“Benjamin” Feels the Pressure Playing “4 Kings II,” Consults “Nat Kitjarit” to Capture Details from the Real “K Buranaphon”

Having long admired the film “4 Kings” by talented director Phut–Phutthiphong Nakthong, mixed-heritage young actor Benjamin Joseph Varney immediately agreed when the director approached him to be part of the big-budget film “4 Kings II” from Neramitnung Film and Shinesaeng Ad.Venture. This time, Ben admits that taking on a sequel role with such overwhelming past success came with a fair amount of pressure.

Benjamin said, “I decided to take the role right away. I'm already close with people on the crew — I play football with Nat Kitjarit, the lead actor from the first film, so I had a rough idea that there was going to be a second project. I like documentary-style films, or films grounded in real life, and even though this is a scripted film, there's something documentary-like built into its structure. In this film, I play 'K Buranaphon.' Director Phut took me to meet the real K, and K gave me a locket with a photo he used to wear back when he was a vocational-school kid — and in the film, I wear it the whole time too.

He told me, “Ben, play it cool, or else I'll come off looking uncool” (laughs). But nowadays, K is a grown adult working in academia — he's a speaker who helps fired-up teenagers stop turning to violence as an outlet, because he himself used to be in that exact spot. After meeting K, we tried to model the character after him, taking his beliefs and his way of thinking and putting them into the film.”

“As for how close or far the role of 'K Buranaphon' is from who I really am — the hardest part was probably the slang from that era, since I'm mixed-heritage, so I'm not that comfortable with certain jokes. But in the film, my character is actually pretty good at teasing people, and I had to use a lot of period-specific vocabulary, which was tough too. The real K, back in the day, everyone said he was seriously tough — a guy of few words who hit hard, someone who didn't talk much but struck fast. But in the film, the dialogue is written to be fairly playful, which is quite different from the real K, so I had to tune myself a bit and find a middle ground. As for the pressure of taking on a sequel role to something that was already such a huge success — yes, it is pressure, but I turned that pressure into drive, because I feel like if there's no pressure, it won't push you out of your comfort zone. I also asked Nat Kitjarit for various information — he tried to help by telling me all sorts of things, like what vocational-school kids were generally like, so I could get a rough picture. All of that information kept me from feeling too much pressure,” said Benjamin.Meet the cheeky style of “K Buranaphon” played by “Benjamin,” today at 19:00 viahttps://youtu.be/Btg6lDj8qhQAlso catch “ 4 Kings II” on 30 November, together in cinemas.