Brantford Expositor.CA

Checking In With Amy Jo Johnson ;

JAY BOBBIN

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Many Canadian actors come to America for series work, but Amy Jo Johnson has gone the other way.

The former "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" and "Felicity" co-star moved north for personal reasons, then happened to land a television job. She's expecting her first child, but the producers of the police drama "Flashpoint" wanted her, so she's playing a member of a crisis-response team in the new CBS series airing Fridays.

"It is the most physical thing I've ever done," the ever-youthful actress says of the show, "but there's some safety behind what's happening. I got cast on a Saturday, I flew to Toronto on a Wednesday, and we trained for a week with the actual Strategic Response Unit that the show is based on.

"We followed one team while they did different sorts of simulations, then we did some gun training. I used to have a huge phobia about guns. That's now gone."

Wearing a police officer's protective gear is helping Johnson conceal her pregnancy from the cameras -- for the most part. "This is so vain," she muses, "but I'm afraid I look like I'm getting fat, and I don't want people to think that. We were just doing a scene where I'm wearing jeans and a tank top, and the producer said, 'I think we're at the end of the road.' "

It's apparently anything but that for the musically inclined Johnson's career, which has been consistent since the mid-1990s except for a recent two-year break.

"I left Los Angeles and was sort of a gypsy for a while. I went to Vietnam and Tanzania, then ended up doing a movie in Montreal and really liked it. I just needed a new chapter."

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Celeb stats

Birth date: Oct. 6, 1970.

Birthplace: Massachusetts' Cape Cod.

Current residence: Montreal. Marital status: Engaged. Other television credits: "Mighty

Morphin Power Rangers," "Felicity," "Wildfire," "What About Brian," "The Division," "Spin City," "ER," "Saved by the Bell: The New Class," "Fatal Trust," "Magma: Volcanic Disaster," "Hard Ground," "Sweetwater: A True Rock Story," "Perfect Body," "Killing Mr. Griffin," "Susie Q."

Movie credits: "Veritas, Prince of Truth," "Islander," "Arbie," "Infested," "Interstate 60," 'Liars Club," "Pursuit of Happiness," "Cold Hearts," "Without Limits," "Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie," "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie."

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