A few weeks shy of turning 70, the American actor Don Johnson can look back on a rich, never-dull career. “I feel the same as I always have,” he says, flashing that smile, “16 and unruly!” He broke through in the 1980s as a swaggering Sonny Crockett in the TV series Miami Vice. Life on screen and off was fast and glamorous; Johnson has been married five times (twice to Melanie Griffith) and engaged in Olympic-level hedonism. But the work has rarely slowed, including roles in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained and now Knives Out, a slick, funny whodunnit from Rian Johnson (Star Wars: The Last Jedi). The film also stars Daniel Craig, Chris Evans and Christopher Plummer, who plays a successful crime novelist whose untimely death turns a dysfunctional family against one another.

It looks like you and the cast of Knives Out had a great time making it. Or was that really good acting on your part?

I always say when people mention this that “it’s kind of our job to make it look easy and fun”. You have to look like that even with people that you could do time for any sort of heinous act you committed on them. But no, this was one of those joyous occasions where we actually did have fun.

One of the more serious ideas in Knives Out is whether you actually help your children by bankrolling their careers. As a father of five, what do you think?

Oh, I could write many books on that. I think you destroy your children, I do. You start off wanting better for them than what you had for yourself, but the more you do for them, the more you cripple them. Struggle is the fuel that drives creativity, discovery and curiosity.

I had to overcome attributes you’d think would be an asset – I happened to be a very attractive young man

Do you speak from experience here? Your path to acting wasn’t exactly straightforward, was it?

Hell no. I had a horrible childhood, horrible. I had the quinella: abuse and parents who divorced when I was 12 years old and I was the oldest. I really was unhappy and I left home at 16. And when you leave home at 16 and you don’t have a plan and you have to fend for yourself and put yourself through high school… that builds a powerful character.

Why do you think you did make it as an actor?

I always felt confident about my skills and my ability. I had to overcome some physical attributes that, on the surface, you would think would be an asset, because I happened to be a very attractive young man. But I was sort of androgynous at a time when androgynous was not necessarily the thing. I was young, skinny as a rail and had long hair and my features… I was kind of a pretty boy. That’s not the way I felt about myself, but it was the thing I had to overcome to be taken seriously.

You don’t hear many people, especially men, talk about the pitfalls of being too good looking.

Yeah, it was a detriment in a lot of ways. In other ways, it was very helpful. Because when it did work for me, then it worked in a big way.

Did you expect to still be acting when you were almost 70?

I didn’t expect to live to 30, OK? So it’s all been gravy. I think I speak for all actors: [when] you finish a job, you almost always think, “Well, that was it. I’ll never work again.” So every day is Christmas for actors. Either Santa was good to you that day or not.

How did you feel when your daughter Dakota said that she wanted to act?

That’s a story in itself. I didn’t know that she wanted to do it. She hadn’t shared that with us. So she’s 18, I think, at the time and I’m going: “OK, I’ll just keep my eye on her and reach out and catch her.” Ha ha, that’s the last I saw of Dakota. She has the goods. She’s a wonderful actress, and in some ways better than her mother [Melanie Griffith] and me.

How do you get on with Dakota’s boyfriend, Coldplay’s Chris Martin?

He’s a lovely man, I’ll tell you that. But it’s not my place; they have their own thing. It would be like asking Chris Martin: “How’s Don’s relationship with his wife?”

There’s a photo of you and Donald Trump from the 1980s. Were you pals?

I knew Donald for about 20 minutes. I mean, for a short period [long pause, sigh]. Well, it all speaks for itself, doesn’t it? I had 20 minutes with the Donald and that was enough.

Crockett and Tubbs – Don Johnson (left) and Philip Michael Thomas – in Miami Vice. Photograph: Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar

You were, however, friends with Hunter S Thompson. Could you ever just hang out and relax with him?

Ah, I loved Hunter. I miss him every day. He was a gentle soul. He was also wild – amen! And yeah, we could just hang out as long as you were willing to drink some whiskey.

But you don’t drink now, do you?

Oh no, I haven’t drunk liquor in… I don’t even know how long. At first, I had to avoid him for a while, when I decided that I wasn’t going to drink or use any more. Then, once I was pretty comfortable, I ventured back. And he was so curious about my thing [being sober], but it wasn’t on his dance card. Yeah, he checked the box that read: sex, drugs, rock’n’roll.

There’s talk of a reboot of Miami Vice. Was that show a blessing or a curse for you?

I’m really proud of the fact that I was able to overcome what has trapped so many other actors when they’ve played an iconic role like that. I was able to separate Don Johnson from Sonny Crockett and take Don Johnson on a journey where others were willing to say: “Oh, OK, let me check him out in this…” And that’s not a small accomplishment.

Knives Out is released on 27 November