be in the lobby of the hotel in Budapest and see her. And we commiserated right away. I think I had the advantage of my first day working with Cate. She had just spent a week working with a trash can. So I think that my work was somewhat welcome as an actual living, breathing human being on the other side of the screen. But when you are waking up and you know that you’re going to go work 12 hours and your scene partner is Cate, you count yourself damn lucky. And then you’re going to lunch and yeah, there’s Kevin and there’s Jamie and Janina Gavankar, Edgar Ramirez, Jack, this was a remarkable cast. Bobby Lee, by the way, who’s wonderful in the film, it kind of seems in line with the property, with the kind of wackiness and the sort of the just batshit, can I say batshit craziness? The batshit craziness of this cast coming together to tell this story. Yeah, I think that’s kind of in line with the spirit of what Gearbox created all those years ago when they started off. At least I hope that we’re doing that. But long story short, what’s it like waking up knowing you’re going to go to work with Cate Blanchett? You wake up in a good mood.

Borderlands hits theaters ad IMAX on August 9th. For the full interview, visit Geek Vibes Natio’s YouTube: