We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Maximilian Johnsson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Maximilian below.
Alright, Maximilian thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?
My parents are very much not artists. One is a civil economist and the other is a civil engineer, academics in short, and they treasure ambition more than anything. I have this one story on that subject that I think really shaped me as a person and it goes something like this: When I was maybe eight or nine years old my dad took me out to the local football field, and being Sweden as it was it was, it was covered in snow. We had brought our skis and my dad told me we were going to go around the track maybe twenty times, I don’t remember exactly but it was something absurd like that at least through my childish eyes. We started skiing, and naturally after maybe eight laps or so I was exhausted and ready to give up. I stopped mid track and caught my breath, my dad stopped too and talked to me. I don’t remember exactly what was said but the sum of it was that I wanted to go home and he in earnest looked at me and said “you will be fine, you are the boy that never gives up”.
That last part has stuck with me ever since, I’ve sort of let it define my approach to when things get difficult in life and I do think it’s helped a lot in getting where I am today!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Maximilian Johnsson, I am twenty-four years old and raised in Stockholm, Sweden. I am a theatermaker, actor and member of Screwdriver Studio which is a New York based multimedia production company currently producing Shakespeare plays at the Off-Broadway theater.
I got my education from Calle Flygare Teaterskola, Sweden, and later Stella Adler Studio of Acting in New York!
I kind of just fell into theater out of stubbornness I think. When I was a kid my parents put me in every after-school activity they could find, everything from soccer to ballet, but they didn’t put me in theater which I later realized that all of my friends were in. So one day I just snuck in with them, took a class and was hooked. Not because I had a natural talent for it but rather because I thought acting was so hard! But there was something in the atmosphere and the mysticism of the theater space that made me know that this is where I have to carve out a space for myself.
So when it was time to pick High-School I picked a performing arts one. I was lucky cause at this specific school they were very keen on us not just becoming actors but creators as well, there was a lot of emphasis on building a show from the ground up so my first ever professional gig was actually self-produced by me and a bunch of other fifteen year-olds. We picked Sarah Kane’s Psychosis 4.48, rented a tiny theater in the center of Stockholm and played every night after school for a week. The show was exactly what you would imagine an artsy-fartsy semi-depressed group of teens would put on, but we made like $700 which I remember was eons and eons of money in our eyes!
After finishing High-School I was a part of a bunch of other short-lived theater groups, went back to school to study more after which things actually started shaking loose for me as an actor, I started booking bigger productions at bigger venues and dabbled some in film. But all the while I found myself missing the creative aspect of theater. The building something from the ground up. So I went back to school again (and moved to the US)! Coming out this time I knew I wanted only to act in plays of my choice or plays with a concept I love.
The first part I landed after graduation was Romeo in a production of Romeo and Juliet (Dir. Laura DePalo), playing Juliet was Jessica Lausell and from the get-go we knew we had the same ideas. We both knew we wanted to start something of our own, our creative visions aligned for the most part and as it so happened Jessica’s friend Jacob de Guzman-Lawson was just starting a production company and needed more hands on deck.
And that’s how I went from sneaking into a theater class with my friends to making theater, and movies, with Screwdriver Studio!
As mentioned before, right now the company is producing Shakespeare at The Players Theatre in the West Village. We did Twelfth Night (Dir. Jessica Lausell and Jacob de Guzman-Lawson), in which I played Malvolio, this summer and have another one in the brewing as we speak… But we also do film!
My personal creative style is very grotesque, I adore dadaism, commedia dell’arte, general clown and viewpoints work. The bigger the better for me with lots of make up, movement and exploration!
The creative style of the Studio is a little more finetuned with some more minimalism but still as twisted.
When we do Shakespeare our philosophy is keeping the shows 90 minutes or less, stylize it in some way, we’re not married to one style. In Twelfth Night it was my favorite, commedia dell’arte, in this next one it looks like shadow puppets are gonna be the thing, and finally stay true to the story.
Personally my biggest thing is providing an alternative to realism. I think realism is perfect for the screen but I’m not so sure if I think it has a place on the stage. This is not me saying that a play shouldn’t feel as truthful as movie, the audience should still be just as touched and the players should be sharing honest emotions, I just believe that this can be achieved in so many other ways than the realistic theater that dominates the art form today. And that’s the core of my craft I think.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
Speaking strictly from an actor’s point of view, but I’m sure it can be applied to other type of artists and probably business owners too, I feel like once you start trying to work as an actor you’re being taught to view other actors as rivals and competitors. This used to make audition situations feel like a warzone for me, I always felt like I had to be better than everyone else! But at some point I realized that that’s unsustainable. Looking at everyone who’s pursuing the same thing as you, who by default have a similar dream to yours, as a rival makes you incredibly lonely. I’ve found that instead of trying to compete with other actors it’s way more fulfilling to be inspired by them, they’re gonna be better at some things than you are and you’re gonna be better at some things than they are. And usually, in the end, casting isn’t about who is better or worse it’s about who is most fit for that particular role.
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
For me it’s just learning as much about history as I possibly can. I find that the more I know about the world the more I understand the people in it and the more I understand the people in it the more I understand why art, society and everything looks the way it does today.
My favorite easily digested Youtube channels for history stuff is probably Extra History and Geography Now.
Extra History makes animated retellings of important historical events and Geography Now makes more country specific content, for an example they have a series where they go through every country in the world one by one introducing you to some culture, geography, food, you name it!
Both of them are totally awesome.
When it comes to Shakespeare stuff I always use LitCharts!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maximilian.johnsson/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61550284073979
Image Credits
Parish Mandhan Ashley Gage Tilda Assmo