Former Canadian Olympian Ben Johnson is having his story told in a new mockumentary miniseries.
The disgraced sprinter and actor Shamier Anderson sat down with CTV Your Morning on Friday to talk about the upcoming series, “Hate the Player: Ben Johnson’s Story.”
Johnson said “of course” when asked if he can laugh about his professional downfall, as “its always a joke, from the beginning.”
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Born in Jamaica, Ben Johnson raced all over the world for Canada. His career culminated in his record-breaking 100-metre race at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, which he ran in 9.79 seconds. However, he would fail a drug test and both his gold medal and world record were rescinded.
“It’s all a game, it’s just a big game, what happened,” he said. “Everybody else was doing what I was doing, and I was just get singled out.”
“This story has to be told the right way,” Johnson said , adding that the right way was in the miniseries where “people can enjoy, and laugh about it, and have fun.”
“I just want people to take away the truth, what really happened and my point of view of my career,” Johnson said. “This guy (went) through a lot, it’s just nice to see that the young generation can know who Ben Johnson is and learn from all the things in the series.”
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Anderson said he had never met Johnson before the project.
“I gave him a call, said ‘yo Ben, come over to my house, lets have some jerk chicken, some curry goat, some rice and peas,’ you know what I mean?” adding that his mother cooked the two of them “some good food.”
Anderson said he calls Johnson his “young uncle,” Anderson said the two have not raced yet.
“(Johnson is) very strong and he’s very fast, still to this day, sans enhancements.”
“I’ll say this,” Anderson added. “This show, and the cast on this show, is the Canadian avengers, led by Captain Canada Ben Johnson.”
The series, created by Anthony Q. Farrel of “The Office,” “Shelved,” and “Run the Burbs” fame, has secured a variety of Canadian talent.
Andrew Phung, who played Kimchee Han on “Kim’s Convenience,” and King Bach, who had the most followers on the social media app Vine before it shut down, are set to play in the series.
Karen Robinson, of “Schitt’s Creek,” Mark McKinney from “Kids in the Hall” and Ennis Esmer, who was a part of “Blindspot” and “Children Ruin Everything,” are also slated for the show.
The show is filmed in Scarborough, Ont.
