INTERVIEW: YouTube Helped Aaron Johnson Land John Lennon Role
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- Last Updated: Monday, 07 May 2018 13:24
- Written by Lupe Haas
To capture John Lennon's teenage years in 50s Liverpool, the NOWHERE BOY actor turned to biographies, documentaries, interviews, and tapings for Lennon's famous mannerisms and accent but the hardest part of playing the iconic founding member of the Beatles was learning to play the guitar and sing. Prior to winning the role, the British actor was not sure he could pull off the musical aspect of the role. "The only thing holding me back was that I couldn't play," but he "dived into it pretty naively" regardless, he said.
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JOIN CMT MOVIE CLUB Become a Patron!When the casting call came in, he was shooting Kick Ass in London playing an American comic book nerd. With only one day to prepare for his audition, the Kick Ass star frantically searched YouTube for videos of Lennon while on his lunch breaks from filming the comic book adaption. He quickly picked up the accent and personality but he was worried his look was not quite right for the young Lennon. Johnson joked his "big bushy hair" in Kick Ass was nothing like Lennon's 50s look so he improvised and slicked it back.
NOWHERE BOY director Sam Taylor-Wood put out a call for musicians for the John Lennon film so she worried the actor playing an American character named Kick Ass would not be the right person for the role of the Imagine singer. "I didn't have any high hopes at all," according to the first-time feature film director. Once that door opened, she said, she knew she had found her Lennon. She was so impressed with his "versatility" in transitioning from an action film to a dramatic role with "no time at all to prepare" that she knew he could take it to another level with sufficient preparation.
Shifting roles from Dave Lizewski, the "comic book nerdy American" as Johnson describes it, to the cocky, troubled John Lennon is now a blur to Johnson but he does recall a couple of difficult scenes. As Lennon in NOWHERE BOY, Johnson tackled very emotional scenes with such great intensity that it would drain any actor but he admits it was "fun" compared to the musical scenes. For those scenes, he became very "nervous" portraying Lennon as the front man for The Quarrymen, Lennon's first band. "I was more conscious of the music stuff" recounted the 20 year-old actor of his time on the set, and felt some of his musical performances didn't "feel 100%." He was hard on himself during those scenes because he had to get that part of John Lennon's life "right".
MUSIC VIDEO: Aaron Johnson Performs As John Lennon
Playing the character of John Lennon was a stretch for Aaron Johnson who didn't have much in common with the famous Liverpool resident. Playing characters unlike himself is the main attraction in choosing roles. "I'm constantly trying to find something that is different from me. Some actors, he says, "kind of do the same thing again, again, and again. That's not for me,"
One role he wouldn't mind reprising, though, is his Kick Ass alter ego. In September, Kick Ass director Matthew Vaughn who is currently directing X:Men: First Class, confirmed to MTV a sequel titled Kick Ass 2: Balls to the Wall is in the works. Although Johnson claims he has not received official word on the sequel, he would be "happy" to suit up again.
Kick Ass may have put Aaron Johnson on the Hollywood map but his endearing performance in NOWHERE BOY will certainly prove he's worthy of A-list status.
NOWHERE BOY opens in select theaters October 8th.
