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It’s best not to read too much into the characters Jake Johnson plays. The actor says there’s no through line to his many roles because he probably doesn’t choose parts like other performers. “A lot of my peers and people that I really respect went to acting school, and it’s all about the character and finding the richness of their character,” says the actor who has been working steadily since his breakout series New Girl premiered in 2011. In his current TV series Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, Johnson is Karl Hendricks, the exasperated ex-husband of Tatiana Maslany’s factchecker investigating the murder of a camboy. Previously, he starred as Doug Renetti, the 1970s huckster publisher of a feminist porn magazine, in Minx.
“I came up as a writer, and was always producing my own shows,” Johnson says. The Chicago native earned an MFA in dramatic writing from the NYU Tisch Graduate program. For him, the entire project is “where my passion lies…. It’s more [about] making projects that I believe will work, that I’ll like to make, and that I think the audience that’s stuck with me now, almost 20 years, will also enjoy.”
Prioritizing creative experiences means that being number one on the call sheet is “totally irrelevant,” and has led to an eclectic resume that also includes the Spider-Verse/Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse movies, Jurassic World, the Mummy reboot starring Tom Cruise, and his 2023 directorial debut Self Reliance.
Now Johnson is starring in two new films. In the sports comedy The Dink (Apple TV July 24), he’s a once-promising tennis prodigy, who takes up pickleball to rehab his wrist at the suggestion of his sex-obsessed doctor (Ben Stiller). In writer-director Joe Swanberg’s The Sun Never Sets (in theaters August 28), he’s a divorced dad in a love triangle.
Here, the married father of twin tween daughters talks his tennis and pickleball prep, an on-going “beef” with New Girl castmate Lamorne Morris, his marriage of the minds with wife Erin, how his 12-year-olds updated his dad-rock playlist, and more.
Aside from the animated series Hoops, in which you played a foul-mouthed coach, The Dink is your first live-action sports movie. Are you a jock?
I was. I played sports growing up. I still love them. I’m a big Chicago Bears fan. I like watching sports. Both my daughters are athletes. I loved sports movies growing up. So yeah, I would say I’m a many-decades-past-his-prime jock.
Do you play tennis? Had you ever stepped onto a pickleball court before?
No, I had never stepped on one. I had played very minimal tennis. This was another example of, I didn’t think of any of that as we were putting the project together. Sean [Clements], the writer, told me the idea, and I loved it. I knew Ben Stiller was producing. I was so thrilled to work with him. Then Jake Szymanski, a dear friend who directed Jury Duty, was the original director, [but] fell out over scheduling. So Josh Greenbaum came in. After the movie was basically greenlit was when I realized, I need to take tennis and pickleball lessons in a hurry. I started working with [former player and coach to Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick, and Coco Gauff] Brad Gilbert. Then I worked with pickleball pros, and I just did that as intensely as I could in about three months.
Did you really play pickleball with tennis champion Andy Roddick, your character’s nemesis? Had he ever played before?
He had played, yes. That big match in the film, we shot that for, I think, three days, and it was all day, me and him hitting. Andy is such a great guy, and he’s got such a funny take on his career and who he is. He’s so self-deprecating. He came on my podcast We’re Here To Help, which is a ridiculous call-in advice thing where audience members call in, and we essentially give drunken advice. He was so unthinkably funny that even for all of the comedians who have come on the show, he’s a favorite.
You recently did Celebrity Wheel of Fortune with your New Girl castmates Hannah Simone, and Lamorne Morris. Lamorne said the things you text the cast group chat weren’t suitable for TV. How active is the New Girl chat, and what do you text that’s not safe for TV?
The group chat is very active. We all stay in really great touch. I love all those people. I texted that Lamorne creates fake charities [for Wheel] and he pockets the money. The truth is, I adore Lamorne. I love him. He is going after me aggressively in the press, and I think it’s a cry for help. What I want to say to him is, I love you. We, your family, love you, and stop attacking those who love you. You need help. All I’m trying to do is ask him to sober up and stop gambling.
He’s actually in The Sun Never Sets, in which your divorced dad encourages his younger girlfriend (Dakota Fanning) to go see who else is out there. When she hooks up with her ex (Cory Michael Smith), he’s wildly jealous. Can you relate? Are you the type of guy who thinks that if you love someone, set them free, and if they come back, it’s meant to be? Or would you freak out as soon as the person started sleeping with someone else?
I cannot relate to this premise at all. I am not a believer in setting things free. It’s more of Joe [Swanberg]’s belief system. My character was kind of based on his behavior. My research was him telling me exactly what he thought. It was less trusting in my instincts and more trusting in his. I thought the working title for this movie could have been “Crazy People Doing Crazy Things.”
In that movie, as in Maximum Pleasure, your characters are divorced. Show business isn’t exactly conducive to long-term relationships. You’ve been with Erin since 2004, married since 2011. What’s the secret to a long relationship?
I have no idea. I wish I had a good answer on that one. I think we give each other a long leash, and we’re pretty forgiving with mistakes. And we love each other a lot. I think the truth is, we like being around each other. Honestly, in the last decade or so, our culture has gotten so extreme. It’s so good versus bad, and everyone’s gotten so intense. I think the key to my relationship is we’re not like that with each other. So if one of us does something that you’re like, Oh, I now see you differently. Well, we can then evolve a little bit together, and we can change. We realize that neither of us are—we’re human [laughs].
You’ve said you’re not interested in being a celebrity, that you didn’t get into acting for that. “I’m married. I know that’s tricky in Hollywood, but I’m not gonna give up my wife, so I can have more of what someone perceives as success. I love two things. My wife and my job, and although I love my job, I’m a happier person because I have my wife.” Okay, even if it’s hypothetical, who’s Erin’s celebrity sex pass, and who’s yours?
None [laughs hysterically]. No, look, I mean, I’m sure there’s somebody. I don’t want to think about somebody having sex with Erin. It sounds like a nightmarish thought.
I read that she did the artwork on Nick Miller’s bedroom wall in New Girl. Brag about her—what else has she done?
She did all of Susan Sarandon’s artwork in Ride the Eagle. In The Dink, she did the painting of a tennis game that’s in Ed Harris’s [who plays his father] living room. She’s a great painter. What I love about her as an artist—which is something I work on in my field— is she’s way more about process over product. She’s way more about the joy of making the art rather than the accomplishment of finishing it and the ego satisfaction. I get more caught up sometimes in what it’s gonna be rather than how it should be to make it. So what I’ve learned from her is to try to slow down and enjoy the days and think less about when it’s over and how it’ll be perceived. More about the luck and the satisfaction of just being in a scene with a great actor. Process is huge for her, and it’s something I try to work on because it helps me stay in the moment.
You’re about to start work on a new network TV show. Sunset P.I. is described as a workplace comedy from the Brooklyn Nine-Nine writers. Is the detective you play good at his job?
Yeah, he’s great at it. He is a mix between Colombo and Pete Rose—the Charlie Hustle aspect of him. He was a detective for the LAPD, and then his life kind of fell apart. His wife was cheating on him, and he acted a little insane and was fired because of it.
You’re also reuniting with Damon Wayans Jr. for a comedy pilot inspired by The Cable Guy, where you play the old-school technician. Have you started that yet?
We start shooting in a few weeks. It’s not a remake of the movie. It’s about male friendship—when one friend likes the other way too much. The script is so funny, and Damon is one of my favorite people on planet earth. So I can’t wait to work with him again.
How much time do you spend on your phone, and do you monitor your daughters’ screen time?
Honestly, I spend a lot. I produce projects and have a lot going at the same time, and can do it from my phone. It’s a mobile office. My girls stuff all goes through my phone. I can put limits on everything, and can shut things off. So if they want more time, they have to ask for it. I’m pretty controlling about that. But I also want them to have phones. They like to go to the mall, or hang out with their friends, and I want to be in contact with them.
What’s your guilty pleasure TV show?
It used to be The Challenge on MTV. But that has really faded, unfortunately. You know what I just watched on Netflix was a show called Outlast. I have to say, it was pretty good, and I’ll tell you why: the behavior of some of these people was atrocious. The reality shows, when they’re all trying to act and become influencers, it’s no fun. When you’ve got some bad human behavior, it becomes a fun experience. You feel like you’re watching Lord of the Flies.
So you’re not a Housewives fan.
I’m not. I just did a movie with Jessica Williams and Kevin Bacon, and one of the women from Housewives is in the movie. She’s great in the movie, and so the whole set—everyone was buzzing. And I realized, I don’t think I’ve ever watched any show on Bravo ever. I’m not gonna try to remember her name. I don’t know the season, but I know she was a big star on it.
Do you have a favorite behind-the-scenes career memory?
A favorite is hard. The first one that kind of jumps out is working with Tom Cruise was really special. I also did a movie years ago called Paper Heart with Michael Cera and Charlyne Yi. We traveled the country to make a fake documentary. A lot of those memories are popping up. Working with [director] Max Winkler in Ceremony. It was my first big part, and he was one of my first directors, and I just fell in love with how he runs a set. Everything with Joe Swanberg has been such a dream. We’ve done five projects now. Working with the New Girl group, obviously. I loved Doug Renetti so much. Working with [Project Hail Mary’s] Phil Lord and Chris Miller on The Spider-Verse movies. We’re recording a third one now. I find their brains to be so brilliant. Any chance I get to be in the room with them and they’re giving notes, I feel like I can just absorb what they say. Honestly, it’s been a really lucky career. It’s not one memory for me. It feels more like a novel.
You get to live your best day over again. What day is it?
Probably the day my kids, Elizabeth and Olivia, were born.
What are your favorite movies, the ones that you always return to? Maybe even the ones that you’ve introduced to your daughters?
You know what’s funny? When my girls first started watching stuff, I was really interested in introducing them to a lot. But I realized that all of the movies that I fell in love with all have male protagonists. They’re about boys and men. All of the movies they love are about girls and women. Movies like Stand By Me, they watched it for five minutes and were so bored. So I’ve spent the last decade watching all of their kind of projects. Rather than me introducing them, I’ve now watched all of these things I didn’t watch. Never Have I Ever, and shows like that, I never would have even heard of. I’m now watching them and being like, Yeah, that’s pretty good. [The movie] 13 going on 30— I’m now like, I see the merits of it. [Before] I didn’t even know that it existed.
Anyone they’ve introduced you to that you now can’t get enough of?
Musically, they’ve been a huge influence on what I listen to. I think I would have just been in my Bob Dylan and World Music phase, or listening to reggae from the early ’70s. And then all of a sudden, Olivia Rodrigo. I was like [to them], you know, I worked with her on New Girl. But I never would have listened to her music. But it’s in the car so much, and it’s reminiscent of, like, a ’90s album. So I’m listening to Billie Eilish—even when I’m alone now—and going to Chappell Roan concerts. I’m shocked how often I listen to this stuff alone. Billie Eilish was my number one listen on Spotify, and that shocked me.
Is there something that you haven’t done that you want to do, not necessarily career-wise.
At one point in my life, I want to be in really good shape. I was so unhealthy for so many years. I wanna be really healthy and go to a doctor’s appointment and have them be like, pretty good! I’ve been working out a lot for the last couple of years. But I’m still eating like a 14-year-old kid at summer camp. So I want to have a period of time where I understand my macros, and all these ridiculous numbers, and get really into it without taking steroids. I’d like to get strong. But not Hollywood strong. I don’t want Ozempic. I don’t want to take peptides, and I don’t want to take testosterone and human growth. But I’d like to be in pretty great shape in my 50s naturally.
A looksmaxxer without the supplements.
More than the looks, the feel. I want to feel really good, really strong. But I’m not interested in the extra supplements. I used to smoke cigarettes and drink all the time and smoke grass all the time. I haven’t done that in 15 years. But I still feel like I do. [laughs]. I think I’m eating pretty healthy, and it might just be getting older.
People tout pickleball’s health benefits. Have you kept playing since the film?
I thought I was going to. After we were playing so much, I was into it. I got two paddles like the ones I used in the movie. Justin Long, a dear friend of mine, plays. And we played together once, and he’s like, “Let’s get into it.” That was over a year ago. The paddles that I bought are still in the original packaging.