Interview with Eric Johnson

November 15, 2001

I first met Eric Johnson six years ago when he was a high school student and I was a journalism student.

He had just made his big screen debut in Legends of the Fall. And what a debut it was, spending screen time opposite Sir Anthony Hopkins.

Not too shabby for a 15 year old from Edmonton, Canada.

“It was my first glimpse at Hollywood movie making. And just the grand scale of things blew my mind away,” says Eric, sipping on a coffee. Now at 22, Eric will be making another huge leap for his career. He will play Superman’s rival on the new WB show Smallville.

You know the WB, the same company that has brought TV viewers quality programming like Dawson’s Creek and Felicity.

Oh yeah, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but that got bought up by UPN (that’s a different story though and has no place in this one.)

“I play the high school All-American football star with the cheerleader girlfriend. (I’m) the epitome of normal which Clark Kent wants to be, because he is very not-normal, and isn’t one of the popular kids and is sort of striving towards this normality that I have. It seems that I have everything that he wants. And we don’t really get along,” explains Eric on his character Whitney Redmond on the show.

Smallville is the Midwestern American town where Clark Kent aka Superman was raised by his adopted earth parents. The show, which takes place in modern day, focuses on his teen years with him coming to term with his abilities and at the same time having to deal with everything every teenager has to deal with in high school life.

So how does an Alberta born and bred boy come to play the All-American football hero? The blond hair, blue eyes, strong 6′2″ frame might have something to do with it. Or it just may be Eric’s drive to succeed in the industry. Eric has spent his share of time auditioning. He has come close a few times before to landing a regular part on series television too.

Eric auditioned for Smallville executive producer David Nutter when he was casting for Roswell and Dark Angel. But not getting those parts didn’t deter him and he kept at it. Most recently he starred in the Canadian production Scorn, a film about a young man who kills his mother and grandmother to get his inheritance.

“This is all I’ve done. I didn’t want to give in,” he leans forward in his chair and his voice raises enough to have the next table turn and look at him, “I said, I’m going to do this and I’m going to make a go of it. There were sometimes when work was slow but I didn’t want to give up on it.” And now until at least December he won’t have to do anything else. Smallville has been slated to shoot 13 episodes with the possibility of another nine being picked up. Ironically the show is being shot in Vancouver, Canada.

“I think definitely our show has the formula to be a success. They’re appealing to the teenage audience which is one of the biggest audiences in terms of consumer dollars spent in the age group so it’s appealing to that and it’s also appealing to people who like Superman because Superman has a huge following also,” Eric’s enthusiasm for the show bubbles over and he starts to shift in his chair on this rainy day in his hometown.

“It’s sort of like a fantasy teenage show but it’s smart too. It’s not dumbed-down. They want to make it an original show about an unoriginal character. You know?” he asks rhetorically adding, “It’s a combination between the teen element of Dawson’s Creek with the fantasy level of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

Although Eric’s biggest roles to date have him portraying rather dislikeable characters, (he protests his character in Smallville isn’t a bad guy — “I think I’m just a typical teenage guy in high school so you know not everything I do is going to be nice,”) he is quite the opposite in real life.

This is the biggest thing to happen to Eric’s career and he knows it. He is gearing up for what comes along with a series that has the potential to make him a star and land his face on covers of magazines like “Teen People” and “16″.

“This is definitely going to be a huge step because all of a sudden it puts you onto a U.S. series and that’s the most recognizable people on TV…. other than news. It’s exciting and at the same time it’s scary too,” he grins self-consciously.

Right now Eric has both feet planted firmly on the ground and that’s where he wants to keep them. “When I’m living at home in Edmonton, I live with my parents. And I go and hang out with my friends and I play on a softball team.”

So I ask Eric when we sit down and talk again six years from now where does he want to be? He replies: “I’m going to be talking about the new film that I just wrote and am producing locally here in Edmonton,” he giggles.

“I want to wait and learn some more stuff before I screw up. Nobody will ever give me money again to make a film.”

He concedes though that acting is his first love and he is still looking forward to learning a lot and honing his craft before going off and telling other actors what he wants from them.

Watch for Eric Johnson to become a staple on the covers of all those teen mags. He has the dreamy quality to be pin-up material in every girl’s bedroom and nice enough to have their parents’ approval.

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