THERE’S LAYERS TO THIS ONION
JOSHUA CALEB JOHNSON ANNOUNCES HIMSELF AS A TALENT TO WATCH IN ETHAN HAWKE’S UPROARIOUS THE GOOD LORD BIRD.
TALK about timing. You’re a teenage boy up for a part in Ethan Hawke’s new historical drama, The Good Lord Bird, and as it turns out you’ve just been taught about Hawke’s character, famed abolitionist John Brown, in your history class. Who knew school could be so useful?
‘John Brown, at least in America, is rarely taught in class,’ says Joshua Caleb Johnson, the 15-year-old actor who stars as the fictional Henry ‘Onion’ Shackleford. ‘It is not often that you will get a teacher that goes in depth about him. It is a very powerful story and, at least in my opinion, John Brown started the Civil War and everyone in the entire world should know about this history so it doesn’t have to repeat itself.’
Onion is a slave boy whose father has just been killed before his eyes. He’s been taken in by Brown’s ragtag – and very much wanted – group of violent abolitionists. And he’s been mistaken for a girl and now has to wear a dress to keep up the ruse. Despite the zanier elements – and the fact it’s set in the 1850s – it’s a relatable story, mirroring the age of Black Lives Matter and American protest almost eerily well. But isn’t it sad that slave stories are still so relevant?
‘It is slightly depressing because we shouldn’t have to be going through the same stuff that was fought for in 1850,’ says Johnson. ‘It sucks to be a part of a minority that is discriminated against on a day-to-day basis just off skin colour. It does suck that we have to keep talking about this. But I am going to keep talking about it until change happens.’
Although it’s about a serious subject, The Good Lord Bird is tremendously funny. Johnson gets plenty of mileage out of Onion and his aforementioned dress but it’s Hawke who steals the show. His John Brown is a dishevelled preacher prone to rambling sermons where he’s
‘We shouldn’t have to be going through the same stuff that was fought for in 1850’
foaming at the mouth, and the show comes alive when he’s on screen. Still, Johnson holds his own – it can’t be easy taking on the lead role in a bigbudget American drama at such a young age. Like Onion, he’s a boy who had to grow up fast.
‘I came on set and I was around 5 ft 3, and I left the set being around 5 ft 8, having grown five inches during the process of filming,’ he says. ‘I hit puberty and my voice got deeper and I started eating more and getting a little dirt on my upper lip, a little moustache. I grew physically and I grew mentally. ‘It was almost like being afraid to be judged but once I got over that fear, I’m an actor, I do this and this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I just let myself be free.’
The Good Lord Bird starts tonight at 9pm on Sky Atlantic