Actor Corey Johnson: The Voice Behind Hundreds of Documentaries

Documentary First, Episode 251. Christian Taylor talks with actor and documentary narrator Corey Johnson, her friend since college, in the first of two parts. 48 minutes. Released May 7, 2025.

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How does a theater kid from New Orleans become the voice behind hundreds of documentaries?

Corey Johnson was 16, laid up with a broken knee from spring football, and playing timpani and glockenspiel in the band for his high school musical. Watching the actors, he thought, "I can do that." It wasn't about being clever, he says. All you have to do is take the words and communicate something to the audience. He went to the drama teacher and told her he was going to audition for her. Her answer was "Okay," and she walked away.

In Episode 251 of Documentary First, host Christian Taylor sits down with a friend she has known for 40 years. They met in 1985 at Catholic University, where Corey was a senior in the drama department, dancing reluctantly in the spring musical revue, and Christian was a freshman working on it as a stagehand. He was one of the only people she knew from the South, and he was kind to her. Years later she lost touch with him, until a trip to Las Vegas, when she heard a voice from the TV that she'd never forget. It was Band of Brothers, and there was Corey. As soon as she got home, she wrote to his agent. When she started The Girl Who Wore Freedom, he was the first person she called, and his is the voice on the film's first trailer.

Corey talks about the documentary narration he calls the meat of his career: hundreds of films for television, so many that he once listened to one in a hotel room for 10 minutes before he realized the voice was his own. He tells how a Tiananmen Square documentary team couldn't find footage of China before the 1980s, and how he remembered that his father had shot a documentary there in 1972. And he shares the year he worked about 38 weeks on stage and made 10,000 or 11,000 pounds, the voiceover agent who said, "We just lost our American," and the check that let him pay the rent and stay in London.

In this episode, you'll learn

• How Corey Johnson and Christian Taylor met at Catholic University in 1985
• How Christian found Corey again through Band of Brothers
• Why Corey was the first person Christian called about The Girl Who Wore Freedom
• What it's like to narrate hundreds of documentaries, and why Corey doesn't seek them out
• How his father's 1972 footage of China surprised a Tiananmen Square documentary team
• How his father's daily editorials on New Orleans television shaped what he watched growing up
• Why Corey decided to become an actor at 16
• What a high school director taught Christian about trusting the director
• How a character can uncover what's already in you
• How voiceover work kept an American actor working in London

Questions and answers

Who is Corey Johnson?

Corey Johnson is an American actor from New Orleans who has worked in London for most of his career. He trained at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., and in London, and has appeared in Saving Private Ryan, The Mummy, Hellboy, Band of Brothers and September 5. He has also narrated hundreds of documentaries for television.

How did Christian Taylor and Corey Johnson meet?

They met in 1985 in the drama department at Catholic University, when Christian was a freshman and Corey was a senior. She was a stagehand on the spring musical revue, and he was in the cast. They lost touch for years until Christian heard his voice in Band of Brothers and wrote to his agent.

How many documentaries has Corey Johnson narrated?

Corey says it's in the hundreds. Some years brought two or three series of five or six parts each, and he did about 10 in one recent fall alone. He has narrated for History Channel, Smithsonian Channel, Discovery Channel and Nat Geo, on subjects from Hurricane Sandy to World War II and Tiananmen Square.

Does Corey Johnson watch his own documentaries?

No. Corey says he doesn't seek out his own work. He once turned on a documentary in a hotel room and watched for about 10 minutes before he realized he was listening to himself. He liked that, he says, because he didn't have a problem with what the narrator did.

Why did Corey Johnson become an actor?

Corey says he can't fully explain it. At 16, with a broken knee, he played in the band for his school's musical and knew he could do what the actors were doing. He told the drama teacher he would audition for her, and after a singing audition, he was cast in a small musical about Adam and Eve. He says the things in front of you reveal themselves.

How did Corey Johnson get into voiceover work?

A few years into his London career, Corey added up a year of mostly stage work and found he had made about 10,000 or 11,000 pounds. He sent out a voiceover tape, and when he followed up, the agent who answered asked if he was American because they had just lost theirs. His first job was a soda commercial recorded in Paris, and that year he made more than twice as much from voiceovers alone, which let him turn down work outside London.

Chapters

Times match the YouTube video.

• 0:00 A Friend Since 1985
• 2:44 The Movie Rob Minute and Saving Private Ryan
• 5:33 The Voice He Didn't Recognize
• 8:05 Catholic University Theater in the 1980s
• 15:33 From New Orleans to London, and Band of Brothers
• 17:46 Narrating Hundreds of Documentaries
• 21:27 His Father's Editorials on New Orleans TV
• 24:33 Why He Became an Actor at 16
• 31:58 Christian's Start: West Side Story and a Floppy Hat
• 35:40 What a Character Uncovers in You
• 37:43 How Voiceover Kept Him in London
• 43:03 DocuView Deja View and a Golf Podcast

Watch the film

September 5 (2024), directed by Tim Fehlbaum, follows the ABC Sports crew covering the 1972 Munich Olympics as the hostage crisis unfolds. Corey plays Hank Hanson. Its screenplay was nominated for the Academy Award. Full credits are on IMDb. Corey's own credits, including his narration work, are on his IMDb page.

DocuView Deja View picks:

• Christian's pick: September 5 (2024). Not a documentary, but a historical drama about the 1972 Munich Olympics broadcast, with Corey in the cast.
• Corey's pick: Strangest Things (Sky History), a series he narrated that takes apart strange objects held in museums and labs to find the stories behind them. He also mentions his series on Jesus and the Bible, which used to run every Easter.

See every guest pick on the DocuView Deja View page.

About the guest

Corey Johnson has worked for more than 30 years in theater, film, television and audio. Born in New Orleans, he trained at Catholic University in Washington, D.C., and in London, where he has lived for most of his career. He has worked with directors including Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan), Ridley Scott (Black Hawk Down), Pablo Larraín (Jackie) and Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Ultimatum, United 93, Captain Phillips), and appeared in The Mummy, Hellboy, Band of Brothers and September 5. He has narrated documentaries for PBS, NOVA, Discovery Channel, Smithsonian Channel, History Channel and many more. On stage he has played the Royal National Theatre (Absolute Hell, Death of a Salesman), London's West End (Popcorn, Frost/Nixon, The Hills of California) and New York (Frost/Nixon on Broadway, A Streetcar Named Desire at St. Ann's Warehouse). Corey on IMDb

Related conversations

The conversation continues in Corey Johnson, Part 2, on working with Anthony Hopkins and Sam Mendes, The Mummy, and why acting is reacting. For more on how voice and sound carry a documentary, listen to Ken Burns on music and sound in The American Buffalo, and for another life spent in front of audiences, James L. Freedman on his Charles Grodin documentary.

About Documentary First

Documentary First is a weekly podcast about the people behind documentaries and how the work changed them. Host Christian Taylor, director of the award-winning The Girl Who Wore Freedom, talks with filmmakers, distributors, entertainment lawyers, actors and more, from Ken Burns and PBS American Masters creator Susan Lacy to first-timers, across nearly 300 conversations. Each week brings one of two formats: a long-form conversation with the people behind films for HBO, Netflix, PBS and independent film, or The Deep Dive, where Christian takes one insight from a recent conversation and follows it wherever it leads. Listen Notes ranks the show in the top 5% of all podcasts worldwide. New episodes every week.

Follow the show | Support on Patreon

This episode is sponsored by Artillery Sports. Use the code DocFirst for 10% off your first order at artillerysports.com.

Full transcript

Christian: All right. Welcome to Documentary First, an inside look at documentary filmmaking. I'm your host and a documentary filmmaker myself, Christian Taylor. I don't know where you are in the world today, but today, this is Wednesday, April 23rd, 2024. And I'm so excited about today's podcast. We're going to jump right in. Today's the 20th. Oh my word. I did. We're starting over. All right.

Corey Johnson: 2025. He said, he said 2024. You're a year behind. No, it's fine because it makes me a year younger and I feel better already.

Christian: We're not starting over. All right, so today is Wednesday, April 23rd, 2025. And I'm so excited about today's podcast, and this is why. Today I am with my friend, Corey Johnson, really truthfully, I have to admit up front, I only know him as John Johnson. So if I slip up today and call him John, you'll know why. The world knows him as Corey, so I'm gonna try to stick to that.

Corey Johnson: It is indeed.

Christian: He's been a close friend of mine since 1985. He is though, however, Hollywood actor. He's a New Orleans native. And I predict today that it's gonna be a really humorous and insightful conversation about his journey from college theater in 1985 to supporting roles in major films like Saving Private Ryan, Hellboy, The Mummy, also his little roles in Band of Brothers. but also culminating in his latest project that I watched last night. And I encourage everybody to watch the critically acclaimed and historical docudrama, September 5. It's on Paramount Plus. You can also find it on other places, including Apple TV. So you may need to pay a little bit for that, but it's totally worth it. Today, we're gonna hear some behind the scenes stories from his career, candid reflections on the ups and downs of acting, and hopefully some encouraging advice for you aspiring directors and actors out there. I have really enjoyed his company over the last, I don't know, couple of weeks as we've been on another podcast that people are gonna hear a little bit about called the Movie Rob Minute. It's a new podcast from Minute Rob, who is over in Israel, and we have been walking through this podcast. It's been, he does these movies, movie reviews of movies minute by minute. And John and Corey and I were doing minute 135 of saving Private Ryan for like four episodes, five episodes, something like that. I think I did two on my own. What'd you think about that?

Corey Johnson: Something like that, Yeah, yeah. I did a couple. The format is fascinating because, you know, especially I wasn't in minute 135, but it was just to be able to talk about it because you understand a little bit about it. But just to pick apart the minutiae of something that was, you know, absolutely brilliant and sort of, you know, it's one of those movies where you go, remember when this came out. It's not something like, I caught up with it on television or I watched it and the commercial break sort of killed it. no, you remember where you were when it came out. so it's one of those great movies. there's always something interesting to pick apart about it because there's a lot of detail in it. And so, yeah, it's a great concept.

Christian: Well, and it was, it was really neat. mean, Rob is a fascinating guy. He just has studied movies like crazy. He's one of these Provence who's just movie nutty and he just knows so much over so much time. And he's really, really into these things and I'm super. absolutely. And so much so that we are going to have Rob on our podcast, but we are going to air our podcast that we did.

Corey Johnson: But so much, so much respect for the medium as well. know, he's, yeah, yeah.

Christian: on documentary first. So the things that we did together, they're gonna be on the Minute Rub podcast, but we're also gonna air them on our, so that's gonna be really cool. I enjoyed it because that minute that we did, I think is a crucial minute in the film. We were very fortunate, I think, to get that minute. And it was great because it was a very favorite minute of yours. It was right after that, so it's sort of...

Corey Johnson: Brilliant.

Christian: We were able to talk about a really pivotal piece and I loved hearing your take on so much. You just knew so many people in the film and that was so great. Your career has just spanned such a long period of time. You know so many people and you've learned so many things. I hope that you can share a lot of that with us today.

Corey Johnson: No, no, no, I'm not gonna share anything. It's all gonna be in my book.

Christian: You should write a book. actually should.

Corey Johnson: Are you kidding? I can't spell my name. I'm not going to write a book. Yeah, yeah, I can talk. If it was an audio book, I'd be fine.

Christian: You can talk though, you can talk a lot. Actually, I was going to ask you, so we were talking earlier about, told you, I told you I watched September five and I just, you said, it good? And I said, it was absolutely amazing. And I said, have you watched it? You said, absolutely not. don't watch my things. And I said, what, that's crazy. And I was going to ask you, don't you listen to your things? And I, but I didn't ask you, do you not listen to your stuff?

Corey Johnson: No, well, what do you mean listen to my stuff? Like, yeah, I've done something, but I don't actively seek them out, I guess is the point. I have literally been in a hotel room filming something somewhere in the world and I would turn on CNN and I would flick through and find all of the English speaking channels. So I had a rota of things. Cause when you come in,

Christian: You do audio, you narrate stuff all the time.

Corey Johnson: After you've been filming, the last thing you want to do is sort of go, and now I'm going to work on the role tomorrow. You just decompress and you get away and I turn the TV on. And sometimes I'm watching a foreign language that I don't understand. It just sit there and stare at stuff. but, you know, I put, and I'm watching this documentary and I'm literally watching it and I'm going, I know this, this is, yeah, this is going to happen. And then I went, my God, that's me. That's my voice. I've been listening to myself for like 10 minutes. I didn't recognize my own voice, which was great.

Christian: you

Corey Johnson: because I didn't have a problem with what the guy did. Yeah, you know, so usually I go, that's terrible. He stressed the wrong word. That's bad writing. You know, I bet they puncture, I bet they put the comma after that word and they just read the comma.

Christian: Yeah, it is. That's really cool. That's really cool. You're better than me because I totally changed the script when I see like grammar mistakes and stuff like

Corey Johnson: I do as well. do as well. Listen, I had someone who was discussing something in space and they said something about how it was, I mean, I can't remember what it was, but it was more. And the word that ended, the sentence that ended the thing was way, way more than they thought. And I went, just, can I end that sentence with the word dude? because we're saying way, way, we're talking about space. Can't we say astronomically more or incredibly difficult or do you have to use way twice? No, no, no, the producer wants it. Okay, all right, cool.

Christian: It's very difficult when you're an intelligent person and you're reading a script. Yeah. Okay. We're getting off topic and it's all my fault. I know. And this is going to happen. I know. Well, and the problem is you get two of us that have to be reined in. We're going to be in trouble. Anyway, let me try to get it back on track. can you believe it? It has been 40 years since we met and we're in college together. I mean, I can't believe it. Truthfully, we were talking about my son is 35.

Corey Johnson: It's so awkward. had, yeah. We're going to get off topic. We're going to go way. Yeah. So you're to have to, you're going to have to rein me in. Yeah, we will be. Okay. No. No. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Christian: 35, I still feel like it's been, you when I think about when we met, do you remember when we met?

Corey Johnson: Yeah. Yeah. I, I don't, do remember this. know, like we graduated at the, I graduated at the beginning of May or something like that. And we had only known each other for about a month.

Christian: Yep. I think that's probably right. It's maybe a little longer.

Corey Johnson: And so maybe a little longer, for some reason I'm trying to remember and I cannot remember how we met. I can't believe that you were in school for like a year or two in the drama department. And I was just like.

Christian: So here's the thing. I was a freshman, I was a little baby, and you were a senior. And, you know, in that world, in that theater world at Catholic University, usually underclassmen are nothing. Like you get no time on, you know, anything. You're working in the Callen Theater if you're working at all. You know, you're mostly in class and you're doing your own little things. And even most of the underclassmen aren't doing anything on stage. It's usually the MFA students, right? And they're usually the ones doing everything. You got a lot more time than most, because you were very good, but most people aren't on stage. And the younger, you know, younger students are usually stagehands. And so by the spring of my freshman year, I was working on the spring musical as a stagehand. And you were in the spring musical.

Corey Johnson: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I remember, I can remember we did something about they made me dance in the opening number and I kept saying, I kept saying, please don't make me dance, please. And it was just like, he kept saying, if you smile, they won't notice. And I, what, how bad I am? And it was like, yeah, they'll notice, believe me.

Christian: You were dancing. I know. wasn't it like Dietz was the director or something? I don't know. Some guy that doesn't, doesn't. Okay. Roger Riggle. And then, and I don't even know. It was like a combination musical of different things. wasn't even really a review.

Corey Johnson: Yeah. It was Roger Riggle. What a great name. Yeah, it was a review. It was the Hartke 50th anniversary review. Yeah. No, it wasn't. There was some fun stuff in it. Sketches.

Christian: Yes. And it wasn't even that great, I don't think. Yeah. But we had a great, great time. It was really, really fun. were a lot of other people. Armie Schultz was in it. Yep. I think so. Kyle Prew.

Corey Johnson: Yeah. Well, thank Kyle was in it, Armie wasn't, because Armie was doing his own show. Armie was working on his MFA show. He was around, we were roommates. He was working on his MFA show, he wasn't in the review. I think the last play, God, I'm trying to remember the last play we did, I can't remember what the plays were. I used to know them like the back of my hand. remember in my junior year,

Christian: Okay. He was around. Okay.

Corey Johnson: Joe Lewis directed Blythe Spirit, which I stage managed. I fell asleep through half of it. We used to call, I used to call the show up in the booth like Star Trek. I'd say fire phasers, fire photon torpedoes, know, shields down, bring the curtain in, shields down, fire photon. Do all this stuff. was great.

Christian: Well, and let's talk about Armie Schultz for second. I mean, we had some really amazing people that graduated from our program. Like, Catholic University in the 80s was a really big theater school.

Corey Johnson: Well, yeah, yeah. Well, in the 60s, the 30s, 40s, 50s, and 60s, it was a known school. But what happened was, I don't know if it was the group theater or training in New York that changed things, but Catholic used to be sort of an incubator for off-Broadway and Broadway shows. They would... start things in Washington DC and they would take them on tour. I mean, Olney theater was an arm of Catholic University. There were people like James Waring and Joe Lewis and designers and directors. mean, Joe Myles Zener was a designer at Catholic. These are, we're going back, these are ancient, old, this is a previous generation of theater people. None of these people would have worked in film. And as it came into the 40s, 50s, and 60s, you started getting people like John Pielmeier, John Voigt, Chris Sarandon, Susan Sarandon, know, Mercedes McCambridge, who were theater actors, who went to Catholic, who became film actors. Catholic didn't teach them how to work on film. Catholic taught them how to act in a way, or gave them an opportunity to act, and then they moved on and took things to their next level. And I think sometime in the 60s and 70s, Catholic's influence started to wane as did a lot of schools like that. You'll always have Yale, you'll always have Juilliard, you'll always have some other programs like you go ACT and SMU, which had their own theaters there. theaters where like Carnegie Mellon where you learned how to act and the program itself was a, you know, They have the Yale mafia. The Yale mafia exists today. You go to Yale, there are people who went to Yale, they'll hire you. Catholic doesn't have that. There's no Catholic mafia. You just go there and it's a good program. Yeah.

Christian: Well, a lot of things have changed since then. And one of the big, one of the big drivers and one of the reasons it was so good then was Father Harky. You know, Father Harky was a force and he was a major force in Hollywood. I don't know how that started, but I mean, he brought Helen Hayes into our program in some way. She was very involved.

Corey Johnson: Yeah, yeah, brother was lot of Yeah. Yeah. Right. Well, she, I don't know how he got her involved in the program, but again, she did, at one point she did the Eugenio Long Day's Journey, she did it at the Hartke, she did it in Washington. Possibly because she wanted to, possibly because she knew Father and the combination of the two things sort of made that work. It's kind of remarkable how they managed to do a play about that form of addiction. at Catholic because I can remember someone telling me about a father directing a play in like the 30s or 40s where at the end of the third act, the woman has an abortion. And father said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. And so he got a medical book and he opened up the medical book and he looked up abortion. He went, OK, I've got it. You find out on opening night that at the end of Acts four, the big reveal is that she had an appendectomy. And it was like, you go, you just looked up abortion and found the next medical procedure that was in the book. Because he said, you can't, I can't say that. can't as a, as whatever, as a priest, I can't say that, you know, and yeah, he was, he was a force. I kind of.

Christian: He was still there when I mean, he was, those were his last days. that's, mean, it was like, graduated in 88, you graduated in 85 and we were, we were, uh, we were there at a short time together. was, you know, maybe six, eight weeks, but you were from New Orleans. I was from Laurel, Mississippi, not far away. And I would go to New Orleans all the time. And so for me, it really connected me. Cause you were one of the only people I knew from the South.

Corey Johnson: Yep. 85. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Eorton, Laurel, yeah. Yep.

Christian: And I remember watching your dad on television whenever I would go to New Orleans. So I knew who he was and I just really felt bonded to you. And you were so kind to me. I mean, you were a senior that I really looked up to. You you were, you were an amazing actor and you were very kind. And so I, you know, I loved you from, from the beginning. And, you know, it's, and so when you left Catholic, you graduated and you went to London, you went to the central academy of dramatic arts and, you know,

Corey Johnson: Yep.

Christian: And we kept in touch somehow for a while. Even though I think, you know, I've said this before, you found me in the, the costume department because you just knew the phone number and you called, I happened to be in there. That was, that was fun. And then I lost you for a really, really long time until I was in Las Vegas one random time years ago and my

Corey Johnson: Miracously, yeah, for a little bit. Yeah, yeah. Yep.

Christian: husband and I are packing, I'm in the bathroom and all of a sudden I hear this voice that I know. And I will never, your voice to me I will never forget. It's so unique and I come out and there you are. It's band of brothers and it's the scene where you are telling the GIs they have to stop feeding the Holocaust victims that they've discovered. And I just froze, I couldn't believe it. I had found you. And so I immediately went home and I wrote your agent. I looked up on IMDB and I, you cause I had been acting by that time now and film and stuff. And I wrote her and I was like, please, you know, give this message to him. and we started, we started communicating again. So, and then when I, just stumbled upon the girl who wore freedom, the first person I reached out to was you and said, you know, what do you think about this idea? Can you help me?

Corey Johnson: Yep. Mm-hmm.

Christian: and asked you to narrate our first trailer. So if people go to the Girl Who Wore Freedom on our main page and you watch our four minute trailer, that's your voice. It will always be there. And you've encouraged me from the beginning. You've been one of my biggest cheerleaders.

Corey Johnson: Well, because it's, mean, if you, if you, if you know who my dad was, you know that documentaries were a big part of what I watched when I was growing up. And, you know, as much as you get into, film and filmmaking and acting in front of a camera, you're, you're the, the, the genesis of all that is always going to be the, you know, the first thing you saw. And the first thing I saw was my dad doing that. in his way. And so that was, you know, that's, mean, you know, the meat of my career is narrating documentaries. know, people ask me, hundreds, hundreds. I mean, I, in the fall I did, you know, I was thinking about it. I think I did 10 in the fall because I did a series. And every, used to be a lot more, but there would be, there would be years where I would get two or three, five or six part series.

Christian: How many do think you've done by this time?

Corey Johnson: And this has been going on for 10 years. So I'm figuring, you know, I mean, I've done things like animal mummies and strangest, strangest things on earth. you know, so I would say in the hundreds.

Christian: What is the favorite one you've done?

Corey Johnson: There are a couple. One I did was about Hurricane Sandy. And I remember because it was a hurricane and it was kind of devastating. I remember because I knew a lot about hurricanes and I knew what they could do and I knew where the documentary was going to go. And so I was, you know, a step ahead of it, but I wasn't bored. was keeping up with it. And it was like three hours long. There was another one I did called World War II from Space, which

Christian: Interesting.

Corey Johnson: Yeah, because they just showed like, you know, they go out into space and show troop movements and where the Germans were. And you don't know this at the time, but you go, here's where the Germans were. Here's where the French were. If the Germans had gone like that, they would have decimated France, but they went like this. so France lived to fight in all these kinds of things. And but another one that was really cool was I did one in 2019 right before COVID that was the 30th anniversary of Tiananmen Square.

Christian: Interesting.

Corey Johnson: And I remember talking to these guys and they were going, yeah, it's really interesting because we really can't find anything. We had trouble finding things. We found things from the 80s and 89 about Tiananmen Square, but we couldn't really find anything before then. And I went, just offhand, I went, God, I wish you'd have said something because my dad went to China in 1972 and did a documentary and they went, he what? He went to China, he shot all kinds of footage. It's like a travelogue about China. He shot the Great Wall, I'm sure he shot Tiananmen Square, shot the People's Hall, he had a banquet in there. And I told him this, he shot a woman having a goiter removed from her throat. They put four needles in her neck and she was awake through the whole thing. They cut her open, took it out, she was talking during the surgery. It was amazing. And we looked it up on YouTube and I found the documentary. I said, there it is, and they went, my.

Christian: my god.

Corey Johnson: God, this is incredible. Yeah, it was amazing. That was pretty cool. I remember now they couldn't because they would have had to go to the station. They would have had to get permission. And they said, we're like weeks away from releasing, so we can't. Yeah. Yeah.

Christian: Did they use it? that's crazy. Well, wow, that's just, that's amazing. Well, going back to, you know, kind of when we met, we, you were in the theater then. And I, know, like you said, you started listening to your dad, your dad, let's talk about him. He was in, he started in documentaries. He was a newscaster, right?

Corey Johnson: Well, yeah, he started as a journalist. He wrote. He was a writer. He started writing on a paper. he did everything for the paper. And there was a guy, a journalist on the newspaper named Hap Gloddy, who was a brilliant writer, very much what you would imagine a 40s newspaper man to be. He wore, you know, check coats and bow ties, and he was loud, and he went to the

Christian: Turn on your...

Corey Johnson: track and he drank a little and you know, it was just a crazy guy. He gets a job as a sportscaster on a nascent radio, nascent television station in New Orleans. And they were the third station in a three station market for years. so Hapglotty would set off fireworks on the air. He'd have a skeleton next to him wearing a suit and he'd, to say happy birthday to this person and know this guy's and he'd talk about the fairgrounds. He'd have a program from the fairgrounds. They didn't have graphics then. They'd have a camera on his program and he'd have things circled first, second, third, and how much they paid. And he'd had it written on his program and he'd fold it open. And it was just like it was flying by the seat of your pants, you know, just improvisational. But he was great and he was interesting because sports then was, you know, it was local. Everything was local. said, you had to, you had to big up the high school kid. You had to big up the college team, but he recommended to this guy. said, you got to hire this kid. He's a good writer. I don't know what he's going to do, but you got to hire him. And so the general manager calls my dad and he says, look, you know, I've read your stuff. It's really good. What do you want to do? And he said, well, he said, I think, you know, we'll see, but I mean, I just want to talk about New Orleans and they created. the idea that my dad would deliver an editorial opinion every day, five days a week, about local things, about regional things, about national, international things, and how they affected New Orleans. And he said, it's a dialogue. The first one he said, we're going to have a dialogue between us and the city about things that affect us and the city and the world and the country and on and on. He did it for almost 40 years. It was the longest running editorial opinion in broadcast journalism history. And it'll always be because people don't want an editorial opinion anymore. They don't need it. Yeah. It's not about that now. It's about having an opinion in another way. It's about being outrageous and making people talk. Not that my dad couldn't be outrageous, but he did it in a very sophisticated way.

Christian: around the world. Yeah, it was a more thoughtful conversation, really.

Corey Johnson: it was more thoughtful, know, he was more philosophical rather than, you know, outrage.

Christian: Right. And so what then, you grew up in sort of that, you know, stew, that milieu, but what made you want to be an actor?

Corey Johnson: Yeah. I wish I could tell you, I have no idea. I remember I broke my knee playing football one spring and I was in the high school band. So I was playing timpani and glockenspiel and triangle and all this stuff in the musical. And I just remember at one point looking and going, I can do that. I know I can do that. better than they're doing it. Not that they were doing it badly, but it was just like, it's not about, it wasn't for me at the time I remember thinking, it's not about, look how clever I can be. It's just all you have to do is take those words and be able to communicate something to the audience. It's like, it'll be funny. This joke will be funny. You don't have to say, here comes a joke, here comes a joke, here's the punch line and hope they laugh. You just have to say something, say something. You take a little beat. and then you say something else and they laugh. And it's like, that's what, that's how it works. It was more intuitive and instinctive rather than thought out and considered. And so when the instinct of that took hold, just, remember going to the, a woman who was going to come, she had been at school, she went away for two years and she was coming back. And I found her and I said, you're coming back next year, aren't you? And she said, I am indeed. I said, I'm going to audition for you. I'm going to be an actor. And she went, Okay. And walked away and I was like, well, you made an impression there. That's good. You know, and that's, and I didn't, and that was, I was 16. I had just turned 16. I remember I broke my knee on May the 13th. It was a Friday. I was supposed to turn 16 on May the 17th and I would have gotten my driver's license. So I was going, I'm not going be able to do this for two months now, you know? And at the time two months seemed like a world, you know, and now you go two months, who gives a shit.

Christian: So what year was that? well. Mm-hmm. I know. Respect the... Go right ahead. I've said worse. So, all right. So you're 16 years old. You decide you're going to be an actor.

Corey Johnson: You know, sorry, can I say, can I say shit? Okay. You know. No, I just said to that woman, I'm gonna do it. And here's what she said, okay. I was like, hey, made a real impression on her. And then, you know how things just sort of, this is in a way, it's when you know you're supposed to do something. You can take it and you can take the round peg and force it into the square hole, or things just, it's like they reveal themselves. You go somewhere and they reveal. I was in a class, a drama history class.

Christian: happen. Yep.

Corey Johnson: And we were reading about Jason and Medea. And I just remember reading this thing and going, I can say this like, I mean, I wish I had something right here where, you know, when you're reading something in year 16 and you just go, here it is and this is what it is and I'm going to say this and these are the words on the page. And so I'm going to say it and that's it. And I said, no. It's more interesting if you say, like I remember one time he said something about, I'll get but a whiff of sale and I'll be gone. And it was like a whiff of sale. And I just said, that's so evocative. It's just like a puff and I'm out of here, you know? And I just read it like it meant something to me. And because it did, it meant something to me, you know? When I was 12, I remember being in study hall and the person in study hall said, do you have anything to do? I said, nope. And everybody laughed. And he went, you don't have anything to do? I said, nope. I said, no homework? I said, nope. He said, you're just hanging out. I said, well, come up here. Come up here and read. I said, excuse me? He said, read. There are a few people who might want to listen to something, so read. He gives me the catcher in the rye to read. So I'm reading the catcher in the rye, which is the same thing. You can't read the catcher in the rye and just sort of be having... So I'm reading it and I'm not like going, I'm going to act this, but I just read it like it was great.

Christian: Ooh. at 12.

Corey Johnson: It was great because this was the kind of school I went to. They didn't say a school called Isadore Newman High School in New Orleans. Very good school. Peyton Manning went there. His brother went there. I'm trying to think of who else went there who would be like outrageously famous. A bunch of, weirdly, you only know the people because of athletics, because that's sort of a universal language. But there are some brilliant lawyers and doctors and there's an amazing surgeon who works out of, think,

Christian: Where did you go?

Corey Johnson: Texas who was in my year, a very smart guy. was the, was a class president our senior year. Smart guy. there's another guy who's an, who's a, he's a lawyer. He went to Harvard and I'm sure he's going to be involved in this case that's coming up with Harvard. I saw him the other day in London and I posted a picture on Facebook. said, still the smartest guy in the room. He is the smartest person I've ever met. Smart, pure, just brain power. Smart, smartest guy I've ever met. And those are the guys who I was in school with. And it just jumps off the page. It would be exactly the same thing when you look at someone and go, well, he was born to be a golfer, or he's just a natural tennis player. It's not like he went, I want to be really good at tennis. He just went, this is fun. And you hit the ball a little harder, or you hit the ball little further, or you put a spin on a shot, or you do something like that. It's an instinct you have. You're not trying to make another person look bad. You're just trying to see how

Christian: All right, so you're reading Catcher in the Rye.

Corey Johnson: big, how much you can fill out this idea, this thing. Again, you don't know what it is. I didn't know I wanted to be an actor.

Christian: You just stepped into what came next. So what did come next? mean...

Corey Johnson: Yes. Well, I just, I was reading drama history and I read this thing, Jason and Madea and the woman who I, this is the woman I said, I'm gonna audition for you. She went, yeah. She said, you need to audition for me. And I went, all right. Cause I was 16, you don't go, yay. You go, all right, it's just cool, whatever. So I went in and I auditioned and she said, you gotta go sing for this guy. And I went, no, I didn't sing. That was the thing. And I got a call from a friend of mine like the day before they were cast. He said listen listen to me listen to me I said what he said she wants to cast you in this play But you never sang for this man You have to go in tomorrow morning and sing because if you can sing she's gonna cast you and I went All right. I mean he knows I can sing but okay, so I went in and sang and and they cast me in this little musical about Adam and Eve And I remember, this is who this woman was, the day we were doing a dress rehearsal. And I just, sat down and I went, I can't, I can't do this. I can't do this. I can't do this. I got friends of mine out there who are just going to mock me because I'm doing this. They're going to just, they're going to, it's not that they don't understand. They're going to know it's just, it's going to be food for them. I can't, this is, I can't. And she said, Don't you worry about it. Don't worry about it. And they literally told me, she went up to them and she went, this boy is about to do something you can't imagine doing. And so help me God, if you say a word to him about it, I will make sure that you don't graduate from this school. She just threatened them. I mean, threatened them within an inch of their lives. And I mean, they sat there like this through the whole play, you know, about what? About doing it?

Christian: What was so embarrassing? No, no, what were you going to be embarrassed about?

Corey Johnson: Nothing. Just putting yourself out. Look, are you telling me that before you set foot on stage, you're going, yeah, piece of cake, here we go.

Christian: So I remember the thing No, I do remember the only time I really remember that in my situation, I remember when I was 10 and I was in, you know, I was 10. I went to see West Side Story at the high school and I was so impressed and I was like, I'm going to be an actress. You know, I remember and truthfully that never left me. And I was, I had the good fortune to be a quote unquote so bad, such a bad kid. that my parents sent me to boarding school in New York. And that boarding school happened to have this incredible theater program run by a New York actor who just was brilliant. And he originated the role of in Sheer Madness of the Inspector up in Lake George Dinner Theater, which was another amazing dinner theater that David Eastwood started. And he was running this theater program. And my sophomore year, I auditioned, think, starting my freshman year. My sophomore year, I started doing crew. I did makeup. And then the first thing I did, I think, maybe it was Raisin in the Sun, think. Raisin in Sun, I was in that one. And just like you said, I just kind of started auditioning and getting these little roles. And then it was something that I couldn't not do. It just... would not leave me. had, there's this, and I still get it to this day. I walk onto that stage and something happens in me. It's the way it smells. It's the way it feels. It's the ghost light. It's, I don't know. There's just something about it. And, but I remember this one time in mornings at seven, I had to wear this hat and it was this big floppy hat. And I was, so embarrassed. Just I was, I couldn't do it. And I told the director, I was like, Neil, I can't do it. I can't wear it. And he looked at me and he's like, you have to trust me. You have to trust me. I am never going to do anything that is going to embarrass you. You have to trust me. Now the character unbeknownst to me was a funny character, but I was just being the character. And so he knew better than I did that the look of the character was part of this funny character, in a sense. And that that was a good thing that would, you know, enhance the character. ended up, he gave out, you know, awards that the school voted on. And so my little awards sitting back here were for like, you know, the best supporting actress I got for that award. They're still my favorite awards. from high school because of that director who taught me to trust the director. I learned so much from those young ages because you are so embarrassed to begin. Even though it's something that you really wanna do, you have to fight through a lot of your own stuff in the beginning, I think, to get over those hurdles. I'm excited.

Corey Johnson: Yeah, you do. do. Because it's not like you go, well, there's a path. There's a clear path for it. There is no clear path for this. All it is is, you it's a war of attrition. You do it.

Christian: Well, and I don't think you know what you're gonna battle against. Like when you start, you don't know what's inside of you. And I think it's discovery of what you have to battle inside of you. Because as an actor, you encounter the people that you are inhabiting. And as you encounter them and you study them, it uncovers what's in you. And whatever you're called to be in that role, You have to deal with that person that you're inhabiting, but also you have to deal with what's in you.

Corey Johnson: Yeah, yeah, yeah, well, yeah, no, a lot of times you, it's exactly like the way I got started. There are things that are in front of you and they reveal themselves. A lot of times you can go searching for something that you're determined is there in a character and you'll never find it. But the things you find during the journey are what make the character the character.

Christian: Right, and what does it bring out?

Corey Johnson: So, you I mean, that's it's like what you, you you said, how's it been 40 years? It's been 40 years. Who would have thought? Who would have thought we'd be sitting here right now doing this? You can't predict it. No one can say, and in 40 years, you and him are going to be on the phone. He's going to be in London. You're going to be in Chicago. And, you know, that's what's going on. And you would have said, there's no way. There's no rational line that leads to that.

Christian: I know. No. No. away.

Corey Johnson: And you go, that's right. That's why it'll probably happen.

Christian: I would not have been surprised that we would have been friends. I really, I mean, it's crazy, crazy that we could have, we were really close. We really were good friends, at least to me. And I really felt like we could be friends forever. And I, wasn't, that wouldn't surprise me. But I didn't expect you to live in London the whole time. Like I really felt like you would have come, you're so New Orleans, you know? Like I really would have expected you to come home or been in New York. Really, I thought you would have been in New York and you would have been a stage actor and you would have lived in New York. you know, I just would not have expected you to be in London all these years.

Corey Johnson: Neither did I. Well, I remember being in London for about three or four years when I got back, about three years when I got back. And I looked at kind of what I had made in the last year. And I realized I had worked on stage and I did about two weeks in a television show, but I worked on stage for about 38 weeks. And I made about 10 or 11,000 pounds, which maybe is about $15,000 in a year. And I thought, this is not gonna work at all in any way, shape or form. This is stupid, I'm not gonna do this. And I got a voiceover agent, not because I wanted one, but because I made a tape. I did want one, but I made a tape and sent it out and a couple of weeks later, I followed up the tape like you used to have to do. followed up and I talked to this voiceover agent and this girl picked up the phone and she went, my God, are you American? I said, yeah. She said, we just lost our American. Can you come in and meet? I went, yeah, sure. And I went in and met them and they took me. They took me on. They sent me up for a job for soda, a soda. And I remember I was doing a play and we were in dress rehearsals. We were beginning teching. And I went to the director and I said, I've got a voiceover commercial and I have to go and do it. And he said, where do you have to go? I said, I have to go to Paris. I said, I'm, they were recording in Paris. I said, I'm going to finish the tech tonight. I'm going to get a train to London.

Christian: What?

Corey Johnson: I'm going to get up in the morning. They're going to pick me up. They're going to take me to the airport. They're going to fly me to Paris from in the morning at 10 o'clock. I'm going to do the voice recording. I will be done by one. I will get on a plane back. I will get on a train. I will come back to Birmingham. I will be here tomorrow night for the dress rehearsal. I said, but you've got to let me do this because it's going to be money. I don't know how much money, but it's money and I can't just not do it. And so. He said, okay, and I did that and I went. And I remember like forgot about it because it never aired. I never saw it, but it did run. I just never saw it. And I remember the next spring I was... In a point where I was going, I've got to buy this software for my computer because I need this software that's going to make the computer run well. So it was about 70 pounds. And I said, well, I can either buy the software or I can buy food. And I went, look, I'll buy the software. It wasn't that bad, but I said, I'll live on apples and cheese for a week. You know, I'll just, it's fine. And I was going out with my agent. said, you can buy me lunch today because I don't have any money. And they went, yeah, we just got a check-in for you. And I went, really? And they read off four numbers and I went, okay, that's going to pay for about two thirds of the software, you know, cause they, they say, you know, 46, 25. And I'm thinking 46 pounds and 25 pence. That'll pay for two thirds of software. And then he said 39. And I went, well, is it 25 or 39? Not that 14p is gonna make that much difference. He said, 46, 25, 39. And I went, 4,000? And I couldn't even get my head around it. I couldn't understand it because all of a sudden I had money. I could pay the rent, I could buy food. I could go on vacation, you know, just a little bit. You didn't want to do a lot. I mean, the thing I used to do, because once I started doing voiceovers, it wasn't like I was making an enormous amount of money. I was making a little bit more. The first year I did voiceovers, I made over two times what I made the previous year from voiceovers alone. And then I was still doing theater and some, but I started turning jobs down. You know, I would turn work down. You know, I spent,

Christian: that you could live.

Corey Johnson: almost a year at the National because I could turn work in the region down. would say, I don't want to go to Glasgow and do a play. I don't want to go to Sheffield and do a play. I need to stay in London so I can be doing these voiceovers. And then I would get a job at the National. And, you know, I did Death of a Salesman and Death of a Salesman led to the play in the West End, the first play I did in the West End, which led to the Mummy, you know, and all of them did. was doing, mean,

Christian: That led to the mummy. okay. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You got to stop right there. this is going to be good. All right. So we've been talking now for 42 minutes and usually my episodes are about this long. And so that means that no, no, no, no, it's the best. So that means that we are going to have two episodes with Corey Johnson and we are going to wrap this one up and we're going to do a second episode. So at the end of

Corey Johnson: Such a mistake to get me on. more.

Christian: these episodes, usually do a segment called DocuView Déjà Vu. in... DocuView Déjà Vu. That means that we bring a documentary that we want people to watch and we each give a recommendation. Now, I'm gonna give a recommendation that's not necessarily a documentary, but I want people to watch it because it is a historical drama. So kind of the same.

Corey Johnson: DocuView Deja Vu. What does that mean?

Christian: And it is September 5 because it is a movie that I watched last night that you were in that was amazing. And I do think it was Oscar nominated. The screenplay was, it was amazing. yes, my recommendation for everyone is September 5. You can watch it on Paramount Plus for free. You can watch it on Apple TV and I think Amazon Prime. So check it out, September 5.

Corey Johnson: The screenplay was, yes. Yeah.

Christian: So I want you to think about documentaries that you have been in, maybe that are your favorite or documentaries you've narrated, mean, and give me a couple of recommendations that you want people to watch.

Corey Johnson: I did a series in the fall called Strangest Things, which is about the strangest things on earth. Things you look at and you go, what the heck is this? And then they explain what it is they did or how they came about. That's a lot of fun. The ones that used to run, I did things on Jesus in the Bible that did a couple of seasons of that. Used to run every Easter. And my mom would call me up and say, are you being paid for that? I'll say, no, I'm not being paid mom. They bought me out. just give it. But there are a few. There's one about Hurricane. I don't know. I wish I did. There are History Channel, Smithsonian Channel, Discovery Channel, Nat Geo. They're all over the place.

Christian: Where can we find those? Where can we find those? Are they listed on IMDb or only your on

Corey Johnson: Yes, yeah, they would be, yeah, they would be on IMDB, yeah. Yeah. They can indeed. Yep.

Christian: Okay, great. Well, people can look you up on IMDB as Corey Johnson. And they, there any way that people, you're not on social media at all.

Corey Johnson: I don't really, yeah, social media, kind of, it was like computer science when I was in high school. I sort of missed it. It was, it was just on the cusp of where I was and I didn't go there. And then the eighties, everybody was doing computer science. I didn't do social media and now I'm, I hate saying I'm too old, but it's just, it's, it's a kid's thing. know, social media is literally for kids.

Christian: Well, and you, but you have decided that you're going to do your own podcast. so with doing your own podcast, I hate to tell you, but you are going. Yeah, you are going to have to do that.

Corey Johnson: I am, yes. Yes, it'll have to be on social media. Well, I'm going to, I like, like a, like a raindrop falling from the sky. I'm going to throw my podcast out into the ocean of the internet and see what happens. You know.

Christian: Well, tell us what that podcast is going to be about. Yeah, I'm comfortable.

Corey Johnson: Are you ready? Are you comfortable? Okay, because you're going to fall asleep. It's going to be about golf.

Christian: Well, you love golf. know this. I know this. And it's something you love to talk about. It's something that you love to play. I think you are quite a good golfer. Yes. And I know you're an athlete,

Corey Johnson: Yeah, yeah. So. I have a lot of fun. I have a lot of fun playing golf. Well, I'm, yeah, I hate saying athlete because it makes it sound like I play a lot of play, I do a very athletic things. don't, I just sort of, I have a good time. enjoy playing golf and I like, you know, going out. It's a bit of exercise and I play with my brothers and it's fun.

Christian: And so what is the take of your golf podcast?

Corey Johnson: I just, you know, I mean, I get these feeds in my email. I mean, if I look at them right now, I've probably got a few that I can talk about. Golf Galaxy, new Nike and Jordan shoes. There's some more about the ping putters. PGA golf camps, Newton golf, clear out old gear, upgrade your game. So, I mean, I could look at that every day, stuff is coming in and I just go, today we're gonna talk about the new putters, today we're gonna talk about clubs, you will new clubs help your game? Is it the club, is it the shaft, is it the grip? What is it that's gonna make you and a driver, how important is it for you to hit the ball 300 yards if you don't know where the hell it's gonna go? You know.

Christian: Yes, something to say. That's fun. So if anybody's listening here and you don't know, you you love more than just documentaries, love golf. Have you released it yet or is it just coming? You're figuring things out.

Corey Johnson: No, haven't released it. I'm still working. I'm still tweaking it. I have to figure out, I've got to get a timer, a 10 minute timer. And I want to push a button and have 10 minutes on the clock and have it count down. And then I'm going to talk for 10 minutes and then I'm going to hit the button and I'm going to have a link to something else. And then I'm to talk for another 10 minutes. Yeah. Yeah.

Christian: Well... That's not gonna be possible. Not gonna be possible. Okay. All right, everybody. So thank you so much for listening to documentary first where we believe everybody has a story to tell and you can be the one to tell it. Bye everybody.