When you're talking to Clark Johnson, there are moments you'd swear you were talking to Detective Meldrick Lewis. Anyone who's followed Homicide: Life on the Street, the critically acclaimed but publicly under-appreciated NBC drama, knows that Lewis is the most fully realized character in a series distinguished by its three-dimensional leads.
A smart-ass cop, quick with a joke or a smoke, first to complain (about anything from bad coffee to the sloppy appearance of a murder victim) but last to shirk his duties, Lewis has become the bulwark of the Baltimore station house where the series takes place. But after five minutes with Johnson, you begin to feel that the streetwise, sarcastic Lewis isn't a character at all, but rather the actor simply being himself.
With a background in improv comedy (at Toronto's Second City), prior experience "on the force" (as a cop on the series Night Heat), and a laidback sense of gallows humor (developed during his time in the trenches as a camera assistant, f/x man, and later director), Johnson is undeniably very similar to his alter-ego Lewis. Admitted Johnson with a laugh, "The character of Meldrick just sort of evolved as we went along. I would say that he's 50 percent from me and 50 percent from the writers. Now, if you talk to these arrogant writers, they'd probably say 60/40 on their part, or even 70/30, but you know how writers are."
Johnson is aware of the stability his role provides to a show which can seem like a completely different program from week to week.
"I wanted to make this guy like Everyman," he said. "When he gets heartburn from eating a meatball sub at 2 a.m., I want cops to go, 'Oh yeah, I know that feeling.' And, for me, the biggest compliment is when I talk to actual cops and they say, 'You're so real.' "
Johnson studied cop attitude with Sonny Grasso, the real cop whom Roy Scheider played in The French Connection. However, it's the shooting location--all filming is done in Baltimore--that Johnson credits for Homicide's realistic feel.
"I've always thought of Baltimore as a character on the show, whereas a lot of the other cop dramas are shot out in L.A.," said Johnson. "If we're supposed to be on Fayette St., we're on Fayette. We don't have to come out and block-shoot eight scenes on Second Avenue, or fake Chicago snow. It makes a huge difference."
At the same time, Johnson admitted that this proximity to the real events and locations of the Baltimore Homicide Division can sometimes be chilling.
"I remember when we were doing the Adena Watson thing [a child-murder case early in the series]. That thing was just a little too damn close to the bone," he recalled. "We were standing pretty much in the same neighborhood, and a crowd of curious people sort of drifted in. And this woman came up while we were standing around smoking cigarettes between set-ups and said, 'Excuse me, but the young girl wasn't laying over there, she was laying over here.' And I went, 'Aw, fuck, this is too much.' "
In the past couple of years, Johnson has also become one of the most frequent directors on the series. He explained that, because of the diversity of directors who work on Homicide, he never felt a pressure to live up to the work of the show's creator, Barry Levinson.
"We've had people like Michael Radford directing, who found out he had been nominated for an Oscar for Il Postino while he was filming here, but we've also had kids where this is there first film out of film school," said Johnson. "Barry may have seen their documentary short and loved it and given them a shot. And sometimes it's been a great experience and sometimes it's been horrible. But I've learned from every one of our directors, negatively or positively."
Due in large part to the superior performances of actors like Johnson, Homicide is now in its fifth year, and has just been picked up for another season by NBC, though it's never been a ratings leader. Some observers feel that NYPD Blue, which premiered the same year as Homicide, co-opted the Baltimore show's style and ran with it (with the help of its own great casting and writing, of course).
While Johnson admits that this is part of the reason Homicide will never be a smash hit, he also has his own theory on the matter: "Joe Schmo comes home from work on Friday," said Johnson. "He's tired. He looks in the TV Guide and he sees the Nash Bridges clone of the week, he sees some sitcom like Full House or something, and he sees Homicide. He's been working all week--why does he want some reality-based show about brutal killings?
"Of course, that used to bother me. But now I'm delighted. I don't want to be The Dukes of Hazzard. If 14 million people watch us per week, and the show only costs 49 cents to make--do the math. I think we're OK."
Better than OK. Clark Johnson is a testament that complex characters and subtle performances still have a place in primetime television.
--Scott Proudfi