Johnny Whitworth

INTERVIEWS AND ARTICLES

Here is the interview of Johnny as YM's first Young and Modern Man in 1991. It is from 1991, Vol. 39, Iss. 8, pg. 38-43, by: Debi Cohen.

Age:16
Height:5ft9in
Birthplace:Charleston, SC
Academis Status:HS sophomore
Family:One brother, three half brothers
Ambition:"I want to be the best actor I can be. And be famous. At least I'm going to try."
Idols:Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe
Dream Role:"I'd like to play something like in Heathers" [which he's seen 57 times]
Favorite bands:Guns N' Roses, Led Zepelin, Public, Emeny, The Doors, The Black Crowes.
His band:"I sing with a band called Tantrum, nothing serious."
Girls he likes:I look for girls who are good looking, have a good personality, who aren't stuck up."
He likes:"Long hair-straight, blond or brown"
He likes to see girls in:"Skirts, dresses, jeans tucked into boots (*remind yourself that this was in 1991*) a T-shirt, things like that. Not a lot of jewely"
He hates it when girls:"Smoke. I mean, I don't think it looks very attractive."
His favorite article of clothing:"My leather jacket-I can't live without it"
Around his neck he wears: A crystal. A saint Christopher medal and a ring on a cord given to him by a female admirer.
His scars:"My lip from when I was three: I was attacked by a dog"
He once wore: A red Michael Jackson jacket and one glove for a family portrait
On being the Young and Modern Man:"I love it, it's bad! I can't wait till people are saying 'Sign this, sign this!'"

JOHNNY WHITWORTH
(I beleive this is from TEEN magazine)

Age: 21
Status: Involved
Vitals: As Johnny tells it, 1 day he just woke up and knew he had to act. The fact that he was 10 at the time only seemed to bug his school buddies, who basically laughed in his face. A decade later, he has co-starring roles in Bye Bye, Love and Empire Records as well as the lead in his next movie, Someone is Waiting. Now he's the one laughing...all the way to the bank.
Who Do You Love? "My girlfriend [actress Gina Phillips] is amazing, she's beautiful, really talented and she graduated from Penn State, so she's also very intelligent."
Trick or Treat: "I was born on Halloween, which is both good and bad. Scorpios can be pretty selfish."
Johnny Be Good: "I don't want to get stuck playing the troubled kid, the rebel guy."
TV Turnoff: "My only goal in acting is to be real, which is one of the reasons I didn't like doing TV [He quit Party of Five after 2 shows], I get really mad when people tell me to act cuter. I mean, come on, I'm not Michael J. Fox."

WEIGHTY MATTERS
(November 97 issue of Movieline)

With his torn jeans, cigarette and unshaven face, 21 year old Johnny Whitworth looks like he's trying to be the next Skeet Ulrich. Actually, maybe he is the next Skeet Ulrich. Ever since he beat out a pack of his up-and-coming thespian competitors for a crucial part in Francis Ford Coppola's John Grisham number, The Rainmaker, he's been tagged around town as an actor to watch. At any rate, he ffits right in at his favorite Hollywood dive, Hot Wings Cafe - and not just because of how he looks. "My diet consists of junk food," he tells me as he orders up 25 wings for $10. This starts us off on the subject of food, which is a matter of some importance to this young actor. For The Rainmaker, the already weedy Whitworth (5-foot-10 and 155 pounds) lost 25 pounds to play Donnie Ray Black, the leukemia sufferer whose lawsuit star Matt Damon takes on. "Matt lost a lot of weight for Courage Under Fire and he gave me a diet," Whitworth explains. What was this diet? "I would eat just blackened fish or blackened chicken, rice or a baked potato plain, steamed vegetables with no oil or butter, and then a glass of ice water." Was Whitworth as dedicated a pound-dropper as Damon? "They had such great catered food. It was in Memphis, and they had ribs and things, my favorite. It was frustrating. I actually ate them one time and it made me throw up." While many actors worship director Coppola, Whitworth has his own reasons for appreciating the maestro of The Godfather. Agonized by an inner cry for calories, he begged Coppola to keep the crew on overtime to squeeze in one last scene rather than delay it - and prolong the actor's diet - for a week, "I just couldn't do it for much longer I thought I had cancer. Like, my bones would achee and I was sort of freaking out. He understood that." So, Coppola got everybody to put in extra hours so that one of the supporting actors could go back to eating junk food? "Francis just kind of says something and it's done," explains Whitworth, popping another wing in his mouth.

For more pictures and information on Johnny visit: Johnny Whitworth Page (pictures)