Kenny Johnson – Secrets and Lies

By: Jamie Steinberg

Q) What are the recent projects that you are working on?

A) I’m up north shooting “Bates Motel” right now. It’s the final season. We got Rihanna on the show this year who is playing the famous Marion Crane role from the original Psycho She’s the girl who gets slashed up that Norman freaks out and stabs to death. I’m sure it’s going to be a completely different twist on “Bates Motel,” which is really pretty smart. Then, this week is a great episode for my character on “Secrets and Lies.” It just gets more involved. They keep teasing who he is and you don’t even know his name at this point. Every episode just reveals more, but this next episode is going to be a whamy for my character. It will probably throw out a lot of question marks about a lot of things. It’s kind of twisted. I’m excited because I have not seen it. I just remember reading it and their reaction once the episode was done. It will be a really cool episode coming up. Also, there is a movie I did called Solace with Anthony Hopkins and Colin Ferrell that should be coming out. I’m not sure if it will be a limited release and then go to Netflix and also some other places to release the movie. It was the sequel to the movie Seven, which was a pretty dope movie. Then, No Stranger Pilgrims is an interesting little thirty-five minute short film that I did with Mark Boone Junior. and a kid named Max Page who played my son on “Prime Suspect.” Now, he is playing my son in this movie about parallel universes that is slightly set in the future. It just got introduced in a lot of film festivals recently.

Q) What was it about this character on “Secrets and Lies” or the series that drew you to it?

A) They were looking for a guy who was going to be dangerous and intimidating. Everyone who auditioned before me were really physically fit guys that are probably intimidating and kind of dangerous, but I think some people fall into the trap of trying to play a tough guy and trying to be mean. If you’re an MMA fighter and you come up on a bunch of guys who are all tough and big, you know you can take them out in a second. You are not intimidated whatsoever. Usually, the calmer you are the more scared they will get because there is a kind of violent danger. I kind of took on that energy because I think that’s what they said they hadn’t been able to find. Barbie [Kligman] was a friend of mine and I had worked with Adam Arkin (who is one of their producers and directors) a few times. So, they kind of pitched me and Barbie said, “I love it! Please have him come in.” It was a weekend so I went in on a Sunday and just did the scene for her. She kind of really dug what I did and said she was going to show it to the head of ABC for approval. She said, “I love you and I think you would be perfect for this guy.” I got a call a couple of days later. What made it interesting for me is that he is a character that kind of doesn’t make sense to be there. You have all these rich, upscale people at a firm that has tons of money down in North Carolina. There is a guy that comes out of nowhere that is this silent, raging bully. You don’t know why he is there, what his agenda is or how he is connected. It doesn’t make sense that he would be there, but he seems to always be one or two steps ahead of everybody. Nobody knows how or why, but all of the people that maybe have answers or maybe it’s just him who is guilty – you just don’t know if he is a hitman, a thug or part of the mafia. You have no idea! You have no idea what drives him and there is something very personal that drives him in this series. It’s kind of like what a comet aligning is to a planet. So, I feel like the character was written that way and it was pitched to me that. I thought as long as she stays true to that aspect of it, it interested me. I liked the idea and I liked the concept. He just is a silent badass guy with an agenda who will stop at nothing. That’s the kind of interesting thing about him because you still don’t know who he is, what it is that drives him, what he is doing there and if he is part of the whole conspiracy. That’s the twist of it. You’ll find out as it kind of unfolds. That, to me, sounded like a cool character. I said, “If you stay true to that, I would love to be a part of it.” And she did! She stayed right on point with it and I felt like I was on a cable show. With the character I played, it felt like I was on FX or something. I just loved that they kind of embraced what I did with it.

Q) What have you added to the role that wasn’t originally scripted for you?

A) It was all there in her pitch. It was just basically filling in who this guy was and what was driving him. I don’t want to give anything away so I can’t say too much. I’m a homework whore. I love to do research and fill in history and create my own background and that thing that drives me. Literally, it was in the writing that she gave me. Her setup was so powerful that I just have to do it, find the research and do what she gave me. That’s what I try to do. When it starts to unfold, you are going to be like, “Oh my God!” You’ll get it when you see it and understand why. It’s deep and I just tried to honor the writing the best that I can.

Q) Is there anyone you haven’t worked with yet or would like more scenes with?

A) I do a ton with Michael Ealy. It’s fun! I have fun with him. I love working with him. We became like brothers on set. They called us “the twins.” We look nothing alike, but they called us the twins. [laughs] It’s phenomenal. Juliette [Lewis] was the second most because my character is an isolated guy. I’m with the other cast too, but the ones I have the real stuff with are with Michael, Juliette and Jordana [Brewster.] Jordana was phenomenal, too. Terry O’Quinn is a great actor and Mekia [Cox] was amazing this season. She’s a great storyteller. She was really great. So, I really liked all of them. All of those guys were great, but I adored Michael. I just thought he was an open vessel that was an amazing actor. I found a friend for life, which is cool.

Q) What were some of your most memorable behind the scenes moments from filming?

A) [laughs] I had a lot of cool conversations with Juliette. They are awesome and kind of priceless. Again, with Michael – probably most of my time was with him. I think nobody knows, but I tore my meniscus. I do a lot of physical stuff and I tore my meniscus while doing something. Nobody knew, but Michael and I finished the rest of the season and didn’t tell anybody. So, every day I had this limp to the guy because I had a torn meniscus and I couldn’t have surgery because we were in the middle of filming and we had three months to go. I was like, “I understood this character had to be a badass guy, but please don’t make him run!” I couldn’t do it with my knee completely blown out. So, everything about this guy is that he walks with a stealthy walk, but he never runs because he wouldn’t run. [laughs] So, I was like, “Thank God!” Every day, Michael would check into me because he’s the only one who knew. I didn’t want to tell anyone. I didn’t want to mess up the shooting schedule at all so I just didn’t say a word. I’d be in cold sweats every day in all this pain and I had a partial Achilles tear from playing basketball that I never said anything. I went from an Achilles tear on my right ankle to a meniscus tear on my left knee from a fight scene with a professional MMA guy. I couldn’t say anything. I said, “Just don’t say anything. I’ll tough it out.” I think the day after we wrapped I went into surgery and fixed it. Now, I’m like 100%.

Q) You frequently take on very dramatic roles. What is it about this genre that keeps you coming back to it?

A) Well, I always try to find interesting writing and characters that are kind of near life. People are flawed. People come from all different kinds of background. A lot of people are dysfunctional and try to do better. We all mess up in life. We all fall on our face. We all make big mistakes at times. We all regret it. How do you make good in life? How do you become a better human being? What can you do to maybe give back in the world? It doesn’t take away what happened, but it tries to make you a better human being. So, I always try to humanize flawed characters. I get really, really messed up people that have moral compasses and it’s how do you get back on track and what effects does it have on you. In these situations, it’s kind of fun because if you are true to your character and true to the situation that is really conflict in itself. Those are contrasts that are interesting to me. Those attract me. Trust me, I like comedy, but then the best comedies are dysfunctional situations and people in dysfunctional in situations to us if they are written really well it’s funny. So, you can do it with comedy or drama, but as long as you are truthful to the situations and the characters I think people will hopefully appreciate the, like them or identify them in some way.

Q) You have had a long, incredible career in acting. Would you might like to try your hand at producing or directing?

A) I get myself involved in helping putting projects together so I end up producing things. All I want to do is help people get the best cast together and the best everything. I like visually helping out with directing. I like helping out with directors on indies that I do because they might not know what they are doing. So, I’ll help set up shop and throw out ideas and locations. And I have a visual myself. Would I like to get into directing episode shows? No. I’ve been asked to before and I turned it down. It would be a lot of money and all that stuff, but for some reason I just feel like you should listen to your heart or your gut. For some reason, it just didn’t feel right. I created a show with the lady who did the show with Holly Hunter, “Saving Grace,” that I was also in. So, I had kind of created a concept and worked for a year and a half when I was shooting “Sons of Anarchy.” It was bought by FOX Television. David Madden was over at Fox Television at the time and now he is the President of FOX. He bought our idea and it almost got picked up by Showtime, but they had the show “Dexter” on at the time. My show had something in it that was so similar to that so they ended up not picking it up because of that. So, I like coming up with creative ideas and working with people. I love to create and come up with stuff. I do play with that and I have been asked to come pitch ideas to different networks and things. Sometimes I get into stuff and I’m about to, but then I get cast in something so I end up passing on those opportunities at that time. I like documentaries. I started one on untested rape kits and worked for about two and a half years with my friend Thomas Dunn. Nobody would really pick it up. We were working with Human Resources out of New York and finally we brought it over to Mariska Hargitay. Mariska is now the spokesperson for that cause and that was something, to me, that I thought needed to get out there and have more attention brought to it. They kind of thought, “Well, why are two guys doing this?” So, we couldn’t really get money backing. When we brought it to a female, who was a spokesperson for stuff like that like Mariska, people jumped all over it. Now, she kind of runs that thing. There were over half a million untested rape kits in America and no one wanted to basically put any money into testing them. The people didn’t know their rights. So, not only do they pay when they get raped and have to give their own money for the testing. A lot of people don’t have extra money. A lot of times they don’t know the samples are just going to sit on the shelf and until you pay for them they won’t get tested. They don’t tell you what is going on with it and a lot of times after a certain amount of time it expires and they don’t tell you they throw them out. They don’t tell the person who was the rape victim. That’s when you get multiple serial rapists that get away with it and they have! It is an issue that a lot of politicians in cities say, “This is going to be one of my issues; one of my top ten things,” but then when they get elected the money never goes towards that and they get ignored. I think that is one of the most horrific violations to a woman or to anybody. It stays with me for life and they need to do more about it. With Mariska’s help, it has a site that brings awareness to it. You want to make a difference because it is not right.

Q) What else do you want to be sure fans know about what is to come this season on “Secrets and Lies?”

A) There are a lot more twists and turns. It’s going to be dark. It’s a great journey! Trust me, none of us knew! We were guessing all the way to the end. Who is it? I just think you are going to have a lot of things unfold about a lot of characters. They set these people up and you’re like, “Well, who are they really?” You’re going to find a lot of skeletons in a lot of closets. I think Barbie is pretty genius with the way she keeps going completely left and completely right. Just when you think it is one thing it is going to be a three-sixty turn. You are going to see a lot of that. Tune in this week! I think this will be a great episode. Barbie wrote me at the end of the last episode, “This next episode is going to be awesome for you! Trust me!” I was psyched. I remember what it was about so it’s going to be good!

Watch Acting & Dyslexia: Bates Motel Actor, Kenny Johnson on His Struggles and Successes