‘So, what are we drinking?’ Ben Vignola (33) Writer, Amateur Kick Boxer and Production coordinator asks, taking what he has declared to be his new coat off and pushing his sweater sleeves over somewhat significant forearms. He returns with a bottle of red wine, two glasses and a plastic key, which he reveals is a tab. It’s Friday afternoon in Benugo, the BFI’s bar, Ben is sat in a large olive green arm chair, with puppy dog eyes looking over expectantly. This is not the first time we have made this acquaintance. We were introduced by a mutual friend and film director a few weeks ago in a 1950’s bar in Soho, where Ben revealed that he was writing a book and made it modestly clear that everything he writes is rubbish. ‘What did you think of that bar? It’s a cool place.’ He starts. The tiny little red bar, almost unnoticeable in the thick of Soho’s nightlife had steps leading down from the street which acted as a time travel device, once surfacing, the surroundings were complete fifties nostalgia. There was a live fifties band playing, the patrons were dressed in their fifties attire and danced as though they had just swung in from a swing dancing session. There was nothing conventional or pretentious about that little bar and the same can be said for Ben Vignola.
Alongside being a writer, he works freelance in production and has an annual stint with event and TV Production Company, Done and Dusted, who are the producers of ‘T4 on the Beach’. Extraordinarily enough he is also Great Britain’s 2008 heavyweight Shidokan champion in Japan and Sri Lanka. Ben most certainly does not look like a fighter, he’s tall and strapping, yes, but he has large blue green engaging eyes, he’s calmly spoken and has an incredibly inviting mannerism. He’s undoubtedly confident and over his years of travel and life experience is particularly self aware and assured, and comes across enlightened rather than arrogant.
Today Ben wears a pale yellow v-neck sweater with a grey t-shirt underneath, which pokes out at the neck. On his legs are dark indigo jeans and his feet in slightly ruddy Converse All Stars. When asked what his style says about him, he answers, ‘Unimaginative. I dress this way to conform.’ Regardless of his attitude towards his style, which a fashionista could possibly consider difficult, he most certainly is easy on the eye. And on meeting and judging him externally you would say he’s unassuming and unperturbed. Ben looks as though he could be a bit of a charmer, possibly a heartbreaker, following in the footsteps of a George Clooney type. Then again even George Clooney got married. Ben is shocked by such news, ‘George Clooney is gay!’ Of course any woman would contest. The banter continues and as though he is trying to kill any faith us girls may still have in the deliciously unobtainable man, he reveals, ‘David Beckham is gay too! They’re both just like Rock Hudson.’ Ben is naturally forced to undergo a great deal of conflict after making such catastrophic accusations, he surrenders by coolly changing the subject and discloses that prior to our meeting he was having lunch at EAT with a female friend. He is incredibly open and almost dangerously engaging, what was supposed to be an interview becomes the ideal conversation between a man and a woman on a first date, minus the flirting, of course. ‘When I was eighteen I fell in love with a very attractive girl, I loved her for ten years, but we never got together till I was twenty six, it lasted three months.’
It’s this kind of romance and honesty that is intriguing about Ben. He seems to represent this world of polar opposites, the brutality of honesty and loss next to this wilfulness for hope and love. A man that never sees himself married, doubts he’ll ever have children but reveals that intimacy is one of the world’s greatest gifts.
Unlike his nature, that resembles a calmed sea, his past has been somewhat more disruptive. He reveals, ‘I’ve had a f*cked up upbringing – I don’t want to go too deep into it.’ But sat comfortably back in his chair, with his arms folded behind his head he wanders off into histories of the divorce of his Polish mother and Italian father when he was thirteen, substance abuse, running away from home, being kicked out of schools and eventually leaving education at the age of fourteen. Since then he has lived in a vast number of locations, including Shoreditch, Ladbroke Grove, Brighton and Hampshire. And more further afield in the later part of his life in Australia and Japan. Like most of us he is proud of his travels, this is most certainly a predominant theme in his life, whether his travels take him from house to town, country to city. Barely on speaking terms with his parents, no particular desire for a wife or girlfriend and having been single for three years you can’t help wondering where Ben’s ties are and if he ever wants to plant any roots.
It’s this kind of romance and honesty that is intriguing about Ben. He seems to represent this world of polar opposites, the brutality of honesty and loss next to this wilfulness for hope and love. A man that never sees himself married, doubts he’ll ever have children but reveals that intimacy is one of the world’s greatest gifts.
Unlike his nature, that resembles a calmed sea, his past has been somewhat more disruptive. He reveals, ‘I’ve had a f*cked up upbringing – I don’t want to go too deep into it.’ But sat comfortably back in his chair, with his arms folded behind his head he wanders off into histories of the divorce of his Polish mother and Italian father when he was thirteen, substance abuse, running away from home, being kicked out of schools and eventually leaving education at the age of fourteen. Since then he has lived in a vast number of locations, including Shoreditch, Ladbroke Grove, Brighton and Hampshire. And more further afield in the later part of his life in Australia and Japan. Like most of us he is proud of his travels, this is most certainly a predominant theme in his life, whether his travels take him from house to town, country to city. Barely on speaking terms with his parents, no particular desire for a wife or girlfriend and having been single for three years you can’t help wondering where Ben’s ties are and if he ever wants to plant any roots.
‘There are aspects of myself I need to develop. I lack commitment in my life,’ he reflects. To challenge his lack of commitment Ben took on his Japanese kickboxing endeavour, where he lived with a Grand Master in a Hombu Dojo (a martial arts place of training, directly translating ‘Place of the way’). A drastic challenge? Possibly, but his achievements prove that his commitments were not for nought.
He most certainly is a man that favours the experience of life at that moment over building for the foreseeable future. He is a lone ranger with a scope as broad and as round as the world, he’s bound by nothing and takes pride in building his experiences.
He most certainly is a man that favours the experience of life at that moment over building for the foreseeable future. He is a lone ranger with a scope as broad and as round as the world, he’s bound by nothing and takes pride in building his experiences.
Whether the woman lunching with Ben Vignola is a lucky one remains ambiguous, ‘I wouldn’t call myself a bachelor yet, if I’m single in five years, then maybe.’ He orders another bottle of wine and divulges into another story about losing his virginity to a woman eleven years his senior. When asked about the male fascination of the older woman, he says, ‘Haven’t you seen The Graduate?’
Ben Vignola is currently producing T4’s Stars of 2009. Concert date: 29/11/2009 Watch at 13:00 on Channel 4.
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