Author: Emma Loggins
Date: 2008-07-16

Interview:
We had the honor of sitting down with one of the stars of The Secret Life Of The American Teenager, Kenny Baumann. Here's what he had to say about the show, his character, and his future:

I'm wondering if you can just tell us a little bit about how you got into acting and how you found this role?

K. Baumann: Absolutely, Rachel. Originally, it all started at one of those small-town actor/model searches. I was ten and I was living in Abilene, Texas, and I happened to "qualify" at the small-town level and of course, pay $600 to go to that large convention in Dallas where I actually picked up a talent agent in New York. So I spent three months in New York auditioning for commercials and doing print work. From New York I came back home to Texas and did quite a bit of print work and commercials in Dallas.

Then I said enough of this modeling stuff; acting is what I love and I want to pursue that. So we came to L.A. and gave pilot season a shot a few times. I started booking things and working and that's how it all worked out.

When did Ken become Kenny?

K. Baumann: I've been Kenny all my life, but I use Ken sometimes for other venues such as my writing and some other things. I try to keep some sort of separation between the two entities just for my own sake.

Can you touch on what about this character appealed to you and how you got it. Why did you get drawn to this role?

K. Baumann: I was drawn to this role because ultimately Ben is, to me, he's such a sweet, loving guy and then, of course, he's very funny as well. It's very funny to watch someone kind of go through that love/misery pattern. To be able to play that and really work on that really flesh that out and make it as real and as frank as possible is an opportunity that, of course, not many people are allowed.

So what drew me to Ben was really just at the core of him he's very loving; he's very sweet and of course, the comedic stuff is also really fun to play as well.

Your character, Ben, has the slightly difficult task of helping Amy through a teen pregnancy. How do you interpret that character? Is there anything you did or anything you do to get in character?

K. Baumann: Absolutely. Of course, I think as most actors kind of practice the moment before and really working on drawing things from the character's past to form current decisions. As far as Ben's relationship with Amy he's very sweet, loves her to death, so anything, of course, would be for her and exclusively for her happiness. And the writing is there and the writing is so wonderful. It just makes the performance very easy as far as just pulling out the necessary emotions and callbacks.

With everyone on set being so incredibly capable and creative, it's really an easy process to kind of fall into Ben completely.

Are you surprised with how well the show's doing? The numbers are pretty astounding for a first premiere episode.

K. Baumann: To me not at all. I hoped that people would catch on to this and appreciate it and when, of course, it performed like it did I was very happy. You learn to not expect anything and not count your chickens until they've hatched, but in this case they really hatched. So everyone's ecstatic. We're all just happy to kind of entertain the idea that there's more to come and that we can just really focus on the work again and not have to worry about that monkey on your back, kind of this thing beating at you and making you constantly thinking how the show's going to do. Now we know so we can focus on our work and just really hit it hard.

What's been your favorite part of working on this project?

K. Baumann: Honestly, every bit of it is just amazing. It's a dream job; I've said that before. I'll continue to say it. The cast, I love them. It really blows my mind every day how well we all get along, which I think is relatively rare in the world of TV and film. But being able to work with the different directors, really it all boils down, for me it all boils down to the material and just really being able to flesh out this character, Ben, and it's such an honor to do that and to collaborate with this wonderful cast.

I show up every day and I can't call it work; I just can't because it's amazing.