(AP) -- DETROIT - Rosie O'Donnell says she saw a teenager at a Detroit restaurant and thought he had a face that belonged in pictures. Now, 17-year-old Philip Johnson has the lead role in "America," a Lifetime network movie with O'Donnell and Ruby Dee that's set for broadcast Feb. 28.
In October, the Cass Technological High School senior was eating lunch at Small Plates restaurant when O'Donnell spotted him and asked if he'd be interested in trying out for a film. He took a screen test the next day and won the title role. Johnson tells the Detroit Free Press when he first saw O'Donnell inside the restaurant, he said he didn't believe it was her. O'Donnell tells "Entertainment Tonight" she sensed "a soulful kind of stillness" in Johnson.
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