Ben Hider/FOXListen up, ladies: Ben McKenzie is single!
The Gotham actor opens up about his romantic life and shares lessons he's learned about love in Elle's January 2015 issue. McKenzie is a catch, but he hasn't always had it easy. When he was living in New York many years ago, he had bunk beds—a deal breaker for most women. "You have to talk about it before you enter the apartment. You can't just drop that bomb," he recalls. "I may have managed a makeout session or two, but I certainly don't remember being able to seal the deal. Any woman worth her salt has to draw a line at some point. And that line is definitely having bunk beds as a 22-year-old."
McKenzie played a cop on Southland for five years. Did a girl ever ask him to wear the uniform at home?
"There's been a joke or two, but no one's ever really asked," he admits. "Handcuffs have been brought."
"I didn't have them. They were brought. And that's fun," the actor continues. "As long as they're not actual real ones where you can lose the key. You want the obviously not real ones. The pink fluffy ones."
The 36-year-old actor's adventures in the bedroom aside, McKenzie would like to find The One—just not now. "I've never had a problem being monogamous in a serious relationship," he says. "I've also never had a problem dating as I see fit when I'm not in a relationship. The guilt of not being monogamous would be massive. I don't think that I could deal with that. Maybe that's why I'm not in a relationship."
If Elle asked all the women he ever dated to agree on something about him, what would they say? "'He's great in bed,'" McKenzie jokes. Seriously? "They would say, 'He's stubborn.' Maybe that's a little too self-deprecating. But early on, stubborn. Maybe a little detached at times. I'm giving you a real answer," the actor explains. "I don't know what they would say. But I would be fascinated to get the polling on that."
Hindsight is 20/20, so given what he knows now, what would McKenzie do differently? "It's a bit of a cliché, but basically I wish I'd listened more," he tells Elle. "Get over your ego a bit. Listen to a different perspective and you almost always modify your position and realize you're probably too dogmatic, too competitive, too jealous, too frustrated. I love women for being able to knock that s--t out of you."
When McKenzie does find a woman to date, he'll treat her right. "I like the idea of old-fashioned dating, which at this point is almost heretical. People are genuinely surprised when you ask them out," he says.