Ted, the raunchy talking teddy bear from the hit 2012 movie, now has his own TV series on Peacock. Set in 1993, years before the events of Ted and Ted 2, it follows John Bennett as a teenager along with his foul-mouthed plush pal. Taking over from Mark Wahlberg, Max Burkholder plays the role of a young John, bringing new life to a character and a new aspect to the ridiculous but fun-filled story.
With the series finishing out its first season, we at CGMagazine had the chance to chat with Burkholder about stepping into this fan-favourite franchise. The talented young actor discussed what viewers can expect from his character this time around, working alongside Seth MacFarlane once again, and what it is like to take over in an established franchise like Ted.
In this candid interview, Burkholder also reflected on some of his past roles and what originally drew him to pursue acting at such a young age, along with some that have earned him the ire of their fanbases. Yet, despite it all, he brings a love of acting to every role he takes on, in a strikingly refreshing view of the craft and filmmaking as a whole.
How did you get involved in the project, and were you a fan of the Ted franchise before you sort of landed the role?
Max Burkholder: Yes, absolutely. I was definitely a fan of the franchise before. Weirdly enough, I’ve been involved with it since I was around 10. I was at the table read for the first Ted movie, playing the creepy little kid part. But how did I get involved with it? You know, the same way most people get involved with any project. I put myself on tape for an audition and sent it to the people. Unusually, though, I didn’t have any further rounds of auditioning. The tape just kind of kept getting passed up the ladder until it got to Seth, and he was like, ‘yeah,’ they felt they didn’t need to see anymore.
Well, that’s awesome. I’ve heard from a lot of different actors that acting alongside something that’s not physically there is very challenging. How did you find it? And how did you deal with that aspect of filming?
Max Burkholder: Certainly challenging. It was really frustrating and distressing for probably the first two weeks while I was still learning the ropes and figuring out where to look, how to maintain the eye line, and making sure that I was not looking at Seth when I was saying my lines, but instead looking at where the bear should be. But after a little bit of time, you realize that humans can get used to anything. My whole job is playing pretend; that’s like the entire job description. So eventually, I got to the point where I could just pretend the bear was there, and now I can actually kind of see him, weirdly.
You’ve done a range of different kinds of roles. Is there a genre that you gravitate towards most, and where does Ted fit on that spectrum?
Max Burkholder: There’s not one that I gravitate towards the most. I really love all of it. I think part of the fun of this job is that every role is so completely different. This was my first professional foray into comedy, and I’m very lucky that it’s been a success so far. I want to do more comedy in [Ted] Season 2, fingers crossed. I don’t know any more than you do, but here’s hoping. I just want to do all of it. I want to do every single genre. I want to be a villain, I want to be a hero, I want to ride a horse in a battle, all of it.
On that note, is there kind of a dream role you have always wanted to land?
Max Burkholder: Dream role? I don’t know. In terms of theatre, I certainly have a few dream roles. I’d love to be in a production of This Is Our Youth someday. That is a fantastic play. Hamlet is super sick, obviously. I feel like it’s everybody’s cliché dream role. I want to be Hamlet on Broadway. In terms of film and TV, it’s sort of a different beast because it’s hard to say a dream role when I don’t know what it is yet. I haven’t read it. Everything else has been done by somebody else already.
That’s fair. Now, you’ve done a lot of work with Seth MacFarlane. How did you kind of get into that? And do you want to work with him more?
Max Burkholder: I’ve been doing voices in Family Guy since I was about six years old, so we’ve had a working relationship with him of some sort for around 20 years now. This is certainly the closest and most intensely I’ve worked with him so far. And it’s a blast. He’s a killer. He’s a genius. He’s locked in. He knows what he’s doing.
It’s really, truly one of the most efficient, well-run, and just fun sets that I’ve ever been lucky enough to be a part of. So, yes, a hundred percent. If there’s a second season, or if there’s some other project he’s going to do in the future, who wouldn’t want to be a part of it?
Jumping back to Ted, what was it like to step into a character that someone else has played, and how closely do you try to connect to what has been done before?
Max Burkholder: I feel like I reap the benefit of it being a prequel, right? So I don’t have to do anything really to match how Mark Wahlberg is in the movies. I think it would have been more difficult if this was 25 years after the events of the Ted movies and I had to take all that stuff that happened before into consideration.
But this is well before the movie, so it’s kind of like a blank slate that I can do what I want with. We obviously know where he ends up, but in terms of everything that’s happening in the show, I feel like I wasn’t weighed down that much by feeling like I had to match something that somebody else did.
I just want to touch on fan bases. Since you’ve worked in so many different genres and types of roles, how have the different fan bases taken to your different characters?
Max Burkholder: In terms of reactions to my different roles, this is obviously the biggest thing that I’ve been at the forefront of. So, I think people are having a lot more positive reactions to this role than a lot of my previous ones. The Parenthood fan base has always been so sweet and lovely people.
The Purge fanbase has always been the most toxic and hateful, which is always really funny. Yeah, when I go into my DMs, there will always be something, some hate for my character in The Purge. I posted about it on my Instagram a while back, along with some of the tamer ones that people have sent. I keep the truly horrific and hateful messages to myself, though I do go out of my way to search for them. I click through on Instagram to the requests, hidden requests. That’s where the good stuff is.
Knowing that, would you ever go back to The Purge universe with that fan base?
Max Burkholder: Yes, 100%. I find it hilarious. It honestly makes my day. In fact, I said that in an interview a while back, and now I’m getting even more hate, and I just drink it in. It makes me stronger.
People seem to be enjoying Ted. You have a lot of big franchises under your belt. What’s next? Do you have anything in the hopper that you’re really excited to talk about or nothing that you can mention yet?
Max Burkholder: Nothing I can mention yet. I feel like the industry’s still spinning back up a little bit since the strike. Everything’s still a little bit slow. It’ll be a bit before anything new comes along down the pike, but I’m excited that the strike is over.
Anything you want to kind of mention before we wrap up that fans should be aware of jumping into the show or just things they might like to know about you?
Max Burkholder: Things they might want to know about me? I just got a little dog. I’ve been posting about him on Instagram. It’s very cute. He’s asleep in his crate right now.
Oh yes, there have been a couple of people in my DMs who have said, “I was going through a very dark time, and this show has really helped me through it.” And I want to say to anybody who might be reading this, who sent one of those messages, I can’t respond to all of the messages, obviously, but I do read all of the ones that are like that, and they are acknowledged and appreciated.
Thank you so much. I’m looking forward to seeing how the fanbase takes the show and I’m looking forward to seeing what you do next.
Max Burkholder: All right, thanks so much.
