SHORT TAKES : Life Is Johnson’s Acting Class

Texan Brad Johnson, a former professional rodeo competitor, says “life experiences” were more important than formal training in his acting career.

Johnson, featured in the Steven Spielberg movie “Always” with Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfuss, said he sat in on an acting class for about 90 minutes in Los Angeles one night.

“That was all I could take,” said Johnson in an interview published in the Dallas Morning News on Thursday. “I think acting is just calling upon past life experiences. And, God, I’ve had a bunch of those in a full 30 years.”

Before becoming a rodeo performer, the Irving native had a variety of jobs, including stints fighting fires, cleaning up a slaughterhouse, pumping gas and repossessing cars.

“So when I pick up a script and read it, I think, ‘I know that guy. I met that guy.’ I feel like that’s my training,” Johnson said.