Jake Johnson Is Totally Cool if You See His New Movie as ‘The Weirdest 90-Minute Episode’ of ‘New Girl’

Self Reliance isn't a New Girl movie — but Jake Johnson will happily let you view it that way if it helps your enjoyment.

An internet favorite due to his seven-season run as lovable man-child Nick Miller on the beloved Fox sitcom, Johnson makes his feature directorial debut with Hulu's Self Reliance. Also written by Johnson, the action-comedy-thriller stars the Minx actor as Tommy, a regular guy who suddenly receives a life-changing opportunity via Andy Samberg. Playing himself, the SNL alum invites Tommy to participate in a dark web reality game show. Here's the premise: If he can avoid getting killed by a group of hunters for 30 days, he'll win $1 million. And here's the catch: These mysterious hunters can only attack when he's alone. So, Tommy goes on the hunt for the perfect companion.

In addition to Samberg (who produces alongside his Lonely Island crew), the extremely fun supporting cast includes Anna Kendrick (Pitch Perfect), Christopher Lloyd (Back to the Future), Natalie Morales (Parks and Recreation), Eduardo Franco (Stranger Things), Emily Hampshire (Schitt's Creek), GaTa (Dave), Boban Marjanović (John Wick 3), Biff Wiff (I Think You Should Leave) and Wayne Brady (Whose Line Is it Anyway?).

Ahead of Self Reliance's Friday premiere on Hulu, we talked to Johnson about earning notice for his kissing prowess, being onboard with people always thinking of him as Nick, and learning from his experience on the Spider-Verse films.

I always appreciate the opportunity to talk about a movie that stars both GaTa and Biff Wiff, so this is really my sweet spot.

Jake Johnson: [Laughs] So I can tell you got good taste.

Before we dive into Self Reliance, right before I logged on, I was like, "Let me do a quick search to see if there is anything crazy going on with Jake that I should know about."

Is there?

I mean, there are a lot of conversations going on about how great an onscreen kisser you are.

Right now?

Over the last couple of days! Here's a direct quote from a viral tweet: "This is why Jake Johnson is such an excellent onscreen kisser. He brings such an exceptional physicality to it that you can't help but swoon." Any official comment on your apparent status as an onscreen kissing legend?

Well, I want to thank [New Girl co-star] Lamorne Morris for that tweet. It means a lot to me, Lamorne. And then I'd also like to ask him to stop tweeting about me because it's weird.

Yeah, one tweet is enough, Lamorne; we get it.

Wait, here we go, I just got an email that Minx's director of photography, Blake [McClure], was just nominated for an American Society of Cinematographers award, and, man, am I happy to hear that because it couldn't be more deserved. The work he did on that show got overlooked because not enough people watched it, but it's visually a spectacular show. Blake, congratulations, killer!

Wow, I'm glad we got both of those breaking news items in!

Yes, Lamorne Morris thinks I'm a good kisser, and our cinematographer for Minx got honored.

Moving to Self Reliance, where did this idea come from, and what made it the one? You want to be passionate about any project, but that must be tenfold when it's your directorial debut.

Agreed. For me, the real reason was the tone. I wanted to do a really strange premise, and I love the idea of one person believing something is right and the room doesn't. Comedically, I like when a character's in a corner. I liked the idea of having all the family scenes. I also liked the action. I like thrillers; I like the idea of being hunted. As a director, I wanted to experiment and figure out what it felt like to direct action. I also love a love story, so there's the whole arc with Anna.

If I'm going to direct — and I don't know if I'll ever direct a movie again — I didn't want to say I directed a romantic comedy or a light comedy that had one tone. I'm not a natural director; I didn't dream about doing this, and this is not the beginning of a new thing I'm going to try to do. I like to write, I like to act, I like to be in stuff. And so, if this is the only shot I ever get, I wanted to try to do all the stuff that I wanted to do.

Knowing how forever tied you are to your New Girl character, when you’re writing a new character for yourself, are you consciously trying to create someone who is very much not Nick Miller? Or do you just follow your instincts and hope the audience sees that this is a different project and a different person?

I think those are the wrong words. Who cares if they see it as similar? What I really want people to do is enjoy the 90 minutes we're spending together. You know, everything I ever see Ted Danson do, that's [his Cheers character] Sam Malone! In The Good Place, that's Sammy Malone! And that doesn't make me like it less, it makes me like it more, because I love Sammy Malone! And so I don't feel that way.

My kind of real thought of it is, as long as you are enjoying the thing that I'm making and I'm enjoying making it, then we're having a hell of a relationship. If I start hating making it, and you hate watching it, then it's over. But, as long as we're both happy, you can view it any way you want. You can view Self Reliance as the weirdest 90-minute episode of New Girl you ever saw. [Laughs] And if that makes you enjoy the 90 minutes, well, hell, man, you were right to. You can make Biff be Tran (Ralph Ahn), Anna Kendrick's character would be Jess (Zooey Deschanel), the family would be Lamorne and Max [Greenfield], and the cowboy would be the landlord because it's the same actor, Jeff Kober!

I joked at the top about GaTa and Biff Wiff, but this really might be the most eclectic cast I've ever seen. You've got an Oscar nominee, an NBA player and Wayne Brady! Was the goal from the outset to have such a wild and diverse group?

Honestly, it was the casting director, Wendy O'Brien. As an actor, you know all the casting people, and there are certain people who got you jobs, and Wendy was one of those people. And so we had a lot of discussions about what I wanted this cast to feel like, but it was her. Like, I didn't know GaTa before and GaTa auditioned. And Emily Hampshire auditioned. And Eduardo Franco, I hadn't seen him in Stranger Things yet. She just said, "There's somebody I think you're going to like as 'The Ninja,'" and I was like, "Not only do I like him, he's one of my favorite actors."

I didn't know Biff Wiff. I hadn't seen Tim Robinson's show I Think You Should Leave yet. So I had been auditioning older men actors, and nobody was right. Everybody was really serious and really intense and really heavy, and it just didn't feel like the movie. And then I press play on the next self-tape audition, and I saw "Biff Wiff" pop up, and I was like, "Come again?" After actors like James Davidson, I'm like, "Okay, next up… did you say Biff Wiff? That's a hell of a start. I'll tell you what, I'm interested." And then he's wearing suspenders, he's got this big beard, he's got that great face, and I was like, "Oh my lord, this is the best actor I've ever seen in my life. I've never liked an actor more." Biff Wiff's instincts: I've never been in a scene with somebody where so often I'm watching them and forgetting to act and just being like, "What planet did you come from?" You know, we've got our Globes and our Academy Awards and all these, but there's got to be a whole other award show for just greatest actors from another planet who've entered Earth for a little bit. That's the only award show I care about — and old Biffy deserves whatever we're calling that award.

Amen! Someone who you probably didn't have audition is Anna Kendrick, who you've now worked with a couple times. What keeps bringing you back to her?

What's really great about her is that she's also a director. And I had the same thing with Natalie Morales, too. It's really nice to have actors come in who know the other side because they help your job and make it really easy. They could say things like, "You might want this, so should I just do a take where I just say this in case you want it?" And you're like, "Thanks, because I wasn't thinking about it, but I'm really glad we have it." So, honestly, having both of them just felt like a huge security blanket.

Between the guys producing and Andy Samberg appearing as himself, I'd like to welcome you to the Lonely Island family. Popstar 2, here you come!

What I like to say is that I'm the fourth member of The Lonely Island. To be clear, I like to say that; they definitely have not said it. I love those guys; I've been a fan of them forever. I think each individually is so talented, and as a group, they're unstoppable. And so I just felt so honored that they spent the time on my project.

Speaking of Andy, let's say that Jake Johnson is walking down the street here in Los Angeles, what celebrity are you most excited and scared to see pull up to you in a limo?

I got to say, I've been in this game long enough that it's very clear I don't think any big celebrities are going to stop and ask me to join a project that they're in. [Laughs] It would be more scary if some D-level guy was like, "Hey man, want to get in," and me being like, "That's where I'm at?!" And they're like, "Well, it's small; it's going to be on this new channel we're starting," and you'll be like, "Ah, for f---'s sake, all right, what's the rate? I'll get in."

True or false: You cast Boban Marjanović so that you could brag that you and John Wick have now fought the same seven-foot badass.

True! And the other thing is so that I could get Boban's cell phone number because I love him. I've been a fan of his, not only just as an athlete but as a persona and personality. He did a bunch of commercials where I was like, "This dude is so funny, and anything I do, I want him with me." The next time I do a TV show that's a comedy, if I get in something that runs for a while, I want him on that set. He's just the best and so charming and funny. One of the highlights of doing this movie was FaceTiming with him as we were talking about the project and just being like, "Golly, he is as good as it gets."

We're in Oscar season, and you're one of the stars of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, a lock for a Best Animated Feature Film nomination, but deserving of even more love than that. So, how do we start the Jake Johnson for Best Actor campaign?

Well, I think you just did. And I think it's for my performance in the 2011 indie Spilt Milk.

Oh wow, a true underdog story.

Thank you, thank you. Honestly, with Spider-Verse, it's one of the great honors in my career that I'm allowed to be part of such a monster franchise that is as loved by the creators as it is by the fans. A lot of times, it's one or the other, and a lot of times, there's a money-making machine, and you're part of it, and you hope it works, but you also know the bottom line is going to be the bottom line. And this is not that. [Writer-producers] Phil Lord and Chris Miller care in a way that has truly changed how I see this business and how I see writing and acting.

For example, we premiered Self Reliance at South by Southwest, it did well, Hulu came in aggressively and bought it, we were excited. And Phil and Chris were people I thought of because I wanted to do more to it. I learned about the movie from seeing it with a big audience. I wanted more levity in the third act, I wanted Eduardo Franco's character back, I wanted more Andy Samberg, I wanted to change some music. And because of guys like that, I was inspired to ask and keep pushing. Phil, Chris, Samberg, Akiva [Schaffer], Jake Szymanski from Jury Duty, they were like, "Then don't stop. If you believe the movie's going to be better, you have an obligation as the director to give the fans more of what you think they want. And if you feel that way, hopefully they do too." And that was the first time I felt that way. Because, as an actor, I don't do that. I'll watch it and go, "It could have been better, but it's not mine."

So Chris and Phil were big inspirations to not stop fighting. And the only reason we finally stopped is we simply ran out of time. If it were up to me, I'd still be editing it. Hell, I'd be shooting that movie for the rest of my life, and in about 15 years, maybe Self Reliance could win some awards. [Laughs] Give me the Blockbuster award in 2028 for Best Feature of the Year!

Now that you've checked off directing a movie, what's next? Is there something you really want to do that you haven't yet gotten the chance to do?

I would love to direct a pilot for a television show. Movies are very cool, but TV is what got me into the business. I didn't grow up studying films; I grew up watching TV. My great joy is sitting on the couch with something to eat and watching stuff. And so, I would love the opportunity to direct a TV show, with either me in it or not in it, but it being the kind of show that I would be excited to watch.

And I started doing this podcast called We're Here to Help, and I'm just having way more fun doing it than I expected. I know Dax Shepard a little bit, and we were talking about it, and he said, "Don't do one unless you really are passionate about it." It's a call-in advice show where we take calls from random people, and we don't know what the calls are going to be, and we try to help, but the pitch is we only want dumb ones. We're not looking to help with real-life stuff. Like, we just did a call today, and one of them was a woman who moved in with her boyfriend and wants to be able to fart around each other, but he won't. [Laughs] She genuinely wanted help, and it just creates such a fun environment of bits, and what I like the most is when random people are really funny and you're just surprised by humans. So I don't know what's next, but that's what I'm excited about.

I do have a free pilot idea for you: A Three Men and a Baby reboot with Biff Wiff, Boban and GaTa. That's a million-dollar idea right there!

That's a 10 million-dollar idea. And I'm the baby because we're mixing Look Who's Talking with Three Men and a Goddamn Baby!

Self Reliance is now streaming on Hulu.