On the hit Fox television series "The O.C.," Benjamin McKenzie plays teenager Ryan Atwood, a rebellious outsider who wears his brooding like a fashionable, name-brand cloak. He bristles at the Orange County elite into which this bad boy orphan has been thrust, but he's so cute doing it.

McKenzie, an Austin native and Austin High graduate (class of '97), conceals his Texas roots on the show, doing that SoCal thing TV is so good at promulgating. But now McKenzie is co-starring in his first feature film, "Junebug," a North Carolina family dramedy that asks him to unpack the regionalisms that are in his bones. The quiet ensemble movie, directed by music-video veteran Phil Morrison, is one of those milieu-specific chamber pieces destined to be praised as a small quirky gem.

McKenzie plays Johnny, a redneck wastrel who lives at home with his parents and young pregnant wife (Amy Adams, whose lauded performance owes chatty, flighty debts to Shelley Duvall in Robert Altman's "3 Women"). He resents the success of his citified older brother (Alessandro Nivola), throbbing with free-floating hostility and pent-up frustration. The first words from his mouth in the film are listlessly drawled: "You got any cigarettes?"

The actor, who turns 27 on Sept. 12, is the son of Austin attorney Pete Schenkkan and poet-writer Frances Schenkkan (McKenzie is his middle name.) By phone, he urges everyone in Austin to see "Junebug" and instructs the Longhorns to "beat Ohio State." McKenzie is calling from the set of "The O.C." in Los Angeles, where the third season has started shooting.

"It's lovely," he says of the show that launched his young career. "It just keeps on truckin'."

American-Statesman: I've never seen "The O.C." Can I possibly be missing anything?

Benjamin McKenzie: I'm not going to lie. It's not going to change your life. It's enjoyable and some people seem to like it. I'm not going to sell you on it too much.

For those who do follow the show, can you explain how your character is evolving and what you and the writers have been trying to do with Ryan?

We keep opening him up a little bit. It's a constant negotiation as to how much we can change him. It's a factory here. You have to put out a lot of episodes, so you don't have all the creative input you want because there's a deadline. On paper at least, he's going to be an interesting character this season. I can't give away any plotlines, but there's going to be plenty of . . .

Do you die?

No, I don't die. That would be bad if I died.

You chose a rather small independent film for your movie debut. Was that a calculated decision?

Yes and no. I'm often more attracted to scripts that are off the beaten path and don't necessarily conform to any sort of particularly well-defined genre.

Put it this way: Did your agent send you the script for, say, "Supercross" and "Junebug" and you chose the project you thought had more integrity?

That is actually and specifically the case. I did read "Supercross." I don't want to say anything bad. But yeah, I read "Supercross" and I read "Junebug." It's easy to tell the difference between what each script is going for. But there's no guarantee "Junebug" is going to turn out great either. It's as likely to fail as a big-budget film.

You've said you wanted to bypass the "dreaded" teen-idol syndrome. Are you still trying to navigate those waters?

It's not something you have to run from and deny.

Because it's not something you can control, like the 5,000 Ben McKenzie fan Web sites I found.

All right! I check every day and I thought it was only at 4,000! (Laughs.) I try not to look at them, but it's a very amusing topic for my friends, so occasionally on a late drunken night the fan sites come out. Then we have merciless fun either contributing to them or mocking those who are either taking issue with me or celebrating me to ridiculous levels.

But (the idolatry) is a part of your life. There's something unhealthy about saying this isn't me. This is what you're going to be doing for the next few years, so you might as well take pleasure in it. And I do. I really enjoy doing "The O.C." and playing the character. It's brought me all sorts of incredible things. But you want to take advantage of it in the right way. There's a tendency to cash in, to make as much money as possible by doing the biggest movies as possible. I'd rather look back and know that I did these movies for the right reasons, rather than sitting in a mansion I paid for with my "Supercross" movie franchise paychecks and my career in the toilet.

Tell me about your character Johnny in "Junebug," who isn't exactly a gentleman. How did you physically prepare for the role?

He's a real-life rebel, not a glamorized bad boy. But I found him kind of sweet ultimately. He really is trying. Two weeks before shooting I went to North Carolina and hung around. I went to baseball games and stock car races and it was great, especially with the mustache and the baseball cap.

You grew the mustache.

Oh yeah. It's all real, baby. I also played him cowering, sort of stooped over and shy and in a defensive posture.

Is it hard to maintain your integrity in this business? Do you ever mull the temptation of becoming a Nicolas Cage action guy?

There could be the misconception that actors choose whatever they want to do. It's not the case with me. I'm certainly up for all kinds of projects all the time, which are the sort of things you might expect a young actor who stars on "The O.C." to get — teen-oriented material. There's a fair amount of stuff you're not seen for, because people have a perception of "The O.C."

And that shuts you out of, say, Woody Allen movies and opens you for Wes Craven movies.

Right. But maybe not Woody Allen, because Woody probably doesn't even know what the heck "The O.C." is.

cgarcia@statesman.com; 445-3649