Mr. Johnson is in the building!
From the executive producers of “The Blacklist” comes the action packed Las Vegasset thriller The Player. The series costars Wesley Snipes as a pit boss and Charity Wakefield as the dealer for a highstakes game where an organization of wealthy individuals gamble on the ability of former military operative turned security expert Philip Winchester to stop some of the biggest crimes imaginable from playing out. Can he take them down from the inside and get revenge for the death of his wife, or is it true what they say: The house always wins.
Q: What first attracted you to this role?
A: It was initially that I thought they sent me project to play the role of Alex, and then when I got into the meeting I realized after they kept referencing Mr. Johnson that I was there under the wrong impression. And they laid out that they really wanted me to play Mr. Johnson, which was kind of a surprise because Mr. Johnson, in the script I read, had maybe four or five lines in the whole piece. So I was like ‘why wouldn’t you want me to play the action guy but rather be the behind the desk guy?’ They were like, ‘no, no, no, no, no, no, no, that’s not what we’re going to do. We are going to expand it and you will be the guy who helps Alex, the player, help solve the crimes and also you will run the house. And you will be able to interact with all the other houses –there are about twelve that have been set up around the world.’ So I was like ‘Oh uh huh, that sounds very interesting.’ So it was a great action piece and a great opportunity for me, as an actor, to explore the range of my acting skills and being something that is associated with pretty successful writers as well as producers in the television game.
Q: And you character is very mysterious so can you give us a little more insight on who your character is?
A: Well Mr. Johnson is a pit boss and a pit boss is a player who has risen through the ranks. Mr. Johnson has come up through the ranks and has become the pit boss of pit bosses whose responsibility is to manage the largest house of the virtual gambling world where gamblers bet on the outcome of a predictable criminal act and they make money off of it. It’s what filthy rich people do when they have a whole lot of money and a whole lot of time.
Q: So what do you love most about your character then?
A: Well, for one thing he is a very snazzy dresser. And I get to live vicariously through these 10 million dollar credit line types of people. That’s kind of interesting. And as the actor for Mr. Johnson I get to do some fun things. I get to do the action and get to do other characters; get to create other characters, part of Mr. Johnson’s disguises. And I get to do some martial arts, display my martial skills, and our team’s martial arts choreography, in a way, is something we got to show.
Q: And what do you love about television as a medium as opposed to film?
A: Well we are still on the first couple of takes right now so I don’t know if love is the right word. It is a very interesting space. It is very challenging; I give a lot of respect for the people working in this industry and keep the engine running. Their skills, talents, and professionalism is phenomenal. So yeah, we are going to see.
Q: So how has filming on the show been like for you?
A: So far it’s been pretty good. Put in some long hours; we don’t have the same prep time as we do in film but it forces us to be creative and as an independent filmmaker, those are great tools to have, creativity, which is probably the most important thing.
Q: And can you talk about what it’s like working with all the other cast members?
A: It’s a lot of fun. They are theatrically trained and some are even Shakespearean trained actors from over the world or over the seas. They have a lot of experience and a lot of enthusiasm. It’s fun to see them enjoying themselves so much. I get a kick out of that as well.
Q: Is there anyone on the show that you really enjoy working with?
A: Well all of them so far. Most of my scenes so far are with Charity Wakefield who is playing Cassandra. And Philip and I have some scenes together but not a lot of them. But so far everyone is getting along pretty well.
Q: And what are some things we can expect from future episodes?
A: Amazing plot twists. Engaging storylines. And discoveries. Each one of the main characters has a hidden agenda and they start to discover what those agendas are over a period of time, some of them are very intriguing. And some great action, great martial arts, great new styles to the screen, some exotic martial arts to the screen as well. So we are going to have some fun.
Q: Can you give us a little hint about your character’s hidden agenda?
A: Well I can tell you that Mr. Johnson was a player and he had to come up through the ranks to become the pit boss of pit bosses. And now the question is, how did he do that? And, who hates on him because he did that?
Q: Besides the show, are there any upcoming projects you would like to share?
A: Yeah, there are some things coming down the line. I got a feature film called ‘The Arson’ which is a crime drama with Zach Braff. And we have a project which is a female assassin franchise that we are building. We are also going to do something very interesting called ‘The Notorious Nine.’ And so we got a wide range of projects both in television and film that are coming down the pipe.
THE PLAYER airs Thursdays at 10pm EST/9pm CST on NBC!
Photo Credit: NBC
