Mel Johnson Jr. Happy to Be in ‘Total Recall’s’ Driver’s Seat

Actor Mel Johnson Jr. wasn’t impressed at the introduction to his character, Benny, the taxi driver who shuttles Arnold Schwarzenegger around Mars in Paul Verhoeven’s sci-fi thriller “Total Recall.”

“When I got to my character in the script, it said ‘black jivester.’ I took it and hurled it across the room. Then I calmed down and started to read and I thought, ‘Wait a minute. This guy is cold and calculating and the story was intriguing.’ ”

He also had no idea it was a Schwarzenegger film, or that Verhoeven was directing. “I got the job the rarest way it can happen in this town--totally cold, totally not knowing a soul. It was refreshing.”

Johnson, a native New Yorker, knew by the second grade that he wanted to act. A graduate of the High School of Performing Arts and Hofstra University, he honed his acting skills in children’s and regional theater.

He auditioned for the musical “On the Twentieth Century” even though he didn’t specialize in singing and dancing. But he got the role anyway. “The choreographer showed us 16 shuffles and a time step and I thought, ‘Oh, I can do that. When’s he going to get to the hard stuff?’ However, when I looked down the line, none of the others could do it!”

Johnson, who prefers the bi-coastal life, came to Los Angeles to do film. “I love it. It’s so exciting. I’d love to do a Western. I ride like a cowboy and I’m a camper and a backpacker.”