Silver-screen bully visits local schools

When the nation’s most famous bully from the movie “Napoleon Dynamite” walked into Ferris High School students cheered, but none louder than 18-year-old Desiree Brown.

“I’ve seen it 100 times,” Brown said just before she was brought up and put into a headlock by Bracken Johnson, who played Randy the Bully.

In the movie, Johnson’s character tries to bully food and money from students. In real life, Johnson’s a little nicer.

To bring some attention to the age-old school problem of bullies, Ferris and Central Valley High School hired Johnson and motivational speaker Dan Potter to talk about the virtues of being nice to each other. Both districts paid $450 to bring in the speakers.

Before an assembly for 900 freshmen and sophomores, Johnson, who is 19, visited a few classrooms to apply his headlock to various students while Potter did most of the talking.

At one point, Johnson even got to torment English teacher Emily Torres, who played along.

Being picked on is kind of embarrassing for students, Torres said, but they really seemed to soak in the message – be nice and speak out against bullies. What surprised her was how bashful Johnson seemed.

“He’s just what he is: a shy kid from Idaho,” Torres said. “Now he’s in a blockbuster film that everybody and their brother has seen.”

Johnson wasn’t always recognized by the students. He has four, maybe five lines, which students repeated as if on cue once they figured out who he was.

“Napoleon, give me some of your tots,” students yelled out.

Johnson, 19, is the son of an Idaho electrician. He joined Potter’s tour a few months ago.

Apart from headlocks, Johnson was mostly quiet at Ferris. Much like a character from the film, he stood with hands in pockets, his chin tilted way up and sporadically squinting for no apparent reason. He was cast as the bully two years ago while coming out of class in Preston, Idaho.

The one-movie actor, who’s an avid outdoorsman, said he hopes to get into Idaho State University one day. He has no plans to act again. In fact, he’s only seen his movie a few times.

When asked what people can do about the bully problem, Johnson said, “I don’t really know. You just have to be tough I guess.”

During the assembly, Potter came out and talked about his 10 secrets of becoming a better person, or a “Very Nice Person,” as he calls it.

He explained how a college athletic recruiter friend of his will ignore students who have reputations of being troublemakers. He said that when guys show their love for their mothers in public, even hugging them, girls will see that and be intrigued. Complimenting people helps you get ahead, he said.

Potter resides in Los Angeles, but he graduated from West Valley High School in 1970. He told students that he had to do something to encourage young people to improve their behavior after one of his daughter’s classmates was stabbed in her California school. He was the only parent who came to the school the next day to ask questions.

“The punks are running the show,” Potter told the kids as he asked them again to be nice and not let the bullies have their way.