Ben Porter as troubled teen Milo Cross in Shortland Street. Photo / South Pacific Pictures
Ben Porter as troubled teen Milo Cross in Shortland Street. Photo / South Pacific Pictures
An actor who played a murderous villain on Shortland Street has been targeted by a break-in and vandalism and he believes Ferndale fiction may be bleeding into real life.
Ben Porter’s car was broken into and vandalised after his character, Milo Cross, turned nasty - and he’s not the first Shorty actor to find their day job following them home.
Milo Cross was Shortland Street’s troubled teen who became the shooter on the soap’s winter cliffhanger last June, and while his villainous character was ultimately killed off, it seems what his character did has left a sour taste in the mouths of some Kiwis.
The recurring character first hit Shortland Street screens in October 2022 with his backstory including the death of both his father, who died in the show’s fictional wildfires, and his mother, who died of cancer. The result sent Milo into a spiral.
He landed in a bad crowd, ram-raiding a store with Tilly, the daughter of the show’s second longest-running character, TK Samuels, beating up TK and ending up in juvenile detention. After his release, he returned to Ferndale where he went on a shooting rampage in the hospital, paralysing TK and killing surgical registrar Quinn Cox before turning the gun on himself.
Troubled teen Milo Cross was the villain in Shortland Street's winter cliffhanger last year. Photo / South Pacific Pictures
Porter, the actor behind the character, has revealed he has been receiving hate messages from some fans of New Zealand’s longest-running soap, and alleges they’ve gone as far as to break into and key his car.
Speaking to the Herald, the 22-year-old Wellington-raised actor has opened up about the aftermath of playing a villain, confessing the Shortland Street showrunners were quick to brief him on possible consequences of his role.
“Once I found out that Milo would end up shooting quite a few people on the show in their winter cliff[hanger], they [show producers] sat me down and told me to buckle up,” he says adding, “A few villains in the past have been heckled verbally and even physically, and a lot of them couldn’t shake the hate for a wee while.”
He uses Johnny Barker, who played Joey Henderson, aka “the Ferndale Strangler”, on the soap between 2007 and 2008, and Bree Peters, who played killer Pania Stevens between 2014-2015, as examples.
Joey Henderson, played by Johnny Barker, was Shortland Street's 2007-2008 villain.
“[They] were two names that were thrown around a fair bit, because what happened to them sounded horrible. Since Joey became a pretty iconic character, I think the hate he got was probably the worst by a country mile.”
For Porter, the backlash has been mostly tame and he confesses that at first he was “blown away” by the positive responses. But as Milo’s storyline began to heat up, the public’s attitude toward the young actor began to change.
He claims he’s had a person give him the finger and another throw gum at him on the street, with others messaging him nasty things on his social media accounts, “It was interesting to see how many people still message me saying things like, ‘I can’t believe you shot TK’ or ‘You killed Quinn’ or ‘I hope you die’,” he adds.
“I think some people struggled to separate the character from the actor.”
Unfortunately for the young actor - who is set to star in TVNZ’s The Brokenwood Mysteries next season, the backlash took a turn when he started to receive notes on his car in March 2023.
Ben Porter began receiving strange notes on his car in March 2023. Photo / TikTok @bennyporter
At first, they appeared harmless and seemed to be welcoming him into the new neighbourhood he had recently moved to. “I honestly just brushed it off as a fun prank or something since it was left on my car outside my house so I was pretty unfazed at first,” he says.
Then in September, his car was broken into and another note was left under the windscreen wipers reading, “Ben, sorry I ran out of paper! Also, I think my last message got lost,” the rest of the message was indecipherable due to rain damage.
Notes kept coming and by December, Porter noticed his car had been keyed. He immediately went to the police but he says they were unable to help because he didn’t have security cameras. “I was pretty gutted for a few weeks because it just felt a bit sh*t to come for my physical property.”
However, although the police were unable to help, he really just wanted the vandalism documented in case it escalated any further, he says.
Police confirmed to the Herald that they had closed the case.
“We looked at all available evidence and were not able to find out who was responsible, and therefore no arrests were made,” a police spokesperson said.
Ben Porter as Milo Cross in Shortland Street. Photo / South Pacific Pictures
Porter says the events haven’t left him scared for his safety but they have made him more wary, “Honestly, I had 10,000 times more lovely experiences than bad ones, it’s just that sometimes, the bad experiences overshadow the good ones.”
As for whether the backlash and vandalism have changed his thoughts on playing a villain again, the answer is “no”. He really enjoys the darker roles - they are “so much fun” and he believes they are a privilege.
He believes other budding actors should give them a go if they are offered the chance. “I say go for it. At the end of the day, the things you can’t control aren’t worth worrying about so just dive in and enjoy the experience.”
Lillie Rohan is an Auckland-based reporter covering lifestyle and entertainment stories who joined the Herald in 2020. She specialises in all things relationships and dating, Kiwi celebs we can’t help but love and TV shows you simply cannot miss out on.
