Good Morning America // "Would You Make a Good Eyewitness?"

Would you make a good eyewitness? How memory works when solving a crime: https://t.co/jGJ0mfxdGD pic.twitter.com/7BIX9s5nUm
— Good Morning America (@GMA) November 10, 2017

Ben Hauck as the Perpetrator, launching into Andy Davies as a crew member on Good Morning America

On the November 10, 2017, broadcast of ABC’s Good Morning America, I performed for a segment titled “Would You Make a Good Eyewitness?”

This was a really fun gig. I was brought in for a rehearsal on November 1st, not knowing really for what. I was excited to learn that the other actor brought in (Andy Davies) was to play a GMA crew member, and I was play to “the perpetrator.” Of what, I wondered? Well, I was supposed to go off on the crew member for getting in front of my view of the hosts during the live broadcast, then knock his light to the ground and storm off.

Now this was mind kind of acting job!

The lines were improvised with a rough idea of what I was supposed to say. We did a few rehearsals for various staff and crew, intending on doing this for the live broadcast the next day. That night, breaking news meant that our segment was postponed. We eventually learned it would be a go for November 10th.

I was planted in the audience at the top of the 8am show. I had a mic on me but it was concealed so the people sitting with me (or any other audience members) wouldn’t suspect anything. You can see me coyly waving at the topic of the episode in a pop culture segment by Ginger Zee. (Please forgive the lower definition of this clip.)

I was told to start my sudden screaming right after George Stephanopoulos plugs John Lithgow’s new film Daddy’s Home 2. If you saw the broadcast, you could hear some yelling before my mic kicks on, as Stephanopoulos, Lithgow, and the other co-hosts look to their right. The camera cuts to Andy and me, I knock down the light, and storm off. It’s fun to look at the audience members’ reactions — some of them looked really shocked!

Here’s the footage. (The longer segment is on YouTube if you want to see it.)

After that improvised “altercation,” Michael Strahan teased the upcoming segment on the altercation, giving the audience another glimpse of what I looked like:

After the commercial break, the “Would You Make a Good Eyewitness?” segment came on. The audience had been given clickers to record their votes when asked questions about my appearance. Evy Poumpouras was the guest. The segment was intended to show how eyewitnesses are not always reliable, gauging hair color relative to their own, transposing articles of clothing from others onto the perpetrator, choosing the last option in a list, and incorrectly picking someone out of a lineup. The most fun for me was their gauge of my age … and let me just say, their take was flattering! (And for an actor, it was a really helpful gauge of my “type”!)

Here’s the full segment based off of my altercation:

Andy and I were supposed to make a second appearance in the segment — a curtain-call of sorts — but a sudden change during the segment and its going long prevented us from making it back out there. (You can hear Amy Robach asking for me at the very end.) That said, I had been dreaming about that improvised scene ever since booking it, pondering different ways to start my outrage, its level, its shockingness, and fielding how Andy reacts to me. It was an honor to be picked for this job!