One of the highest grossing and most popular R-Rated comedies of all time, Ted, is finally back for his own TV series.
In this series, it’s 1993 and Ted’s moment of fame has passed, leaving him living with his best friend, 16-year-old John Bennett (Burkholder), who lives in a working-class Boston home with his parents and cousin. Ted might not be the best influence on John, but when it comes right down to it, Ted’s willing to go out on a limb to help his friend and his family.
We had the opportunity, thanks to NBC Universal and Peacock, to talk to John Bennett himself, Max Burkholder, about his experiences, challenges and moments while playing this young version of Mark Wahlberg’s character.
THH: A big fan of your performance in the show, loved to see this young version of John, how was the process of getting this role and how was the preparation, have you watched the movies lots of times?
MAX: Yes! Definitely watched the movies a lot. Like, even before I sent my tape for this role, I love both of those movies. Definitely rewatched a bunch as a refresher of who this guy is and how much of an idiot he is, but also loves people which makes up for his “idiotness.” And then also making sure to get the accent, the voice right, there was a lot of rewatching for that.
THH: Did you get to talk to Mark at all?
MAX: No, sadly I never got the opportunity to. But, you know, more than enough data, stuff from the movies to get ready for the role. And it was truly fun, getting the hand of young John, he is a stupid guy, he loves his family.
THH: And what would you say that was the biggest challenge for you when working in that character?
MAX: I think the accent for sure. I worked really, really hard with a dialogue coach. Watched a lot of movies with really good Boston accents, also listening to youtube playlists of just, you know, people with the accent just talking on end, I really wanted to make sure it was good because, I don’t know if you know this about Boston, but very famously the people from there are very vocal when they think they’re not doing a good job with their accent and I wanted to work good on that.
THH: Honestly I did not know that! And what about Seth? When you met him and all, how was working with him in general?
MAX: Working with him was fantastic. I’ve been working with him on and off for probably the past 20 years now, when I started doing voices on Family Guy. But this was definitely the longest period of time I ever spent working with him, he is just incredibly talented about a billion different things. And being able to do his thing on set everyday was really a treat.
THH: Is there any specific scene in the show that you’d say it was the funniest one? One that had you laughing so hard on set?
MAX: Yeah. I believe is in the 2nd Episode, when Scott Grimes, who plays my dad, had a very long and disgusting monologue where he talks about the stuff that he did on war and then he leans for me and sort of gently touches my face and we had to do that probably 20 to 30 times because I could not keep myself from laughing.
THH: John is a typical type of teenager, do you relate with him somehow? And if so, do you think that this helped you while playing that character?
MAX: Oh absolutely. I was an awkward 16 year old who smoke weed for the first time with my best friends, and yes this is the kinda of experience that relates a lot with John. But yeah, you know, other stuff is that he’s an idiot which I consider myself to be (at times certainly), we’ve got different blindspots but we both can be very dumb. But, you know, we all were an awkward 16 year old at some point.
THH: After watching this I must say that I feel like Ted was made to be a sitcom. Do you think we’ll get more seasons of it?
MAX: I still don’t know, I don’t know anything about a possible season 2, I would obviously love to do it because it’s one of my favorites working experiences to date. But yeah I still don’t know anything about it, and yes I agree I think it works really, really well as a sitcom. Obviously the movies are fantastic but this was a really good idea that Seth came up with.
THH: Something I want to hear from you, who knows Ted better than anyone: do you think Ted would win a fight with Paddington?
MAX: Ted! Ted 100%! Yeah, I mean, Paddington is a physical bear, he got claws and teeth but Ted would like just shoot him with a gun like, it’s not even close.
Ted is NOW streaming on Peacock.
