Don Johnson Will Never Retire: ‘I’m Getting Better’

At 74, ‘Miami Vice’ star plays a bad guy in Netflix’s two-fisted action movie ‘Rebel Ridge’

Tim Appelo,

AARP

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Published September 05, 2024

Don Johnson and Emory Cohen look at each other in a scene from the Netflix film Rebel Ridge

(Left to right) Don Johnson and Emory Cohen in "Rebel Ridge."

Allyson Riggs/Netflix

Don Johnson is famous for playing upright lawmen such as Nash Bridges and Miami Vice’s Sonny Crockett, but in the gripping Rebel Ridge, he gets in touch with his dark side as a small-town cop who stops a visitor (Aaron Pierre) and confiscates his cash, so the visitor goes Rambo on the corrupt town. Written in the style of First Blood, it’s a movie with a message about the real-world controversy over civil asset forfeiture, which permits authorities to seize property without charging anyone of a crime.

Is Rebel Ridge a typical action flick?

Audiences need to know that they’re in for not the usual trope that’s suggested in the thumbnail [the frame from the film that Netflix’s algorithm displays to grab your attention]. They’re going to get a very rich and powerful and meaningful story with some fabulous performances and great direction.

How does it feel to play the bad guy, not the hero?

I slip out of the angel choir occasionally and dip into the devil union. Heroic people in films tend to be written two-dimensional, if you’re lucky. Generally one-dimensional. Bad guys are so much easier to do.

Don Johnson holding his gun in his holster looking at Aaron Pierre in the Netflix film Rebel Ridge

(Left to right) Don Johnson stars as Chief Sandy Burnne and Aaron Pierre stars as Terry Richmond in "Rebel Ridge."

Allyson Riggs/Netflix

How bad a guy is Chief Sandy?

I think he was by the book, followed the law. But all over America, with the Walmarts and the Amazons, all these little towns with charming shops go away because nobody goes shopping there anymore. And so they don’t have any budget. So Sandy is handed this problem. He’s got to keep the schools going, the sewers, the county services. So he does the only way he knows how.

And he doesn’t seize the cash just because the visitor (Pierre) was Black?

He could be green, red, black, white or brown. Didn’t matter. It’s not like he had something against him. He was going to get his money taken because the chief had been saddled with keeping the parish going.

Chief Sandy thinks he’s a good guy?

Exactly! Most villains don’t think they’re villains. Usually when you have a bad guy in an action movie, it’s contrived, what their wickedness is.

He could ask the audience, “How would YOU keep this town and this department afloat?”

Yeah! “You tell me!”

In an era of movies with machine guns mowing people down, what kind of classic film does Rebel Ridge hearken back to?

Walking Tall. I like the discipline of violence with nonlethal weapons. I thought the fight scene in front of the station between Aaron and I and the other deputy was cool. It looked like it was happening right there. I didn’t want it to be cartoon violence or movie violence; it had to be raw, where people miss each other and mistakes are made, like real fights.

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Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas both holding guns in a scene from the television series Miami Vice

(Left to right) Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas in "Miami Vice."

Ray Fairall/Everett Collection

How has acting changed over your 50-year career?

These days, a lot of the youngsters are so unprofessional, they don’t know the first thing about actually showing up to rehearse. They read off their sides [pages with one character’s dialogue] and never once look at the other actor. I made a rule, no sides in my scenes, because if they don’t know their words, as far as I’m concerned, they’re not actors. They go, “You mean I have to know the whole scene?” Sidney Lumet [Dog Day Afternoon director] would make you be off book [memorize the script] before you started shooting.

Is Hollywood ageism unwise? Do actors get worse with experience?

I actually think I’m getting better. I think there’s ageism. I probably was an ageist when I was young and ignorant. And you know, as you get older, you realize that the most wild and adventurous sex that’s being had is in the retirement homes. I can’t wait! I don’t think they’re gonna let me retire.

Do you plan to retire?

No. As long as I get to work with good people and I’m still on the menu and relevant, then I’m probably going to do what I do.

Is there something you’ve always yearned to play, like Shakespeare?

I studied Shakespeare at the American Conservatory Theater, and I can do it. I don’t know how good I am at it, but I can do it. I don’t think people would buy me doing Shakespeare — but they might, actually. I’m pretty effective at morphing. If I was going to do Shakespeare, would probably be King Lear, and I’m not old enough yet to play it. There’s something that I’ve always wanted to try. And it’s just such a classic, you can’t do it ... never mind.

You’ve got to say it now. Be bold!

It’s a Frank Capra movie, Arsenic and Old Lace. I’d love to remake that, but now I’m too old for it — maybe I could direct it. Cary Grant was fabulous, so big in that movie, gesticulating and making all these faces. And I’m going, “Jesus, what courage!”

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Tim Appelo covers entertainment and is the film and TV critic for AARP. Previously, he was the entertainment editor at Amazon, video critic at Entertainment Weekly, and a critic and writer for The Hollywood Reporter, People, MTV, The Village Voice and LA Weekly.