Jake Johnson

Off Camera with Sam Jones

offcamera

Arts, Education, Off Camera, Tv & Film

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 17 October 2019

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jake Johnson’s made a career out of acting next to some of the top names in the business, and that’s exactly how he likes it. From his vantage point, he’s got the best seat in the house, watching people like Zooey Deschanel (New Girl), Tom Cruise (The Mummy), and Cobie Smulders (Stumptown) do their thing. All the while, he’s living out a dream that started when he was a kid, watching shows like Cheers and Roseanne and desperately wanting to be in them.Jake and his two siblings were brought up by their mother in a Chicago suburb. He wasn’t a great student, but he lit up when he discovered writing and acting in high school. “Back then, I was in a very tricky emotional place, but writing plays, I had total control, and I loved it.” Combine that with the praise he received from performing in the school sketch show, and he knew he found his thing.Now, Jake’s 41 and still doing it, and his favorite part of the work is getting to play within the world of make-believe. It’s why he’s drawn to the sets of filmmaker Joe Swanberg (Drinking Buddies, Digging for Fire, Win It All) and turned off by micro-managing directors who kill the magic and overshoot scenes. “I’m not here for your final cut. I’m here for right now—me and this other human being can act. Let us act, and get the camera out of here. Hide it, and let us go!”Jake joins Off Camera to talk about forging a relationship with his absent father, the rude awakening he got after dropping out of high school, and his stint as a degenerate gambler…luckily, he was saved by New Girl.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey folks Sam Jones here.
0:06.0	Welcome to another edition of Off-camera, the show where I get to talk to iconic, creative, curious
0:11.1	artists and find out how they got that way.
0:13.7	And in this episode I sit down with actor and writer Jake Johnson.
0:17.6	Jake Johnson's made a career out of acting next to some of the top names in the business
0:22.1	and that's exactly how he likes it.
0:24.0	From his vantage point he's got the best seat in the house and he has for years
0:28.0	watching people like Zoe Deschenel from New Girl, Tom Cruise in The Mummy,
0:32.0	and from his new show Stumpdown, Kobe Smolders.
0:35.8	All the while he's living out a dream that started when he was a kid, watching shows like
0:39.9	Cheers and Roseanne and desperately wanting to be in them.
0:43.0	Jake and his two siblings were brought up by their mother in a Chicago suburb.
0:47.0	He wasn't a great student, but he lit up when he discovered writing and acting in high school.
0:52.0	As he tells it, back then I was in a very tricky emotional place but writing plays I had total control and I loved it well when you combine that with the praise he received from performing in the school sketch show he knew he'd found his thing.
1:05.1	Now Jake's 41 and he's still doing it and his favorite part of the work is getting to play within the world of make
1:10.3	belief. It's why he's drawn to the sets of filmmaker Joe Swanberg, who's made three films with
1:15.2	Jake, drinking buddies, digging for friar, and win it all, and why he's turned off by micromanaging directors
1:21.4	who kill the magic and overshoot scenes.
1:24.2	Jake says, I'm not here for your final cut.
1:26.8	I'm here for right now.
1:28.2	Me and this other human being can act.
1:30.3	Let us act and get the camera out of here.
	...

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