Kenny Johnson Interview

The Muse: For the ‘Gossip Girl’ and ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ craved college audience, can you tell us how you got involved with ‘Saving Grace’ and why it’s worth watching.

Kenny Johnson: I kind of wanted to transition into doing more films that I had actually done a little earlier in my career, and this [‘Saving Grace’] script came along that Holly Hunter was attached to and when I read it, it was one of the best-written scripts-it was raw, it dealt with death and sexuality, it dealt with my character cheating on his wife with Holly Hunter’s character, and she was basically a very destructive character and it takes place in Oklahoma City. It resonates a lot of conflicts and obstacles that these characters have to go through …The show deals a little bit with the spiritual aspect because [Holly Hunter’s character] has this last-chance angel that she thinks is kind of BS; the lifestyle that she lives is, ‘I don’t need this, get out of my life, quit bugging me,’ but his whole deal is that you got to turn your life around somehow or else God is going to come take you out, but she’s just like ‘F— you, just let me drink,’ and he keeps popping up. It’s not like a goody-goody angel, but it’s more like something to remind her that she’s got choices in life and she’s got to try to change them. So, it’s not ‘Gossip Girl,’ but there’s a lot of sexuality in the first season. In the first seven episodes that aired already, I think we had a lot of crazy sex scenes and a lot of nudity. It’s either with tequila or tying each other up, ketchup and mustard, riding naked on horses, you know, drunk out of our minds.’ It’s a different kind of show, but it’s got a big following and it’s one of the highest-rated shows on cable.

TM: What attracted you to the role of Ham Dewey?

KJ: He just seemed like a guy’s guy’hellip;I thought ‘Okay, this is going to be fun. I get to play a cop’hellip;I get to play with an accent.’ He’s married to somebody, but he’s sleeping with Holly Hunter in almost every other episode, so I thought it was an interesting and a fun character to play’hellip;I thought I could totally do this guy with my eyes closed and that kind of attracted me to it, but it became a lot more challenging as time went on because I think the writers wrote very subtle layers and it’s very estrogen-driven’hellip;Things like bearing your heart to someone who’s constantly rejecting you and struggling with not wanting to show her how you feel and yet you’re partners and best friends’hellip;it makes you feel very naked.

TM: TV vs. film — which one do you prefer?

KJ: TV is really cool, but also it’s really demanding. You have like 13-14 hour days for years, but it’s kind of cool that you develop these kinds of relationships with people and the characters inside and out — you know these people beyond anything. In films, I love the fact that you go for one story and you’re in and then you’re out’hellip;I love film, I do’hellip;If I could tell stories and then move on to another story, that’d be cool.

TM: If you weren’t acting, what would you be doing right now?

KJ: That’s interesting. I don’t know. I mean I always had this fascination with helping kids. I worked at an orphanage for a while in California. There’s’hellip;a lot of kids that need help and I’ve always wanted to get more involved in that’hellip;You can do charity events, but hands-on, actually going to help people that need it, I like that.

TM: You currently live in LA because of your acting career, but you are originally from Vermont and Boston. Do you prefer one coast to the other?

KJ: California I had to get used to. Growing up with all four seasons out here, I fell in love with that, I didn’t know anything but that. Living in LA for six years, I hated it because it never changed’hellip;When I showed up [at the Four Seasons Hotel], and they gave me a place overlooking the Boston Commons’hellip;I started laughing and screaming like a little kid as soon as I shut the door, and I felt like I was home. I jumped on the bed and I was rolling around and I thought, ‘Oh man, if they had the production here, I’d be in heaven.’ I love this coast.