Rhomeyn Johnson, Actor: You have to realize who you are, what you can do and see for me I know there's
nothing else I can do. So I have no...I burnt all...I purposely burned all my
bridges leaving Detroit. Film Courage: Do you think most people go home because
of the rejection or they have very strong pulls from friends and family and
it's comfort, it's safety and I'll miss them and it's not always that way here
especially if you're working a little survival job in the gig industry that's
not it's not that it's all of that it's not just the fact that you can't do your
your acting or whatever it's all of those factors it's all of that I mean
that's why that's why I say it's this is this is a calling to me this is a
calling to be this see when you when it's a calling there's nothing that can
take you away from it I mean you know you get sick of whatever like my mother
fell and hurt herself now if I had to go and I went home for a
couple of weeks to tend to my mother if I had to go home to take care of my
mother I would do that because he family comes first you know if I had to say
okay I'm gonna have to go home for a while I will do that
see so it's not like no no no if this is this an emergency situation that always
to me takes precedence over this because you can't I couldn't be happy or really
concentrate knowing that my mama or somebody needs me and they helpless I
couldn't you know you can't you can't function so I mean I would do that but
if it's about the fact that you know the pool like I dated a girl that was here
from Chicago and we went to see a movie and in at the Sherman Oaks Galleria and
when we left a movie she got a call from her from her mother
anyway I have enough cook out in the backyard or something so this is like we
went to see it like a early matinee you know around 12 or something like that so
after the movie was always around 2 o'clock or whatever Mack in Chicago was
4 o'clock and it was on I think of Saturday or something and her mother
calls oh because oh we got barbecue we got potato salad we got all this
stuff Oh everybody asking about you and we were walking going to you know you we
walk into the car you know you've been in the gallery right so we were walking
to the car on the ground and then she stopped dead in her tracks and start
talking and all of a sudden she said okay I'll call you back mom I'll call
you back she hung up on the phone and stopped
broke down start crying so naturally people who walking pass it what did you
do people looking at me like did you hit her
did you I'm like I'm just standing here she started crying and said I want to go
home and we got in the car and she cried and cried we didn't even we didn't even
take off we just sat in the car and she said what should I do I said you should
go home she said really I said go home I say you
you you need to go home because you feeling that she said but I don't I said
don't worry about me or your agents and all these people you got to do what's
best for you if it means being in this business be in this business if it means
going Hong Kong she went home made her old sweetheart had a kid beautiful
little girl and he ran off and left it was doing you
know and we talk all the time you know what she said oh yeah you know I said
well now is he taking care of his responsibilities is he giving you they
got divorced I say are you getting your alimony in it
oh yeah oh you don't okay but but it's like you have to you
have to realize who you are what you can do and and see me I know there's nothing
else I can do so I have no I burned all I purposely burned all my bridges
leaving Detroit because the last real job I had in Detroit you know while I
was still studying my stuff I quit on them and actually they had to terminate
me because I moved I went to Chicago and wouldn't come back I took a leave of
absence certified social worker for the state of
Michigan I didn't go back so my boss had to I had to come back and I went to the
job and she's crying while she's writing the termination papers all the people in
this Inn and I'm hugging them and it's gonna be all right I don't want to get
fired that's okay they said I was hugging and consoling them and they had
to fire me and then he won't I said no no no they said you could have taken a
long-term leave I said no I said I'd needed to burn this bridge I can't go
back over this bridge because alligators in that moat down there and they if I
try to cut through the water they gonna chew me up I can't go over this bridge I
burnt that bridge down see I had to burn them down because I said this is what I
have to do this is what I have to do and people in this industry as you know we
driven we driven now I don't I don't put everything into this I mean like I said
when I get home I mean I put everything into this when I'm working auditioning
or whatever and all that when I get home I said okay I'm putting that aside I've
learned that over the years okay I gotta put that to the side so I watched
football basketball oh I do do all kind of other stuff other than the business
you know I don't get high so I can't do like a lot of my friends that smoke weed
oh yeah I don't do that anymore so I have to just do other stuff but you have
to get away from it sometimes you know and you have to just do that but like
like like like we was saying there's always gonna be a pool of some type it's
always gonna be a pool and I mean even when I got into business I had so much I
have so many people calling me crazy when I first got in it because they
didn't understand what I was doing because this is all the way he's a flake
anyway you know he's you know I had a girl that
you know I knew I was at a party and she found out I was doing aspiring for this
early and she had gone out and went to New York with the Alvin Ailey Dance
Company and whatnot and she didn't make it
so I was at a party and I'm sitting at a table with her and her boyfriend you
know and she says you gonna try to do what she said you'll never make it
because I couldn't make it so if I couldn't make it I know you can't and I
was like sitting there like okay and I had people doing me like that then I
would have I would meet women you know you know I would try to date him or
whatever and they'd be say Oh what do you do for a living I said well I'm an
actor they said oh you are what if I seen you in or have you whatever you
done you know and if I'm if I'm saying well I really haven't done much then now
you know it's like he's a loser they looked at me and and I had that that L
on my forehead you know for them which is the loser you know and I actually had
women whispering he's a bum he's a loser I mean I had all kind of stuff I'm like
okay all right and and as the years went on and I start doing stuff I would get
few and front questions like that now I don't get that anymore and if I ever get
any of those kind of questions somebody said well whatever you done what can I
see you in I can give him lists I said oh I was a recurring character on Parks
and Rec I was a police chief I got a commercial right now running for
Liberty Mutual that's running every two seconds I can't go anywhere without
people not recognizing me we just bleed me the airport everybody need a mutual
get them like crazy okay so what I say and I get like I say very few questions
like that because it's been 30 years I mean 30 years and I you know I used to
have people say well why don't you use your good
I mean with your college and I'll say well I've been I went to school for like
what 17 years you started what sighs I guess I said I went all until I was like
21 22 you know how I was a year behind because I played sports and had to drop
classes because I was always traveling you know so I was I was like a I was
like a five year college graduated not a four year you know so that's my scarlet
letter you know he came out inside instead of four oh but you know it's
like 17 years of school I said okay I went through that life for 17 years I've
been doing this 30 so are you they said oh I said yeah it's like I'm out of that
stuff but no I you know it's like now now I don't have that problem with women
problem I got now is I got women trying to take my money okay that's a whole no
that's another subject altogether you know I mean try to get this money
because they know I got some money see so now somebody calling me here oh okay
and just keep killing who does here I knew with her
you