Rhomeyn Johnson, Actor: …So if I couldn't make it what makes you think you could make it?
Film Courage: What does it mean to you to be an artist?
Rhomeyn: Oh wow. It means that I'm able
to give something back to people and to hopefully enlighten someone and
help someone understand something whatever it is I mean and plus me being an artist
is basically all I can do anyway so so I mean that's just who I am and I tell people I say if
if you're going to be an actor you can't go into it wanting to become a star you can't go into it
and put a time limit on it I mean years ago I knew people that got into it and it was like
saying especially when they moved out here to California they were like well if I don't have
a TV show by by in another year I'm going back to Kansas it's like okay you better go back to Kansas
you can't put a time limit this is a life this is this is a life you're gonna have ups
and downs you're gonna have more Downs than UPS and I find that people that and I can't say and
I don't want to say all people but I find that a lot of people that were stars in college or
whatever as actors in their universities a lot of them tend to have a harder time because they
they've been spoiled to a certain point and and once they get into the real world of acting
they've realized they just one of the numbers and see By Me Not
majoring and being in college like this as that it was easy for me to roll with
the punches on it I mean I did this as a kid you know I did plays and I all in the little
stuff play piano all that kind of stuff as a kid but I left it and went into sports
so Heaven had a sports background I know like that thing I said about you not gonna win everything
because in sports you're not gonna win everything so you turn you tend to have a little more of
an even Keel about it and I find that a lot of my friends that in that I went to college with
that were like in the theater department and had a degree as a director in in film
are telemarketers and and not in the business there's nothing wrong with those jobs of course
but they tend not to make it like that and it was funny because a lot of those Folk
I came into it from somewhere else I came into it just basically from the sports and
being just a a loafer in college I hate to say it but I wasn't really great in college because I was
like I got pretty good grades towards the end but my first couple of years I was like oh okay
I was clowning around and everything and I didn't get serious until it was time to get out of there
but but most people tend to when they come from a theater background or whatever they tend to
have a hard time because they have a certain expectation and this industry does not care
once you get in this business they don't care I mean it's nice to have a a masters from Yale
drama school I mean you might have a con it's all connections and whatnot anyway so you might
be able to do some things but if it's just based upon have studied here at juilliards and no no you
got to get once you get in front of that camera or get on that stage you either have it or you don't
yeah I think early rejection actually helps you because also too it's not just the degree
but let's suppose you were a big fish back in your little Pond or you were the family star and
everyone thought you were oh we can't wait to see little Joey go off and he's gonna make it and then
I think that spoils people and yeah this is not that kind of a town it sets you up almost
well yeah because see you get spoiled because like you say you were a big fish in a small
pond now you're a small fish in the biggest pond so it all weighs out differently so you have to
it it all depends on the type of person you it all gets back to what type of person you are
how you are inside it all gets back to that and like I said I have friends that were like
really really really top notch in school in this business and and nowhere to be found
and matter of fact I ran into a guy a few years back who I went to high school with
who was the star of everything in high school and he said to me he says wow I can't believe
that you've been doing this all these many years and and I was the I was the top actor
in high school I'm like yeah you were that's all I can say was yeah you ran into him here in Los
Angeles no I ran into him back in Michigan back home and he was like yeah I said yeah you yeah
you really were good yeah yeah you were excellent what makes artists different than other people
well different in the sense of what you do but not necessarily you shouldn't be different as far as
the type of person you are it's the difference is basically what you do being an artist being
and whether you're a sculptor or a painter or a a musician or actor or a dancer or whatever
the only difference is what you do it shouldn't be the type of person you are
see see where people have a problem in our business is once they get in it they tend to
not all people but some people they tend to let it overwhelm them as far as they're sensitive who
they are and how important they are and my thing has always been you just it's a job because like I
said I couldn't do anything else I got fired from every regular job I've ever had I got fired from
my paper route when I was 12. and it started a long list of being fired from regular jobs
once I got in this it was different and I got fired once in this but I won't get
into that but but it's just you got to be you got to be a regular person
and and I find that being a regular person people in the industry like you for that
I don't have many people that don't like me because it's hard not to like me because I'm
just a regular guy I don't I'm not pretentious to anything like that I don't well yes sir I'm who I
am no I'm not dead because I'm not that I'm just a regular working actor so I understand I mean I
had a woman tell me years ago when I first got into business she said yes I saw you in that
little thing you did I'm I'm surprised that you were able to do that I'm like a bigger pardon
she says well I had a scholarship in New York with Alvin Ailey which is top Dance Company I said oh
yeah that's great she says so if I couldn't make it what makes you think you could make it yeah
she said that to me now I was at a point where I was new in the business and I was like oh okay
and it I still remember that and I'm like oh and I'm sure that woman has seen me over the years she
might be seeing you now she might and my first agent I got in Detroit she handed me a script
she says read this so it was a Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial or whatever and I had no
real experience as far as an actor like that so I read it she says you have a great look oh
beautiful smile you really personality is great but you'll never do voice over work
and I said oh okay and I was like first of all I'm like voice over work basically what's that
and and once it was explained to me I said oh okay
so I'm like well why won't I be doing that that's what I thought to myself so how fate and how God
and everything works I moved into an apartment building where one of the guys that lived in
the building was a recording engineer at us at a studio and I was in the laundry room one day and
he came in with his laundry and we got to talking he says yeah Gerald said that you you're into the
acting thing I said well I'm just starting out in it he says oh do you do voice over
I says no my agent told me that I probably wouldn't be able to do that he says why not
so he says let me put a load of clothes on come up to my come up to my apartment go to his apartment
got a studio he started teaching me how to do voice over so when I left Detroit and moved
to Chicago I had my first little demo tape the agents heard it says this is pretty good
now I had to gain more experience as I went along but that's how I got into that because somehow God
the the voiceover gods were like how dare her say he she he will never do that we determine this so
it just fell into place I've been doing voiceovers ever since matter of fact I got to go and do
something later I got to do some auditions I get three or four a day which is a lot of auditions
voice over auditions you get three or four a day minimum and I mean it's hard work to get but
it's very lucrative in fact I just did two last actual jobs last week so but that's how it is so
it's the business is crazy like that people tell you stuff and then your agents will
say okay hey I can't do this you can't do this you can't do that and you're like oh
nobody likes to have somebody tell them what they can do especially if they haven't never
done it before or haven't tried it it's like okay because at that point all of the voiceover actors
were still sounding like this those commercials back then now they don't want that and since the
pandemic they want real they want real if you notice the commercials and everything and the
voice over stuff it's like people talking during the pandemic it was really rough for me and and I
think I was able to go and get everything taken care of and my medication is okay as opposed
to years ago Tylenol medication the medicine that will help you get over your headache you
remember years ago it's like it's all changed so they want real people so I was a re I was
one of the first of the real people voice over people I was wondering I was one of the first
black guys to be a real person in a in a voiceover audition or in a job I was one of the first ones
well you could do both though that you could do yeah the the the oh yeah stage voice well
sometimes I mean like like yesterday last night as a matter of fact when I got home I had to do
one for I forgot what I'm not supposed to say the products I've been nut but I had to be like
new Don Pardo here we go that whole thing new on The Price is Right that kind of thing I can do
that stuff but you don't do a lot of that stuff and then they tend to go with those regular guys
that do that and most of us are like I mean I have friends say I didn't get that I said well
they went with the real person for that I mean the real guy from Price is Right or whatever it's
no problem with that you said okay but when it's like regular stuff that's us I tend to get people
wanting me to do James Earl Jones we're looking for a James Earl Jones type we're looking for
Ving Rhames who does uh Arby's you we've got the meats and they'll say we're looking for something
like that and I noticed that whenever I try to sound like those people I don't get that stuff so
lately what I've been doing is I've been saying this is good for the voiceover lady I've been
saying what I'm gonna sound like me so instead of Arby's you like Arby's hey great come get a
burger I mean whatever I booked those because you be yourself you're not trying to sound like Morgan
Freeman no worries Morgan Freeman I get all that kind of stuff and I and I finally understood that
of course they don't want that actual sound they want that kind of flavor they want that kind of
persona or whatever so that's what you kind of get into after a while but this is a lot of like a lot
of stuff like that you don't learn in school you don't learn this stuff in school you got to learn
it out here you got to learn it out here in the real world and where people come out of college
and out of school and they say oh well I'm going to do this then they get out here and like wow
because there are people out here been doing this a long time and they're not going anywhere.