Running Man

In the new mockumentary Hate the Player, Shamier Anderson portrays Ben Johnson-not as a disgraced cheater but as a Scarborough boy shafted by the system

- BY COURTNEY SHEA

Hate the Player is a comedy about one of the most scandalous events in the history of Canadian sport.

How did you square that? Ben Johnson doesn’t mind being made fun of, and our story comes directly from him. The show-runner, Anthony Q. Farrell, and I spent a lot of time with him. We shot it mockumentary style, and similar to I, Tonya, it tells a story that everyone already knows but from a new perspective.

You were negative-three years old in 1988, when Johnson suddenly became the villain of the Seoul Olympics. When did you become aware of him? I'm from Scarborough, like Ben, and our families are both Jamaican, so I was familiar. In the ’90s, I was too young to understand what doping was. Instead, I gravitated to this Jamaican person who was an Olympic champion. My family, and many others in our community, believed Ben was wronged.

Was it important that Johnson sign off on the show? Yes. If a project is about a real person, my policy is to decline unless the subject or their family has given their blessing. Along with asking Ben questions, I spent weeks poring over archival footage, categorizing videos under Sincere Ben, Cocky Ben, Young Ben and Fitness Ben. And I had a month to get into Olympic shape.