As Abraham Lincoln interpreter, Christian Johnson succeeds by thinking like the 16th president
By Adam Grybowski
ABRAHAM Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on the first day of 1863. More than 100 years later, when the National Archives put the famous document on display, Lincoln again appeared alongside it, in a sense.
A Lincoln interpreter named Christian Johnson donned a beard, black stovepipe hat and frock coat to greet visitors and answer their questions.
”To stand next to (the Emancipation Proclamation), that was one of the great honors of my life,” Mr. Johnson says. “A thousand people came by. I had no script. It was just Lincoln, the paper and their questions.”
Mr. Johnson has been portraying Lincoln since 1988. He’s traveled the world as the Great Emancipator, bringing the character to Paris, the White House visitor center and Philadelphia’s Independence Hall. He’ll appear as Lincoln Feb. 21 in Trenton, presenting “Abraham Lincoln: Man of Sorrow.”
Two hundred years after his birth, Lincoln generates a spectacular amount of interest in historians and the common population. It is often remarked that the only person to inspire more books than Lincoln is Jesus Christ. Before Mr. Johnson began portraying him, he says he knew little about the self-educated lawyer who transcended his roots to become one of our greatest presidents.
Mr. Johnson attributes Lincoln’s ability to compel to his “uniqueness in history.” A one-term member of the House of Representatives who then lost two consecutive Senate bids, Lincoln earned a longshot Republican nomination for president, winning in 1860. By the time he took office the following year, the secessionist South had left the union. “There’s never been a president in a situation like that,” Mr. Johnson says. “I’ve played other presidents and they’re a piece of cake comparatively.”
Mr. Johnson, who stands 6-feet-4-inches tall and has a ponytail he tucks away for Lincoln, does several historical characters. A former resident of the Queen Village neighborhood in Philadelphia, he’s interpreted William Penn, Francis Hopkinson, Patrick Henry, Charles Wilson Peale and New Jersey’s first governor, William Livingston — all 17th and 18th century characters.
”I never thought I’d do Lincoln,” he says. “I was stuck in the 18th century since high school — I was an 18th century character. That’s how I got started as a time traveler. Then the Lincoln character took over and I’ve been doing him all over the country. I feel like this is a calling.”
When Mr. Johnson began portraying Lincoln — for the American Historical Theatre, which continues to employ him — he worked from a script, which sufficed until the performance ended and he had to answer questions. “The more I realized I had to answer questions, that’s when I never stopped getting out of a book,” he says. “I do a lot of reading. I never stop learning about him.”
A father of two teachers, Mr. Johnson often makes stops in schools, libraries and historical societies, and he sometimes finds himself educating teachers, a point of pride. “It is an honor to teach teachers,” he says. “I’m just an actor who knows a lot about history.” Raising money to preserve historical cites and inciting the curiosity of his audience are his favorite aspects of interpreting Lincoln. “Half the things (the audience) has never heard before, the little things,” he says. “They’re learning all the time.”
During a phone interview, he peppers his answers with historical stories and tidbits, his deep and resonant voice equal to what one imagines a great man like Lincoln would sound like. In fact, contemporary writings describe Lincoln the public speaker as having a high-pitched Kentucky accent.
”I got that down over the years,” Mr. Johnson says. “Lincoln used that to its optimum. It was a way of talking without a microphone. With a high pitch, his voice traveled a lot further. He used it for effect.”
This was not the same voice Lincoln used in his personal life, Mr. Johnson notes — the voice Lincoln would have used telling stories to friends and strangers. His renown as a storyteller was borne not simply as a means to entertain, Mr. Johnson says, but also as a way to evade answering questions.
”When he didn’t want to answer a question, he would say, ‘That reminds me of a story,’” Mr. Johnson says. “He would change the subject. He learned that as a lawyer.” As for the story themselves — “Some of them are quite ribald,” Mr. Johnson says. “I wouldn’t tell them in mixed company.”
A resident of Cherry Hill, Mr. Johnson has two grown children and eight grandchildren. This summer he’ll celebrates his 72nd birthday. “I don’t feel it at all,” he says. “I can’t wait to get going and get out there and teach. I’m not someone who gets up there to sing and dance. That’s for other people. They’re not historians, they’re entertainers. I’m a combination of both.”
Interpreting historical figures allows Mr. Johnson to marry his two primary interests, acting and history. Although history was his favorite high-school subject, the desire to study acting grew from the fabric of his Long Island neighborhood and family. His hometown had a summer stock theater and his grandmother frequently participated on stage. “It got into my blood,” says Mr. Johnson, who trained at the Neighborhood Playhouse of New York. “It was kind of a natural thing to do.”
He says he owes his success in interpreting Lincoln not in his ability to resemble the president but to think like him. “Every time that I get a challenge with Lincoln, I would become engrossed in it and that would make me a more complete Lincoln,” he says. But the melding of costume and thought resonates deeply not just with audiences but with the actor himself.
”If I’m dressed like (Lincoln), he’s the most difficult character to come out of,” Mr. Johnson says. “I completely change into him the minute I get that beard on.”
- Abraham Lincoln: Man of Sorrow, starring Christian Johnson, will be performed at the Contemporary of Trenton, Victorian Townhouse Museum, 176 W. State St., Trenton, Feb. 21, 1 p.m., free; 609-298-6529.