**PRADA** jacket, shirt, pants, and shoes and **DAVID YURMAN** ring.
“I want to be your best friend,” I repeatedly screamed at Camrus Johnson through the phone, perhaps unprofessionally, during our conversation as I learned more and more wonderful things about the star. As I, as well as big audiences around the world, have come to discover, Johnson truly redefines the “do-it all man.” The gifted musician, director, writer, and, of course, actor has clearly not wasted a single moment given to him.
Most recently, Johnson can be seen starring as the newest Gotham superhero on the CW’s _Batwoman_. To fans’ delight, his series regular role, brainiac character Luke Fox, has now taken on the role of [Batwing](https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Batwing), the classic comic book international offspring of Batman. His charming presence takes on a layer of complexity, which he consistently delivers to the show by incorporating stories of a relevant social climate as a young Black man in the world. While bearing the weight of being an actual superhero on screen, in real life, Johnson has heroically brought the world fresh, endearing, and exquisite visual stories in the form of animated shorts and comic books. His first short, [_Grab My Hand_](https://www.instagram.com/grabmyhandshortfilm/), brought the young star considerable acclaim, telling the story of his father and uncle’s relationship and the grief of his uncle’s passing. His newest short approaches age and joy through his elderly aunt’s poetic dream realities. In collaboration with DC, Johnson released the comic book _Represent_, which once again stuck to his artistic mindset of taking inspiration from his own family, this time in the form of his brother—capturing a protest and the reality of a POC existence in todays world.
As if that wasn’t enough, the talented performer is also at work with new music and many more projects that have yet to be shared. I was lucky enough to have a conversation with Johnson about his thriving artistic portfolio. It was a conversation constantly sidetracked by the many fascinating facets of Johnson’s interests and talents, which is a testament to his charm and personality. It would be wise to pay attention to his career as his artistic feats are only just beginning. _Flaunt_ caught up with the multi-hyphenate, read below!
**CHANEL** sweater and **DAVID YURMAN** necklace and rings.
**GUCCI** shirt and pants and **DAVID YURMAN** ring.s
**Huge new changes going on in your show. Tell us a little bit about what's happening with Luke, especially the end of the season.**
Since day one of the show, I knew that Batwing was going to be coming. It is one of the main reasons that I wanted to be in the show, to able to be one of the only Black superheroes out there. In the show, Luke Fox, he's been so much in the support system. Then finally he came across the suit, and he discovered that his dad made a Batwing suit for him, because Luke had been drawing. He’d been passionate about having the look, and he had no idea that his dad was actually doing the suit the entire time. So moving forward, we will see Luke actually suit up and go from being the support team to being the hero himself.
**How did you approach the trauma that Luke goes through? It was a deeply relevant, present day story. What was that like as Luke's origin story?**
So I think, season one the plan was originally supposed be that the origin story \[was\] sort of starting with him trying to find his dad's killer, and you get to finally see all the emotions that are inside of Luke, you can see where he breaks. You can see him thrive. Then after that he meets the guy who killed his dad, he has to be talked off the ledge. So you see that there was all these emotions brewing inside him that you don't often see from this character. He's always supporting other people. He sort of was like a rock. But if you go ahead and stop season one a little early, you still see it (the feelings) working within him. You see a sort of sample of these emotions within him. We see in episode 14 of season two he realizes that being a hero is standing up and saying something. And the next episode we see this beautiful moment of him talking to his conscience, which is really restrained in his mind reminding him that, being Black, no matter how exciting or good, there is always hurt in the process. He makes the very sad decision that if he gets to choose between life and death, death being with his father, he chooses death. It was actually pretty surprising we got to go down this route, pretty hard and necessary to capture the crazy times to be living as a Black men in the Black communities.
It's cool that we get to sort of touch on how we feel as Black people to say it is so hard being Black sometimes. This character who is rich saving the city, working with the superhero, would rather not live in this world anymore than live without his father. And I lived in that- the difficulties of being a black man. Seeing him overcome that thing and seeing him face his villain once again and seeing him put on the suit- is a nice, beautiful arc.
**PRADA** jacket, shirt, and pants and **DAVID YURMAN** ring.
**Yes! I love the added complexity of that. Did play any role in ensuring that that storyline was part of the show?**
In the beginning of the show, while we were talking about how Batwing would be in the show, it was more so focused on the comic. Being in kind a comic book show you can't do just anything. Like, for example, we wanted to make sure the bat suit is awesome. Well I also have a big head, but the suit is pretty dang perfect. I think it's pretty getting close to how I imagined it. I was talking to [Caroline Dries](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1941358/) who created the show, and I said ‘I dont’ want it to look like it does now, ‘ I want it to have a Black panther vibe. I want it not just to say new superhero but new Black superhero.’ I actually pitched an idea, the pitch was I’d be in a fight and basically, my glove would fall off. Well something flies off, and once the fight is over and I go to retrieve it. A little Black kid is holding it, and as they give it to me I say ‘that’s right, we’re superheroes too.’ Hope we can still do something like that. I think that alone will influence how we see Luke. I've always wanted to implement being a Black man into the superhero role. And this idea of a police shooting came from talking about being a Black man. Maybe that all connects. And being a superhero already means so much like what that means to a person. I don't know if you saw The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
**ALEXANDER MCQUEEN** shirt and jacket, **DAVID YURMAN** necklace and rings, and **OLIVER PEOPLE’S** sunglasses.
**_Of course_ I did!**
They have this conversation. He talks about how he didn't want to be the new Captain America because he's a Black dude, and that means something different. So it's interesting that we got to talk about that already. Already the suit means something different. Almost every time I get recognized in public it’s by a Black guy, and that means something very special. So, I am on vacation just to sort of get away from it all, and I've been recognized two times this past week and they were both Black guys. It’s just like, the fact that we can see ourselves as a hero just means so much.
**What did it feel like trying on the suit for the first time? I'm sure everyone keeps asking you that because I feel like it's everyone's pipe dream to try on a superhero suit**
I feel like the given answer is ‘It was amazing. It was a dream come true,’ but there's something more to it, There's something more I think. I've been asked this question maybe 20 times, and I still don't know how to explain what it is. There's that thing where, I'll put it on, I take a video or I'll show people and I think ‘I can’t wait to tell people,’ but then I saw myself in the mirror and was really quiet. And then I just smiled. I didn't know what to say, there's like this magic in this moment where it’s like, ‘Oh, this isn't just gonna be cool like this is, this is something.’ I don't know what to say. I didn’t know what to feel. There's so many things involved where like the feeling was just ‘I did it, I did it. This is it. Like, I'm a superhero now.' There's so much weight there. There's so much emotion. There's so much responsibility. It feels funny to say that because it sounds almost like a silly thing like… I'm shooting for a TV show. I'm wearing a super suit that is not real. I can't actually fly, I don't actually have super strength. But at the same time, when you see yourself in the mirror in that super suit that no one can wear. That's your super suit. Made for you. Made for your body. No one ever touches you, and it's yours. You're a superhero now- own that- don't forget there have been moments in the past month. You know, at the end of the day, we're still living in a world of a global pandemic, and within that is heartbreak and job loss. And we're losing people left and right. All kinds of heartbreak, personalized, but no matter what happens, my closest friends, my best friends still say, ‘Remember at the end of the day. You're a superhero now.’
**SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO** jacket and necklace and **DAVID YURMAN** necklace.
**Exactly. Oh my god.**
You know how many people say that like sure, all these things are happening in your life but you're a superhero. You’ve made history for the rest of your life. You can say that, and no one can take that away. So that's, that's my answer like that's how I feel.
**Right, it’s like yes, it's a fictional character, but 1000s of kids watching. It's not a fictional character, it's very real. And even the adults in a way that's a really important thing to see. I mean, it's a fictional story, but it also means so much more than it's something real.**
Like animation as a kid, right. That's the first thing that you see. Right? Like animation is the first thing that connects you to the world and other people, and the endless possibilities. You can do anything. And superheroes are within those, within comic books, within video games, within animation. Superheroes are part of that. And then with live-action, you know when you see a superhero in a live-action show, it awakens that thing from childhood when you saw all these animated things. It awakens possibilities- there's something very real about it.
**That leads us right into your animation work, _Grab My Hand,_ of course, and your newest project at Tribeca.**
There was this TV show called [_There's…Johnny_](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6483198/)_,_ and I had this weird phase as an actor looking at premier photos of the show in the bathroom. It’s the last day of my job, I met one of my regulars (to say goodbye) and I said, ‘We should be friends.’ And he said, ‘I’m an animator.’ And I said, ‘cool we should make an animated short.’ We started making one, that was really it. I was really in love with the project, and then I decided to make something for my dad as a surprise. It was just something that I made and then it became a saying. Then I submitted it for the festival ‘cause my friends really liked it. Then people started saying it was my directorial debut, and saying like, ‘Oh, what new Black man in animation’ and I was like, ‘Whoa, I guess I do animation now.’ Then it kept going.
Tribeca wanted me to make a short at their festival last year, but it didn't work because of Premier status. But then they reached out to us at Denver and asked if I would be willing to team up with them and make a second animated short that they would produce and support from DMG. I said yes, and then had to develop a story that would make sense. To honor George Floyd it had to be exactly eight minutes, 46 seconds. I wanted it to be about Black joy. So there's a few years, maybe make a story inspired by those times, tell it in an animated space.
**I love that.**
Yeah, so it's funny with [_She Dreams at Sunrise_](https://www.instagram.com/shedreamsshort/) (Johnson’s most recent short) because when I created it, I was taking care of my Aunt. There was one day, she hallucinated because she has meningitis, and this one morning she was with little kids, and she was laughing and having a really good time. And that was the moment we became best friends. We had a true conversation. So that’s where this film came from. She dreams at sunrise because it's about this older woman who’s not hallucinating but more escaping reality. And then my character is the joy that she's been missing.
**SAINT LAURENT BY ANTHONY VACCARELLO** jacket, pans, shoes, necklace, bracelet, and ring and **DAVID YURMAN** necklace, bracelet, and ring.
**I had the pleasure of viewing the remarkable short, and it brought me to tears. Disclosure: Johnson and I then got side tracked talking about our love of animation midway through his answer here, but we returned to talk about his fantastic first short Grab My hand. What was it like showing that film to your dad? I know you set out with the idea of an outlet for your dad to cry and grieve.**
Well, you know how society is with men and emotions. I think I've seen my dad cry maybe one time. We've never really talked about grief and depression until _Grab my Hand_ opened the gates. So, it was funny how it happened because it was so awkward at first. We were laughing about something, while I was hooking up the computer to the TV. ‘That's hilarious. Anyway-’ and he just didn't say anything. We didn't look at each other for a while, and then I just looked at him and he was really quiet. Then he just started bawling and crying. It's the closest moment we've ever had.
You know, he came to me after a film festival, and he told me he cries every single time he watches it. And it's like our thing, \[it\] became the tie between us. When I think about grabbing my hand, you know when you're a kid and you make a Father's Day or Mother's Day card project out of construction paper? Well I was like making this with my heart and it's very simple. I just want you to have it. And this is like something that he can have forever because it's not going anywhere. And he, he knows that, even in that moment, that's the whole point of it. I wanted to make him something he would have that would be in never-ending.
**That is not the only thing you have worked on recently. Tell us a little about the impeccable _Represent,_ your comic book series with DC?**
Right, so last year when George Floyd passed, it started a revolution. And it was so hard for me as a Black man because there were so many things I wanted to say, but I didn't know how to say them. But then with Black Lives Matter, it was also such a beautiful moment for me to be able to speak out on challenges of being a Black man in America. That was the first time that I took my little brother to his first protest. So then you fast forward a year later and DC asked me if I want to write a nonfiction comic book to write the story of taking my little brother to his first protest. Then at the end of the comic, it ends with me speaking at the protest about protests, a full circle thing, which is very beautiful to me. I like that I got to tie it all together. To be honest, there was a moment in the comic where you read, ‘Do I want to bring my brother to this protest, and do I want to keep him away from all the hardships of being Black man, or do I want to introduce them to it early to know what's going on.’
**After another lengthy side track about animation we got back to Johnson’s own.**
I do want to make animated projects for kids and families. I do think that there's a responsibility in animation to tell very real things. There's this new thing, like with _Bojack Horseman,_ there are just all these new more adult-like animations that are touching on very real things. I won't share what my animated series is about quite yet, but it is a way for us to come into the Black community that we get to in an animated space. That's the worth of the animated space.
**As if thats not enough, you're a bit of a do it all man. Have you been making any new music recently?**
Okay so most people don't know and this is kind of a surprise, but I do actually have a band! I was just gonna say ‘surprise I have a band,’ but that was gonna happen in 2020. So, as I left Vancouver for season one, I was going to start performing and do some live streams, and I was going to release one song. And then the pandemic kind of shut it down, and we didn't know what was going on. So me and my band kind of took a break, and then when season 2 came about we got back to rehearsing six songs… and we were going to start performing them.
But then, COVID again, like the rules kept changing and disappearing. So me and my band were like, ‘We don't know what to say.’ So we're just not going to rehearse, which is heartbreaking, of course. But we'll always come together. And now we are all vaccinated, when I'm back for season three, like together, in two weeks as soon as I'm back in town we're getting back to the rehearsing. We don’t know what the future for music is yet because as you know with my acting and screenwriting and the shows, the comic books...there's a lot going on. So music is kind of like my very, very fun hobby that I am also in love with but it's just really to do with the way that I would want to do it. It’s an amazing band- they are all so good.
The fun thing about your music is you don't really know your sound until you start, so it can average from soul, funk, to R&B. I don't even know what my favorite ones are. After performing the songs I can see what people connect to the most. Like steering towards that vibe, writing towards that vibe. And once I know what people connect- accommodating that. To get them shaping my performances to connect songwriting to that.
Visit Camrus Johnson on [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/camrusj/) or [Twitter](https://twitter.com/CamrusJ?s=20) to stay updated with his many undertakings and accomplishments.
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Photographer: [Schaun Champion](https://www.instagram.com/schaunchampion/?hl=en)
Stylist: [Marissa Pelly](https://www.instagram.com/marissa_pelly/?hl=en)
Groomer: [Erin Anderson](https://www.instagram.com/ekagrooming/) for [Exclusive Artists](https://www.eamgmt.com/erinanderson) using [Giorgio Armani Beauty](https://www.giorgioarmanibeauty-usa.com)
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