Why Ben From Dangerous Lies Looks So Familiar
The new Netflix thriller Dangerous Lies is bringing audiences on a twisty, turny ride, one in which a dream scenario turns into a nightmare for one young couple. The flick focuses on young Katie (Riverdale's Camila Mendes), the caregiver for a kindly old man named Leonard (Elliott Gould), who lives alone on a large estate. Leonard brings on Katie's husband Adam (Jessie T. Usher) as a groundskeeper, and everything seems to be perfect for the couple — until Leonard passes away, leaving them both unemployed.
There's a wrinkle, though: Leonard unexpectedly leaves his entire estate to Katie, which includes a secret cash stash squirreled away on the property. It soon becomes apparent that there are plenty of shady parties interested in Katie and Adam's good fortune, including an investigator (Sasha Alexander, NCIS), an attorney for the deceased (Jamie Chung, Gotham), and a real estate agent who introduces himself as "Mickey" — only that's not his real name, and he may have motives beyond the opportunity to list a hot property.
The character's real name is Ben, and if you've taken in Dangerous Lies, then you know that he is key to the mess in which Katie and Adam find themselves after their windfall. You may also be thinking that the actor portraying Ben looks pretty darned familiar, and there's a good reason for that: his name is Cam Gigandet, and he's carved out an interesting career for himself in television and feature films over the last couple decades. Here's why Ben from Dangerous Lies looks so familiar.
Cam Gigandet was all over the small screen early in his career
Gigandet's professional resume stretches all the way back to 2003, with a guest role as Mark Young on an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation that year. It didn't take long for the actor's good looks and screen presence to earn the attention of casting directors. The very next year, he landed a seven-episode stint as Daniel Romalotti on the long-running soap opera The Young and the Restless, and his TV career was officially off to the races.
Gigandet next appeared in a recurring role as Randy Bongard on Jack & Bobby, an intriguing WB drama with a unique premise: it followed the life of future President of the United States Bobby McAllister (Logan Lerman), who wouldn't take office until 2041, as a young man in the series' present day. The show only lasted one season from 2004 to 2005, but that was long enough for Gigandet to prove that he belonged on prime time television — and after the series ended, the actor wasn't hurting for work.
In 2005, he was cast in the hit Fox drama The O.C. as Kevin Volchok, a role he held down for 15 episodes. By this time, the actor was starting to approach genuine heartthrob status — and beginning in 2007, his career took a swerve into feature films which would see him appear in one of the hottest YA adaptations to date.
Cam Gigandet appeared in Twilight as James
Gigandet made his feature debut with a bit part in the 2007 comedy Who's Your Caddy?, a vehicle for iconic Outkast rapper Big Boi that somehow failed to set the world on fire. That role, though, led directly into a string of feature appearances in 2008 — most notably in Twilight, in which he played James, the flick's main antagonist. An age-old vampire, James spends most of the flick tracking down Bella (Kristen Stewart), intent on making a meal out of he. Needless to say, he fails to do so, eventually meeting his end at the hands of Emmett (Kellan Lutz), Jasper (Jackson Rathbone), and Alice (Ashley Greene).
James' demise meant that Gigandet wouldn't be returning for any of Twilight's sequels, but that didn't matter; the flick became a cultural phenomenon, and effectively launched the young star's movie career. He would appear in a handful of films over the next couple years, popping up as Mark in writer-director David S. Goyer's horror flick The Unborn in 2009, as Gallo in the Dennis Quaid-starring sci-fi mystery Pandorum that same year, and as Chase in 2010's psychological drama The Experiment opposite Adrien Brody and Forest Whitaker. Obviously, it didn't take long after his brush with YA blockbusters for Gigandet to start accepting meaty roles in interesting films, and that trend would continue for the rest of the decade.
Cam Gigandet has appeared in a bunch of other feature films
In 2010, Gigandet appeared as Micah in the acclaimed comedy Easy A, a modern-day re-imagining of The Scarlet Letter which made a household name out of its star, Emma Stone. Gigandet's role was a small but hilarious one, and his casting in the flick afforded him the opportunity to share the screen not only with future superstar Stone, but with such veteran talent as Lisa Kudrow (Friends), Thomas Haden Church (The Peanut Butter Falcon), Stanley Tucci (Captain America: The First Avenger), Fred Armisen (Portlandia), and Malcolm McDowell (Bombshell).
The next year, Gigandet scored the role of Stephen in a feature which has gained a good deal of traction with streaming audiences recently: The Roommate, which stars Minka Kelly (Titans) as a college student dealing with a dangerous and obsessive roomie portrayed by Leighton Meester (Gossip Girl). Over the next several years, the film work would keep coming steadily for the actor: he appeared as Jonah in the Nic Cage-Nicole Kidman starrer Trespass in 2011, took on the lead role of Butch Masters in director Mario Van Peebles' 2014 military drama Red Sky, and held his own among the all-star cast of 2016's The Magnificent Seven, in which he appeared as the villainous McCann.
The feature film roles were coming fast and furious for the actor, but in the middle of it all, the small screen came calling once again. This time, though, Gigandet wasn't appearing in some bit part — he was the star of the show.
Cam Gigandet has starred on a couple TV series
In 2014, Gigandet landed a lead role opposite The Following's Anna Wood on Reckless, a CBS legal drama from director Catherine Hardwicke, who happened to have directed Gigandet in Twilight. The actor starred as Roy Rayder, an attorney for the city of Charleston, South Carolina, who becomes embroiled in a bizarre sex scandal involving the city's police department. The soap-tinged series lasted only a single season, but it wouldn't take long for Gigandet to sneak in another small screen lead role among all of his feature appearances.
That came on the Audience Network drama Ice, which followed the lives of Los Angeles-area diamond dealers and siblings Freddy and Jake Green (Jeremy Sisto and Gigandet, respectively) who become caught up in shady business practices, bribes, and blackmail. While well-received, the series only aired for two seasons — but that may be just as well, because Gigandet can't seem to stop getting offered plum roles in movies.
Most recently, he appeared as Deputy Josh Haywood in the 2019 body-snatching sci-fi thriller Assimilate, and he'll be following up Dangerous Lies with a pair of feature roles. He'll soon be seen opposite Michael B. Jordan in the Tom Clancy thriller Without Remorse (which is currently in post-production), and he's set to take the lead in the claustrophobic thriller Wreckage, which centers on a man trapped underneath a collapsed building in the aftermath of a terrorist attack. Clearly, Gigandet is an actor who enjoys flexing his chops in a wide variety of genres — and we can't wait to see what intriguing projects his future holds.