THELast year, in these uncertain first days of the pandemic, Jake Johnson feared his filming days were behind him. Apple TV had just transmitted a pilot for a ’70s sitcom about a cult named Habata in which the 43-year-old had hoped to star, and before a vaccine was developed, Hollywood executives told Johnson it was unclear when – or even if – large-scale film productions might return. Troubled, Johnson decided to take matters into his own hands. “I called my friend Trent and said, ‘Let’s go do a movie, because we might be done with this business,'” he recalls, speaking on a video call since. a trailer on a set somewhere in the San Fernando Valley in California. “We said, ‘If this is our last, let’s go out and have a lot of fun. “”

Trent is Trent O’Donnell, an Australian director Johnson met when he was hired to work on New girl, the sitcom that first aired a decade ago and transformed Johnson from a full-blown actor into a winning romantic role. Over the show’s seven years, Johnson has captured the hearts of Zooey Deschanel’s Jess and millions of fans, as Nick Miller, the adorably grumpy bartender who manages to become a bestselling author despite not being not fully convinced that he can read. .

O’Donnell joined the series as a guest director in its third season, but quickly became an integral part of the team that Johnson remembers being on set every day for the next four years. “He and I have spent hundreds of hours together,” he says. “For this film, we were full partners. We wrote it together, we paid for it ourselves and we shot the whole movie in 12 days. To do this, we had to know perfectly well how we work together, and all these years of New girl really gave us that.

The resulting film, Ride the eagle, is a smart, heartfelt comedy in which, thanks to the tight pandemic restrictions under which it was filmed, the actors rarely share the same setting. Johnson plays Leif, a session musician who isn’t entirely different from Nick Miller if he had inhaled an ounce of weed. Leif’s mother, Honey (Susan Sarandon) abandoned him as a child to run away and join a cult called Habata (Johnson was determined to bring the fictional group to the screen in some way or another. other). When Honey dies, she leaves Leif with a conditional will: Before he can inherit his quaint cabin in Yosemite National Park, he must complete a to-do list filled with tasks she gives him from beyond the grave via an endearing pre-registered home. video.

While working on the screenplay, Johnson realized he was really writing about the career he presumed was still coming to an end. “Part of the reason I wanted to make this movie was because I really thought this industry, which I love, was going to die out,” he says. “The things Honey says to Leif are the things I wanted to tell myself about the business. For example, if you could do it all over again, remember to love it and do your best, and don’t worry if people like it or not, just go for it. All of those lessons that you kind of forget as you live.

Johnson, clearly, is not a man who is afraid of a little soul-searching, or even a long, hard look in the mirror. In recent years, he has regularly undertaken hypnotherapy sessions to deepen his own subconscious. “I really like to trip over and go back to my own past while I’m under hypnosis, and almost rewrite history,” he says. “Because it’s all in my subconscious anyway, so who knows what’s even real?” He likens the cathartic experience to the powerful psychedelic herbal medicine, ayahuasca. “Hypnosis is basically the slower version,” he laughs. “With ayahuasca, you get it all in 12 hours, you throw up three times, and you come home with a different person. With hypnosis, you do it in 45 minute increments and it takes two years!

This idea of ​​revisiting the past with new eyes comes up time and time again in Ride the eagle. Honey, who didn’t raise or connect with her son before he died, finds a way to finally bring him into her world in a way she knows he will care about. As for Leif, Johnson says his character isn’t just there for the beautiful house in the wilderness. “The real reason he’s taking this trip is because it’s an adventure,” he says. “For me, I can understand people who want to travel and take a strange trip and see where it takes you.”

Sarandon is so perfectly portrayed as Honey, the mother of the alien land with the cupboards filled with grass boots, that it would be easy to assume the role was written especially for her. In fact, Sarandon didn’t join the cast until the last minute after another actor suddenly demanded exorbitant fees for a day’s work that ultimately cost them more than the rest of the film. “There was a point where we thought, ‘Oh, no, the movie isn’t going to happen,’” Johnson recalls. “Then my agent said, ‘I represent Susan Sarandon and she could do something like that. “Love this script.” His tone becomes incredulous. “I honestly laughed. I was like, “Of course if you can get Susan Sarandon?‘Two or three days later they said,’ Susan is here. ‘ We had a great meeting with her. She is incredibly intelligent and knew perfectly well who the character was. She elevated the whole movie.

As we now know, Johnson’s fears about Hollywood collapsing around his ears ended up largely unfounded. He’s currently back at work on the set of Ellen Rapoport’s upcoming HBO comedy-drama series Max. Naughty, and sports a suitably grubby beard to play a dirty magazine editor who teams up with a young feminist to create the first erotic magazine for women. Having been so heavily involved in almost every aspect of Ride the eagle, Johnson says he’s relishing the chance to act. “This is the first time in a long time that I’ve really been able to sink my teeth into a character,” he says. “I’m really having a blast.”

Time will tell if the show will become as popular as New girl, which saw a resurgence in popularity during the pandemic as new viewers discovered the hearty sitcom on streaming platforms and former fans returned for a much-needed comfort viewing. As usual, Prince was way ahead of the curve. A beginning New girl A super fan, Purple made a rare guest appearance on television in the series’ third season. He told Johnson and Deschanel he was there for a very specific reason. “He really liked Nick and Jess’ story, and he insisted that it be part of their assemblage,” Johnson recalls with a smile. “I think it’s a great idea to be a guy like that where he watches a show and then says, ‘I know they would want me on it, and I can make it.’ [New Girl creator] Liz Meriwether said, “Whatever Prince wants, we’ll do it.”

Johnson adds that he was moved to hear how many people first saw the series in the past 18 months. “During those dark hours, it was so nice to hear people talk about how the show helped ease their pandemic,” he says. “I think that’s really all this business is. I don’t think television and movies are there for school or for politics. I think it’s just there to make people’s lives a little better. He is happy that he was wrong about the demise of the industry, and even happier that he can still dress, tell stories and spread a little joy around. He’s thought about it a lot, and it’s not a bad way to make a living.

“Especially if you don’t have any other skills,” he said, a self-deprecating smile spreading under his nose. “Look, if I could cure a disease it would be better, but I’m not that type! “

‘Ride the Eagle’ is available for digital download now