Johnny Whitworth Talks About Being Blackout in Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

By Doctor Gash
February 15th, 2012

A hero is only as good as the bad guys he fights, and Ghost Rider has faced some tough ones with the Devil himself being Johnny Blaze's main adversary. Johnny Whitworth sat down with Dread Central's Nomad to talk about his role as Blackout in Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.

Whitworth begins as Ray Carrigan, who then goes through a transformation to become the nefarious Blackout. "He's possessed with this demon, this spirit of decay, that enhances Ray Carrigan from a bad guy to a fucking horrible guy," Whitworth said. "Ultimately he wanted to be something greater than Ghost Rider. He's Ray, but there's a huge evolution. He's a full-fledged masochistic psychopath when before (the transformation) he just did what had to be done. Now it's not what had to be done but what can I do?"

The "CSI: Miami" actor is a big fan of the superhero genre. "I liked watching Adam West's 'Batman' and 'Super Friends' more than reading the comics," Whitworth said, "but I find the genre really cool."

Viewers of Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance will be treated to some unique and impressive kill scenes involving Blackout. "He's like a mix between a spider monkey and a spider," Whitworth said. "I had a visualization of a spider enveloping something. It just jumped down and grabbed its prey. Something I saw on National Geographic. That was the vision I saw when the directors said, 'You're popping in and out here, taking out this guy, taking out that guy.' Generally I wanted to just have fun with it."

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, starring Nicholas Cage, Johnny Whitworth, Ciaran Hinds, Fergus Riordon, Idris Elba, Violante Placido and Christopher Lambert, opens everywhere this Friday, February 17th.