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![Don Johnson in Rebel Ridge Don Johnson and Emory Cohen look at each other in a scene from the Netflix film Rebel Ridge](https://aarp.widen.net/content/b5zbfdrkqy/jpeg/RR_20220509_02240_R3.jpg?crop=true&anchor=9,51&q=80&color=ffffffff&u=2xkwh0&w=2028&h=1165)
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.
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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 and Aaron Pierre in Rebel Ridge Don Johnson holding his gun in his holster looking at Aaron Pierre in the Netflix film Rebel Ridge](https://aarp.widen.net/content/thijox5saa/jpeg/RR_20220516_03098_R.jpg?crop=true&anchor=14,113&q=80&color=ffffffff&u=2xkwh0&w=2020&h=1161)
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!”
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