The Big Picture

Don Johnson’s career is full of iconic roles, from
Miami Vice
to
Knives Out
and beyond.

Rebel Ridge
tells the story of a man fighting small-town corruption led by Johnson’s Police Chief, Sandy Burnne
In this interview with Collider’s Steve Weintraub, Johnson discusses his experiences with Jeremy Saulnier as well as directors like Sidney Lumet and Quentin Tarantino.

Loaded with unequivocal success, award-winning actor Don Johnson’s career is filled equally with stone-cold classics and contemporary blockbusters. He won a Golden Globe for his iconic portrayal of Sonny Crockett in Miami Vice. He’s had a top Billboard single off of his charting album Heartbeat. He lit the stage as Guys & Dolls’ Nathan Detroit in London’s prestigious West End. He smashed onto the scene with a second seminal television show, Nash Bridges. He’s filmed fruitful collaborations with massive directors like Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Rian Johnson, and so many more. Now he’s adding Rebel Ridge, the new film by Blue Ruin’s thriller auteur filmmaker Jeremy Saulnier, to his filmography.

Rebel Ridge is set in the town of Shelby Springs. After Terry Richmond (Aaron Pierre) tries to post bail for his cousin, his savings are unjustly seized by corrupt local police Chief Sandy Burnne, played with pitch-perfect intensity by Johnson. With the help of court clerk Summer McBride (AnnaSophia Robb), Terry unearths a widespread conspiracy within Shelby Springs and sets off to get his money back by any means necessary.

Collider’s Steven Weintraub sat down with Don Johnson to discuss humanity in villains, what it’s like rehearsing with Oscar-winning directors, and the reality of shooting over 20 episodes of Miami Vice each season.

Image via Netflix

COLLIDER: I’ve been a fan of yours for a while. I spoke to you years ago with Vince Vaughn for Craig Zahler’s movie.

DON JOHNSON: I remembered your name, actually. I’m a big fan of Collider.

Thank you, that’s awesome. I just spoke to Vince for Bad Monkey, and he told me that he’s filming a new movie with Zahler early next year. Have you gotten the call?

JOHNSON: Not yet, but I will. I’m Zahler’s muse, I think.

I need you guys to team up again because the last time you did was fantastic.

JOHNSON: It was pretty good, wasn’t it?

It really was.

Why Hasn’t There Been a ‘Miami Vice’ Reboot?
Don Johnson has a plan.
Image via NBC

Miami Vice is an iconic series. With all the reboots and sequels, how have they never made a new Miami Vice ?

JOHNSON: I didn’t hear the show, but there was a Joe Rogan show on not too long ago. A friend of mine told me he had heard it. Apparently, he and somebody else were singing my praises about how Sonny Crockett was the greatest character of all time, and there hasn’t been anyone before or since that has filled those shoes. I’m not saying that, that’s Joe Rogan and somebody else. I feel that way about the period of time and the texture of the ’80s. It’s different now. It’s hard. It could be done. I have a plan for it, but there are so many people with their thumbs in the pie now and so many iterations that it’s hard to cut through all of that and really find the gem we found back then.

People forget you were doing 20-something episodes a season, which is a lot for that show.

JOHNSON: Yeah, you’re not kidding. Sometimes we were doing 24, and I think one year we did 26.

It’s crazy. People don’t realize what that takes, from the writing to the crew to everything.

JOHNSON: It’s insane. It’s chaos. Basically, you’re tired before you begin. Then you go from tired to oblivious just on rote, on automatic. It’s incredible.

You’ve done so many roles through the years. Do you remember one shot or sequence that was really challenging? The most challenging you’ve ever done, whether it be a camera move, dialogue with a camera move, whatever it may be.

JOHNSON: Steve, I have done so many challenging things that other actors probably wouldn’t do. If you’re going to be in a show around the same people all the time, I just say we ought to all be able to do everybody’s job. I’ll drive boats and do stunt sequences and stuff like that, and cars. I was better with the boats than the stunt guys — and that’s not me saying it, that’s the stunt guys. Action sequences and stuff like that. I’m athletic, so I liked doing a lot of those things. I’m paying for it now. [Laughs]

Don Johnson Finds the Humanity in Villains
“To deny the humanity is to deny yourself.”

Jumping into why I get to talk to you. I thought Jeremy did such a good job with this movie.

JOHNSON: So did I.

How much fun is it playing the bad guy?

JOHNSON: I love playing all different types of characters. I especially love playing this bad guy because this bad guy is actually a good guy. In all the bad guys I ever play, I find the humanity. Even bad guys, even — dare I say it — some of the most heinous people in history were human. To deny the humanity is to deny yourself. So, playing villains is a pretty exciting part of the equation. In discovering the humanity and why they do certain things that they do, it’s like they were inexorably drawn on a string by their DNA to be at that place, that spot, that time, for that incident to happen.

Jeremy is talented behind the camera. I really enjoy his writing, directing, and editing. What was he actually like as a collaborator? Was there anything that surprised you about working with him?

JOHNSON: Jeremy knows this because we talked about it: when I first arrived, Jeremy hadn’t worked with somebody with my experience. So, the first day, he’s directing the hard way — setting up a shot and then backing the actors into it and into the blocking. I said, “Between the three or four of us in this scene, we’ve got 150 years of experience. You got to take advantage of that.” I said, “Let’s do this scene again. I’m gonna rehearse it first and see where it falls in naturally. Then you figure out how you want to shoot it.” He stopped, he thought about it a second, and it was like it hadn’t occurred to him. Then I did it, and he said, “Oh yeah!” It became a mix of the way I was trained how to do it. You go and find the character as opposed to backing into a character device of some sort. He came to embrace it, and I think we both got better out of the process.

Don Johnson Compares Oscar-Winning Directing Legends
Image via Colombia Pictures

I’ve spoken to a lot of filmmakers, and they all talk about how you don’t really go to other people’s sets to watch how people do things, you do your own thing. But an actor gets to watch all the directors — and you’ve directed — so you pick it all up.

JOHNSON: I was trained classically, doing rehearsals. When I worked with Sidney Lumet on Guilty as Sin, we rehearsed for two weeks just as if we were doing a stage play. We marked out all the stuff on the floor with masking tape, we created all the rooms, and we pantomimed the props. We did all that, and we rehearsed just like we’re gonna put it up as a stage play. By the time we got to the set, we were ready to film. We were ready because we were already off-book. That’s a very efficient way. It’s the only way Sidney knew how to direct because he had come from theater, and it was one of the ways I knew how. But I’ve worked with all different kinds of directors. Quentin Tarantino is also one of those guys who has an idea of what he wants to see. The way I worked with Quentin was I would say, “Okay, what do you wanna see?” And he said, “Well, I’m looking at this.” I said, “Okay, now let me fool around in the space for a second, then we’ll get back together.” He would. I would do my thing, and that was that! We had a great working relationship.

Rebel Ridge is now streaming on Netflix.

WATCH ON NETFLIX