The Verge: No Ordinary Family's Jimmy Bennett

The first time you probably saw 14-year-old actor Jimmy Bennett was when he was jumping out of a plummeting car in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek as "Young James T. Kirk." The funny thing about Bennett though is that he's been an active member of Hollywood since his sixth birthday, appearing opposite such heavy hitters as Harrison Ford, Steve Carell, Bruce Willis, Ryan Reynolds and Eddie Murphy. How did you spend your childhood?

Currently, Bennett can be seen weekly on the ABC series No Ordinary Family, where he stars as J.J., the "brain" of the superhero family. The ever-polite youngster rang up Movieline on Friday afternoon to discuss what it's like to star on a hit series, how he deals with ratings pressures at such a young age and just what 2010 film is everything he wants in a motion picture.

The show has been very well-received and you've gotten a full season order from ABC. I imagine that takes some of the pressure off?

The show is awesome -- so much fun to work on. Everyone is super nice, Michael Chiklis makes it a lot of fun -- he's always cracking jokes and stuff. Every director that has been coming on has been really easy to work with. It's just a really fun and easy environment. I have to add, too, that we're doing very well in a difficult time slot. We're up against Glee and NCIS. NCIS pulls in like 19 million viewers, and Glee has a lot, too.

Do you worry about the ratings then?

To me, the ratings don't matter. When we get low ratings every once in a while it doesn't faze me. We're in a struggling time slot. I was worried about that at first, but now I realize we're pretty high on iTunes -- we're always in the top-ten -- and we have a lot of Hulu viewers. So it's not just what you see on TV; it's not just the ratings. Downloading is very popular.

Do your friends watch No Ordinary Family or are they watching Glee with what seems like the rest of the teenage population in America?

To be completely honest, my friends don't really watch TV. They're in that age-range where if you're sitting at home, you could be doing something else. But I've got this really solid group of friends that I've had for a while, and they all watch No Ordinary Family at home. I'm thrilled they get to do that. Some of them are actually Glee fans, and they're a little too young to appreciate NCIS. My sister's friends watch Glee, but in my age group, 14, they aren't really into that.

You get to play a superhero on No Ordinary Family, is that like a dream come true?

Oh, for sure! I've always wanted to be a superhero. Every kid has -- and I'm sure there are even some adults are ashamed to say that they've always wanted to be superheroes, too. It may sound cheesy, but this is the closest I'll get -- as far as I know -- to being a superhero.

Are you a big comic geek?

I was interested. You know I always watched Spider-man. I never actually got around to seeing the Superman movies, and people give me crap about that. But I always loved Spider-man.

Is Spider-man one of the characters you have in mind while portraying J.J.?

I didn't really base it off of anything. And -- oh, no! Kay Panabaker is trying to poke me with a freakin' needle. Hold on! (Long pause) Sorry, there's this ongoing game on the show that makes the set tense. Everyone carries around safety pins and they poke each other. So now Kay Panabaker just won the game! She just tried to give me a hug and I thought she was being all sweet, and there goes a freakin' safety pin in my back.

Oh, come on!

One girl gets a protractor -- you know those two points -- she jacked me with those. She's like a little too extreme. Anyway, what I was saying? I never really based my character off anything -- he doesn't really have a complex superpower, he just has to be super smart. It was easy to relate to J.J. because he was just a normal teen with normal problems, until he gets these superpowers.

OK, safety pins aside, the family unit on No Ordinary Family is pretty tight knit and the cast has a great chemistry. Did you guys just get lucky?

It kind of all just happened. It all meshed. We all met up at picture tests -- and since then me and Kay have literally become like brother and sister. My sister just left for college and I was upset, but then I met Kay and she acts just like an older sister. The thing is about Michael Chiklis is that he's really protective and really nice. If anything is wrong, you can go to him and he'll take care of it. If there's anything we don't feel comfortable with on set, we have a leader. And Julie Benz, she's just super nice; she gives her honest opinion, which is pretty awesome. Sometimes it will hurt a little bit, but she's really cool. When I'm on the set it feels like I'm surrounded by a second family.

When did you realize you wanted to get into acting?

This was something that I always wanted to do. I wanted to be on set and be with everybody and surrounded by all this stuff. I love movies. I'd rather watch Pulp Fiction or GoodFellas than hang out with friends. Once I was on set, this is where I wanted to be. And now I'm starring on this TV show that's doing fairly well. Movie-wise it has actually been...

Hello?

(Long pause) Can you hear me? What was the last thing I said? I don't know what happens. I have the new iPhone 4 and I always hit the mute button with the side of my face. Anyway, I'm in an independent movie called Bones coming out, and I did it with my dad [director Frank Pestarino]. I'm really excited about that one. Hopefully it'll get distribution soon and everyone will get to see it. It's a really dark role. Everything else though, since I started this show -- it's always hard to get movies when you're doing a TV show. I honestly have no idea what the schedule is going to be four days in advance. I'm getting scripts here and there but I have to turn them down because of the TV show.

How was working with your dad?

It was way different than I thought. I liked it a lot in some terms, but I felt like there was pressure on set. It wasn't the way he was conducting himself or because he was directing. It was because he was my dad and I felt like I had more responsibility, if that makes sense. I want to make him proud. I wanted to show him that I'm a professional, even when I have a dad as a director. It was challenging to do, but it was a bonding experience for sure. I was really thrilled.

You mentioned Pulp Fiction and GoodFellas, did you go nuts for Harry Potter?

I was never really into Harry Potter; I never really got into them. But something I'm really looking forward to is Tron. I've been watching every clip I can; listening to every sound bite. That's the nerd side of me there. I saw Tangled -- I went to the premiere with Julie Benz -- and I liked it a lot. I would see that again. Otherwise, the one movie I saw repeatedly was Inception. It wasn't just to understand it -- I had to see it 5 times to understand it -- it was the performance. Leonardo DiCaprio is one of my favorite actors of all-time.

So is Inception the kind of movie that you'd like to star in when you get older?

It's hard; movies don't get recognized for that kind of talent any more. In my opinion, people don't have the patience to sit through movies like that -- like The Deer Hunter. It wasn't all action, so most of the story was just the tension that got played, without even any dialogue. Filmmaking has changed. I hope I'm not too late, because I want to be in a movie like that, that gets recognized for its talent, acting and directing. Nowadays you hear about a movie and it's all 3D and CGI. People need to realize that there are actors that need to act their ass off. I'm excited that Inception came out, because that was one of those movies. There was a lot of action and CGI, sure, but also great performances and story. That was a great movie.