Camrus Johnson

Camrus Johnson

on Netflix’s One Piece, writing, and creative discipline

I was so delighted to sit down for a conversation with Camrus Johnson ahead of the premiere of Netflix’s grand and sweeping One Piece. This is our first published interview in about three years — and what a conversation to kick off a new era of l’Odet. Camrus is multifaceted in every sense of the word. When he isn’t starring as Mr. 5 (streaming March 10), he is writing, directing, and making music. There’s something energizing about talking to someone who is so genuinely excited about making things. Camrus approaches every part of the process with the same level of enthusiasm and thoughtfulness — whether he is building a character within someone else’s story or his own. 

I’m so happy to share this conversation, and was incredibly honored to have it. ◇ 2026

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Cariann Bradley: Thanks so much for talking with us today — I’m so grateful for your time and happy to have you here.

Camrus Johnson: Thanks for having me. I was hyped because I saw you had interviewed my friend Aurora Perrineau in the past. 

Cariann: Yes! You know Aurora?

Camrus: Yeah! Very well. Aurora is like my sister and Tony Revolori is also my buddy. 

Cariann: Oh my gosh. It's in the family. Aurora's the best. Tony's awesome. This is so great. 

And also, I told Kass this was going to be my opener, but when I got the email from your team, I was so excited because I have known who you are since 2016. The OA is my favorite show. 

Camrus: Let's go! [Laughs]

Cariann: Your face is burned into my memory from the last episode, Invisible Self. 

Camrus: That's so rad. You know what's crazy about that? So — a quick little story. If you remember that scene: it's me, one of the leads of the show, and there's one other character that has a weed pillow. I was booked for his part. I guess what he was doing, the director was just like, "Ah, it's not exactly what I'm looking for." So, he came up to us, had us switch, and I got his part on the day. And then I got that extreme close-up. I got a stunt. I got like the whole nine. 

It's crazy because that clip of me seeing the shooter coming in The OA, spoiler alert, but that clip of me goes viral like four times a year.

Cariann: That's why your face is like burned into my memory because I've seen the finale so many times. It's my favorite show and I go back and watch the finale so often. You were the first person who clocked the threat. It really is such an emotional beat in that episode.

Camrus: I'm so happy that you watched it. That's awesome. I love that show, man. 

Cariann: I love it. I introduced Kass to it a couple years later and I'm still really upset that it didn't get that next season, but I'm holding out hope.

Cariann: With that, I do want to talk to you about One Piece. I feel like I have so many questions. Can we start with how you got the role of Mr. 5 and what that looked like?

Camrus: Totally. I got the audition back in January or February of 2024, and when it came in, it was like The Untitled Netflix Project, but I knew it was One Piece.

So, when the character came in, it was under an alias. The description was interesting and it was a two-page scene that was similar to a scene in the show, but not exact. As soon as I got it, I sent it to my nerdy friends in New York, and I said, "Listen, y'all watch more anime than I do. I need my One Piece-specific friends to tell me who this guy is.” Within maybe ten minutes, they were like, "Okay, so it could be any of these three people, but I'm pretty sure it's Mr. 5." [Laughs] I started watching the anime. Then, I watched the first couple episodes of the live action and I was immediately impressed. I was like, "Guys, I need this part." 

I sent in a tape, got the call back, watched the rest of the live action season, and even more episodes of the anime. I was locked in. I got a leather jacket on, I got my shades on. I was ready to go. And when I hopped on for the callback, it's with the showrunner, Matt Owens, and I had sent in three different versions of [the tape]. I was like, "Which one of the three did you want me to do?" And he was like, "All of them. I liked all three of your takes." I think a week later, I got the call that I booked it and then I left for Cape Town like four or five months later.

Cariann: Wow. I, admittedly, had never seen One Piece before and I knew I needed to get familiar with it, so I texted my One Piece friend, Aubree, who's an expert — I mean, she is the source. I told her I might be talking to the guy that’s playing Mr. 5 and she was like, “Mr. 5!” And sent me four huge messages. [Laughs] I feel like I got pretty familiar with Mr. 5. 

You were in Luke Cage, you were in Batwoman. When I was watching One Piece, something that really struck me is that there's so many characters and so many background actors. Have you worked on something of this scale before? What was that like? 

Camrus: Oh no. I mean, I shadowed the Russo Brothers, who directed the Avengers movies, on their latest film Electric State. Because I was shadowing them, they also gave me a two-line part in it, which is very nice of them, and that was the biggest film set I've ever been on. It was crazy. 

As far as a series and as far as having a large role in a project — this is, without a doubt, by far, by miles the biggest project I've ever been in. It was incredible. I was seeing equipment that I had never seen up close before. Costumes that were huge. I mean certain scenes… like Whiskey Peak was built in the middle of nowhere. It was massive and it was so fun. It just made every single moment of the process that much more exciting because everything is just so huge. Even when I saw footage and photos of our whale, Laboon, it was so gigantic and to hear how they shot it. Oh! How they shot the giants in the show, too. I could go on forever. [Laughs]

It's a huge show and there's a reason why it looks so big on camera — because there's not a penny wasted in that series.

Cariann: That must be exciting, too, as a director and writer yourself, to see, oh, this is what's possible. That must light you up. 

Camrus: Oh my gosh. Yeah. To see the possibilities and, especially going from Electric State to that show,  I really have seen the extent of what you can do. 

My first short film — it was animated, so it's quite different, but our budget was $150. To go from that to this show and this budget, it truly is seeing zero to a hundred. I've now seen the full scale of what is possible and to speak to what you said, [there were] a lot of background extras on the show. I did background extra work for three years; that's how I started my career. So, I also started from the bottom and made my way up to where I am now. I feel like I have dissected every step of how you can make a gigantic piece. And as a filmmaker, it does excite me because when I get that opportunity, I have some tricks up my sleeve now.

Cariann: Yeah. You've gotten to see how it's made. So cool. Very cool. Well, you mentioned you shadowed the Russos on Electric State. What was that like?

Camrus: Freaking awesome, man. They're the freaking best. I freaking love them. It is honestly wild how directors of their caliber are as cool and funny and grounded and giving as they are. I met them because they started a theater company within their production company called The Lobby Theater. I was in the very first table read they did of this incredible play called Is God Is.

But, I believe it was Joe Russo that was there for the first showing and I walked right up to him and asked if he mentored and at the top of 2024, Sarah Finn, the incredible casting director, the queen who casts all of their projects, she reached out to my team and said, "Hey, the Russos told me that Camrus wants the shadow, and they're wondering if he wants to just have a little two line part in the movie.” I was like, wow. So my team asked if I wanted to do the two-liner and I was like, "I'll do anything for the Russo brothers." You know? I don't care how big or small.

Cariann: Sweep the set. [Laughs]

Camrus: You know what I'm saying? [Laughs] I'll be a background extra for them. It was very nice of them to put me in the movie. It just gave my family and friends another exciting thing to be stoked about.

One of the coolest things was them showing me one of their favorite clips of Community because they were heavily involved in that show. Watching a clip of Community with the Russo brothers was awesome. It's so crazy to think that they're, like, real people. I don't know.

Cariann: Yeah, it's so crazy to think that they’re real people.

Camrus: I wanted to talk about the Avengers with them so bad, but instead I made sure to stay out of the way. I just asked them a bunch of questions and tips on filmmaking and they gave me some great gems. I have this little notebook that I keep around when I'm shadowing because I also shadowed on two or three episodes of Batwoman. For every time I’ve shadowed, I just kept different logs and chapters per director and now I have a Russo chapter!

Cariann: I love that. Not everyone has the sort of gumption to go up and ask. You know, someone can only tell you no. That's the worst thing that can happen. And at best, they tell you yes, and you get their number.

Camrus: That's how I got all of my mentors, actually. I have a few and my first real one was Nate Moore who produced Black Panther. He did a Q&A at the Ghetto Film School, which is this film program I was involved in back in New York, and it was such a great talk. We all took a group picture afterwards and I walked right up to him and said, "Do you mentor?" And he said, "I don't know what that means, but I can give you my email and you can ask me questions." And I said, "Great. That's what it means to me." And he's been my mentor ever since.

Cariann: Wow, that's incredible. I like to think I have a little bit of that in me. I did go up to Taylor Swift's publicist one time and I was like, "Hey, I'd love to interview Taylor for my platform. Can I have your email?" And so she gave me her email. Every press cycle I reach out, and every press cycle she says, “Politely pass at this time.” But at least I ask, you know? 

Camrus: Amen. And you're on the radar now. Sometimes that's all it takes. 

Cariann: On One Piece, I wanted to ask about your wardrobe and costume and what fittings were like. I've heard the costume department on that show is wild. 

Camrus: Oh my gosh. Yeah, my costume is sick. [Laughs] I'm so mad because folks take things from One Piece all the time — costume pieces, props, and all kinds of stuff. I missed my window because Daniel Lasker, who's my very close friend now, and the time that I could have gotten something, I went to Zimbabwe with him for a week because I wanted to see a different part of Africa. I had the time of my life and I'm now going to shoot a short film there, I'm glad I went! But it sucks because I don't have anything from the Mr. 5 wardrobe. The wardrobe is incredible. 

That famous red trench coat that he wears is so cool. I felt so cool in it. What sucks is you can't even see the pants that I'm wearing underneath which are incredible. They're unreal. The boots are unreal. I love how they patched together the fives on the trench coat. I just wanted to keep one of the fives. And then the showrunners having that incredible idea for Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine to have a second wardrobe; they took that from like one of the manga side stories and the fans immediately saw it and caught on. They're so amped about it. It's such a cool look. It's supposed to be them in disguise post-failure. It is the reason that I was in the gym so heavy! I was like, oh, I'm exposed. [Laughs] 

Cariann: I got to wear these short shorts! [Laughs]

Camrus: [Laughs] Yeah! Short shorts and no shirt, open wide coat, chest and abs. So, I was like, let me just hit the gym all the time. So, I would go to the gym most days. Sometimes I worked out with Mackenyu, who plays Zoro, and Iñaki, who plays Luffy. 

Cariann: Your fight scene with Zoro was pretty sick.

Camrus: Thank you! Thank you. I told the stunt department, “You have to make our stunt fight dope because we can do it. Like, whatever you throw at us, we can do it.” I knew Mackenyu did a lot of dope stunts. I have quite a bit of experience with stunts and I’ve boxed for a long time. I'm really happy with how it turned out. 

One of the funnest parts is when I jump off the [platform] and I grab the gun. That was practical. I really did have to jump off, front roll, and grab the gun as I stood up. That and getting hit by Nami with the staff and flying into the candelabra. That was so fun. 

Cariann: I really do think the show does such a great job of balancing practical effects with CGI, you know? 

Camrus: I agree.

Cariann: I have to ask… what was it like to do the exploding boogers?

Camrus: [Laughs] Oh, sick. It was awesome. I have a video of me practicing the booger flicking. [Laughs] I go into the prop office and they were like, "This is so funny, but like we have this plate of boogers and we want to know which one you like the most.” So, I really had to go through booger flicking training, figure out which one made the most sense. I had a blast. It was so fun to see everyone's reactions because they were like, "You make flicking your booger look cool!" 

Cariann: I mean, it looked pretty noble. I can't lie. 

Camrus: Thank you. I appreciate you. I forgot whose idea it was because I was very collaborative with Mr. 5. I was always taking different people's ideas and building on it, but I forget if it was mine or someone else's to give Mr. 5 the coke pinky nail. 

The first time you see him do it, you see that pinky nail in-frame, and I think it's so funny.

Cariann: That's such a good detail. 

Okay, you've mentioned so many things and I'm trying to keep it all straight. [Laughs] What are you working on? Are you working on anything of your own? What’s lighting you up right now? 

Camrus: Oh, I mean so many things. This is kind of how my brain operates — I tend to juggle. I've been like this for so many years now. So, Daniel [Mr. 9 in One Piece] and I, we're going to be doing a short film together in Zimbabwe in August. 

I have a feature film, the sci-fi that we are going to be pitching pretty soon that I'm really proud of. I co-wrote it with this incredible young writer named Conor Lawler who I love. Him and his brother are soon to both blow up in the writing space. I'm so glad that we're teaming up early. 

I have a song, Taffee Park, that just came out today and I have another song called 7 Train coming out March 20th. Taffee Park is the last of my old songs. This song, the song I released last month, and the two that I released last year, I recorded all of them between 2018 and 2020. They're all old.  I've just been so busy with acting and film making that I haven't really had time for music until last year. So, I finally released three music videos, three songs. 7 Train in March will be the first song that is new. I just wrote it. I just recorded it. It has my updated vocals. It is what I sound like today, not what I sounded like five years ago. I'm so hyped. I think it's going to make some waves. I'm going to release another song six to eight weeks after that. And then another six to eight weeks after that. 

That's really been getting me going because I'm in the studio every week just songwriting and recording. 

There's another feature film that is a drama that is about someone very close to me. It's my kind of Oscar baby film. Like it's one of those very political, very deep, very dark, very new stories. That one I'll be pitching this year as well. 

Yeah, I think that's mostly everything!

Cariann: Mostly everything. [Laughs] How do you have time to fit all this into one day? 

Camrus: [Laughs] And then, of course, the movie I'm going to go act in is a little indie horror movie and I'll be shooting that in Italy which will be really fun. 

Cariann: I wanted to ask because you're doing a lot of these things simultaneously, do you start in different places? Like when you start in a place to craft a character that you're going to portray — do you start in a different place with that than you do with a new script idea or what does that kind of look like? 

Camrus: That's interesting. I think everything is so different. I guess what I tend to do is prioritize which project is needing me right now. 

Like the drama that I mentioned, that movie has a producer attached to it, but he's currently busy producing some other projects. Since that’s on the shelf for the moment, and the sci-fi has interest right now, that requires me to do rewrites in the next couple of weeks. And now that I have a song finished that is dropping, I need to just make sure that I finish the song dropping after that before I leave. Once my vocals are done for that, I can place that to the side because the mixing and the mastering is none of my business. 

It's really just figuring out what needs to come first and why, how fast I need to knock it out, and then forcing time to sit down and do it. When it comes to my characters, it is also kind of story-to-story because some characters require me to really lock in and figure out who this person is and how they move and how they think. While other times it's just not that deep; when you're on set, just be very present. Don't overdo it or overthink it. 

I think this film I'm about to do is somewhere in the middle. It's horror, a genre I've never done before, so I do want to make sure that I'm fitting that by watching as many movies of that genre as possible, because my character is a horror film buff.

I guess that’s my long-winded way of saying I always make sure that I'm giving the amount of attention to each project that it needs.

Cariann: It's kind of crazy how much discipline it takes to be a creative person. To balance that many things is actually more organization and discipline than time being creative, you know?

Camrus: It's so true. And oftentimes no one is telling you when to do things or how to. It's just you having to figure out that schedule on your own because we're so prone to living very freelance, no schedule lives. Even as a writer. I wrote a movie for Amazon for a year and they're so great and so easy to work with, but they said my co-writer and I, at the time, could turn in drafts whenever we wanted. Which is sometimes great and sometimes it's not. It depends on the project. Sometimes a deadline actually makes me get the project done on time where sometimes no deadline makes me realize, well, if I'm not in a rush, I can do these other five projects first and that one can wait. 

It's a lot more demanding than some people may think. 

Cariann: And are the sci-fi and the drama you mentioned, did you do those on spec?

Camrus: Totally on spec. The sci-fi was an idea that I came up with years ago and it's been my second favorite concept of my own ever. I think the drama is my absolute favorite concept ever because it's also partially based on a true story and I've never really done that before. Well, that's not true. I've done a true story on my own, but this is about somebody else. I think they'll probably be my last spec scripts if not forever, then for a while.  For Amazon, I pitched them an idea and then they hired me to write the script which is great. 

She Dreams at Sunrise is the name of my second animated short, my third short overall. After I made that with Tribeca, they then got behind me and helped develop a live-action feature version of my real story of being a caretaker. So, while that was technically on spec, Tribeca Studios was developing it with me. So, it's a little different. And then The Seeker, which is the script that was on the Blacklist that I wrote, that was also like a producer found me, wanted me to help pitch the movie. Once we started pitching it with a director attached, the market changed and all these producers were saying, "We can't really buy anything without a script." So, I wrote it, but I had a team attached to it at least. 

Cariann: You must have thick skin. I don't think I could be thick-skinned enough to love something so much and then if it's not right now, you have to put it on hold. 

Camrus: Yeah, part of it is coming from being an actor. You go in for a thing, you don't get it, you move on. And I think, for writing, something about it doesn't feel like it goes away like acting gigs do. If I write a script and it doesn't get made, the script still exists, you know? There's a really dope, dope animation studio and company I love that is looking for a project to work on with me. They read The Seeker and they were like, “This script isn't for us but you and your writing style are for us and we are now looking for something for you to work on with us.” Having a finished sample script is so powerful because even if this isn't for you, I did this. I finished this and I think we can all agree that writing a feature film script and making it clean and cut and finished is hard and it takes time. Anyone that reads it knows that ahead of time and if they actually get through the script and they enjoy it, that's an even bigger deal. 

It's worth the time. It's worth the effort. It's worth the long, sad, quiet nights of thinking the script sucks just to get to the point where you actually love it.

My favorite quote about writing is, "I hate to write, but I love to have written."

Cariann: It's actually funny you mention that. Kass and I are working on a creative writing project right now together and a lot of what you're saying is ringing true. It's not easy.

Camrus: It's not easy, but look, it gets to a point when it does get easy and as soon as you cross that threshold, you're like, "Oh my god, am I a good writer?" 

For the sci-fi, I had the outline for it for a while, then when my co-writer and I teamed up, edited it, added to it, he wrote the entire rough draft because I was doing the Amazon project and some other stuff. When I finally got to it in January, I was like, man, so much of this has to change. So much of this has to get cut and added to. And a lot of it didn't make sense. It wasn't clear yet. So, it took me, let's say, two weeks max to get through it. As soon as I got through the end and I read it back, I was like, is this fire now? Is this a fantastic idea? It just takes getting to that draft where you're like, even if we changed half of this script, we already know now that we have a really strong product. Then you just get excited to finish it because you can't wait for someone to see this really great thing that was created.

“You truly never know who's talking about you, who's thinking about you, who knows about you. That is the best creative advice — you just never know.”

Cariann: Yeah. Kass, we have to take that advice to heart. We also watched Grab My Hand, your short film. 

Camrus: Oh, did you? 

Cariann: Yes. We sent crying selfies to each other after watching it. I cried my eyes out and it was just so powerful.

Camrus: Thank you so much. It means the world. That short was never supposed to get seen by anyone but my dad. So, the fact that it's been seen by so much of the world and started my directing career is insane.

Cariann: I read that in an interview you had done — that you were just going to show it to your family and not put it out, which is just mind-blowing to me. 

Camrus: Thank you. Yeah. I didn't consider it a film. [Laughs] It was just like a thing that I made for him, you know? An animator and I just made this thing for him. And then it didn't become a film until a random dude from high school, who I'm now friends with, was like, "Hey, I went to school for composing. Do you have anything that needs music?" And I said, "Oh, I made this thing for my dad if you want to put music to it." And he put music to it. The animator and I ended up agreeing that it needed music the whole time. 

Then, all of a sudden, it was a movie and I started submitting it and it took the world by storm. It was in festivals for like five years and it went to all these countries around the world — over a hundred film festivals. It was distributed by PBS and it's in educational programs all throughout the US now. It's crazy. It just has a life of its own. I have no idea who sees it and who sends it to who, but it always finds its way back to me somehow. It's very cool. 

Cariann: That is wild. It's also crazy how the smallest thing can end up connecting you to someone. Like, I recognized your face in my inbox because of The OA from 2016. It's just so crazy the seeds that can be planted. 

Camrus: Butterfly effect, yo. It's insane. You truly never know who's talking about you, who's thinking about you, who knows about you. That is the best creative advice — you just never know.

Cariann: I mean, I would ask you what roles and stuff you're looking for doing next, but it seems like your next several months are already so planned out. I don't even know how to ask that question. 

Camrus: [Laughs] Yeah, I'm always looking for more, you know. I still think that while I really, really love franchise, bigger budget projects, I'm so hungry for that raw, indie, nasty part where I get to show that. I was a theater kid for a long time, I've played a range of interesting characters that people would never expect to come out of me. That's kind of what I want. 

Of all the projects I've done, the one that I always go back to is my one episode of Chicago PD.

Cariann: I saw a clip of your role in that! Yes.

Camrus: You do your research, Cariann. I like that. [Laughs]

I got to be this doe-eyed, young kid that was accused of this murder that he did not do and he just gets to do this ugly cry, this just sad, heartbreaking cry and it was so fun to play a character like that. I got to really stretch that muscle. Oftentimes I play the character that, there's a couple terms for it, but basically the character that the audience feels connected to. I tend to make the audience laugh, so audiences tend to feel comfortable when I enter the screen, which is great. It'd be nice to make them uncomfortable a couple times, though. 

Cariann: Yeah, because that's where you really learn a lot about yourself, I would bet, too, is playing those characters. 

Camrus: Totally. I get to access parts that only get to come out in moments throughout my actual personal life instead of sitting in those pieces of me for long periods of time, and getting to see what happens when they hit the sunlight. Now that they're actually outside, awake for a long period of time — what happens, you know? Will it shrivel up or will it grow a little bit? I don't know.

Cariann: Damn, that was good. 

Camrus: [Laughs] Thanks.

Cariann: Well, I don't want to take too much more of your time. Just thank you so much for your time and your honesty and talking to us about your craft and your work. It's such an honor.

Camrus: Of course. Thanks for having me. You're the best.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Interview By Cariann Bradley  | edited by Kass Ringo | design by Madeline Westfall |   Photos By DIMitrI TZOYTZOYROKOS