Don Johnson - Don Johnson: 'I Chose To Wait For Hollywood To Come Back To Me'

Don Johnson turned his back on Hollywood when he needed Tinseltown's dollars the most - because he was too proud to accept awful roles.

The former playboy, who is enjoying a career rebirth thanks to his appearance in Quentin Tarantino's new movie Django Unchained, admits he had to test his own patience after the roles dried up following the mega-success of his hit Tv series Miami Vice - as he chose to wait for a good part than accept the bad ones offered to him.

But that wait turned out to be a very long one - and led to a lot of soul-searching.

He tells Rolling Stone magazine, "The phone had pretty much stopped ringing. And then, when I quit drinking, I started gaining weight, and when I looked in the mirror, I saw fat guy, and in my business, that's like suicide... All the friends leave.

"But even when I needed the money, there were certain things I just wouldn't do. I got offers for some episodic, has-been guest spots, and I'm like, 'I'm going to go out there and be the living example of what I know that is, for what, a hundred grand? I don't think so...'

"I'd always figured it'd be like what John Huston says in Chinatown: 'Old buildings and whores get respectable if they hang around long enough'. That's what I was doing, hanging around, like an old building or a whore."