Friday, July 4, 2014

PT 2- Exclusive Interview with Cherie Johnson (Punky Brewster, Family Matters (GROWN UP)


 As we continue Chere Johnson Interview Pt Of 2
LENELL: Wonderful. Tell us about your film career? You have dabbled in both television and big theater films correct?
CHERIE:  Because of the whole child star stigma that people have put on us, I realized that I could not leave my career in the hands of other people. I had to take control and do some things myself. So I started producing films. For me it was important to do things that I always wanted to do.  Soleil Moon Frye (Punky Brewster) and I growing up loved horror  films.

LENELL: Really!
CHERIE: Oh God Yes!  That’s what we did on the weekends.  We worked Monday through Friday and on the weekends, either she was at my house or I was at hers or we were at Ami’s house. (Ami Foster from Punky Brewster)  So I said one day I’m going to do
a horror film. The first film that I decided to produce was a horror film. I fell in love with producing.

LENELL: Wow, Good for you.
CHERIE:  Thank you. So now I’m 10 films and 5 books in and I’ve created a whole different lane for myself which has nothing but brought the whole excitement of acting back.

LENELL
CHERIE: No, not at all.
: Kudos to you.  You don’t hear that often. You stayed focused and managed to create your own opportunities.
CHERIE: It’s been 32 years.  If I had to play that same sweet little girl next door role, I would be bored. (Laughing)

LENELL: But look at what came from it; a successful career. No regrets.
CHERIE: No, not at all.

LENELL: What are some other business ventures that you have participated in?
CHERIE: There was a restaurant, I own apartment buildings and I do real estate. I also have a hair oil company, which is natural hair oil. Everybody kept asking me all the time, “You know women in the business always wear weaves and wigs.  How do you keep your hair so pretty?”  I would say that I don’t know, cuz I don’t do anything.

LENELL: You’ve have always had a healthy head of hair.
CHERIE: But you know what, they burned my hair out.  They treat my hair like doo doo. Right before fashion week in New York this last year I had a hair dresser burn my hair out really bad.


LENELL: Wow.
CHERIE: It’s back, its ok.
LENELL:  (whew)
CHERIE: I’ve gone to the same personal hair dresser for over 20 years. She’s actually a friend of mine. She started making this oil and she thought it was cute to make my hair
smell like cherries because my name is Cherie. Come to find out 15 years later, that cherries are a natural growth agent.
So, this oil that she has been putting in my hair and my shampoo thinking it’s cute to make my hair smell good actually makes my hair grow.

LENELL: So it’s a win-win there. (Laughing)
CHERIE: I tend to have a patch of dandruff in the front of my hair. So she makes different oils.  One is a cherry rosemary which is more for healing and I can do my hot oil treatments especially after work when I have all the buildup and stuff in my hair. The
cherry mint helps with all the dandruff and the cherry lemonade helps extract like all the hairspray and all the gels that they use in my hair.
People ask me all the time about my hair and what  I do to it, I feel guilty because I use shampoo from the 99 cent store. (Laughing) That’s when I said we should probably bottle this for women and see if it works.  Its working and people are loving it.

LENELL: Look at you the entrepreneur. Now we also learned that you are expecting! Congratulations! Is this number 2 or 3?
CHERIE: It’s number one at birth. I have a son who I adopted; I didn’t birth him. So it’s not my first baby. It’s my second baby, but my first birth. Somebody told on me; I tried to keep
it a secret for as long as I could for different reasons, but somebody leaked a really awful picture. They leaked an awful picture and they told, but it is what it is.

LENELL: Is there something unique that you would like to reveal to your fans.  Do you have any special talents or hobbies that they don’t know about Cherie?
CHERIE: Wow, I don’t know if there’s anything that they don’t know. Anything, I try to hide they find out. I grew up in front of the camera so I really don’t have any secrets.

LENELL:  What are some projects that you have coming up in the future?
CHERIE: There are a couple of books coming out; very much child related.  I happen to be a bit of a control freak.
Maybe that’s something the audience doesn’t know. I control everything that happens in my life. I decided two years ago that I wanted to become a mother. I wanted to birth my first child. I then started concentrating on some children related projects so I can do it simultaneously while having my baby. There is also a TV show that I pray will get picked up. You will know more about it by the end of September. I will also be producing.

As you can see our Punkie Brewster/Family Matters co-star is all grown up and living her life to the fullest.  You can keep up with her through http://www.twitter.com/Cheriejohnson75   and don’t forget to try out her line of hair oils at www.usewildcherry.com

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