Jake Johnson is back in leisure suits and pinkie rings for ‘Minx’
Los Angeles — Jake Johnson can’t explain the exact science behind it, but there’s something about a dude wearing a jumbo pinkie ring that exudes influence.
Best known for his seven-year run on “New Girl,” Johnson became an unwitting Internet crush as Nick Miller, a lovable mess and a misanthropic almost lawyer turned bar owner turned published author who keeps his money in a Ziploc bag and doesn’t see the point in washing his bath towels.
But if you thought nobody could be cool enough as cool Nick Miller, Johnson came strutting in as Doug Renetti.
Doug is Johnson’s character in the 1970s-set TV series “Minx” — a magnetic and slightly sleazy publisher of an erotic magazine who finds a reluctant business partner in feminist Joyce Prigger (Ophelia Lovibond) and launches the first Playgirl-esque nude magazine for the female gaze. Like Nick, Doug is an underdog of sorts. But this role has Johnson fitted in polyester leisure suits, shirts unbuttoned low enough to show off his chest hair and, of course, those gaudy rings. (More on that later.)
The series returned for its second season last week, switching to Starz. (The network picked up the series after Max pulled the plug late last year.) It continues Johnson’s busy summer. Last month, he reprised his role voicing Peter B. Parker in the animated sequel “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.” Then comes the release of “Self Reliance,” the comedy thriller film he wrote, directed and starred in, which will be available to stream on Hulu on Sept. 8.
This conversation, which took place before the SAG-AFTRA strike, has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Q: You look like you’re having the best time in the ’70s wardrobe. I saw a tweet that said, “define sex appeal,” and someone replied with a montage of you in “Minx” in all these outfits. How do you feel when you’re in all that polyester?
A: As a man in 2023 who is not a blinged-out guy, I don’t have that experience. Even when I go to red carpets, I just look like a dad who’s going to like his kid’s high school singing event or my kid’s graduation. I wear black suits and a tie and I just want to look professional enough that people don’t make fun of me. My entire style is just don’t (expletive) it up. And so you don’t get a boost, you don’t feel an extra confidence, you don’t peacock.
So when I get to wear a fur jacket and boots that have 2-inch heels, it changes how you feel. When you have rings on and you’re talking with your hands, people listen. I’ll be at craft service saying to somebody, “I promise you, my man, a turkey sandwich is better than the ham.” And people are going like, “I think he’s
probably right about turkey!” I know it's about the jewelry. People respect jewelry. They might make fun of it, they'll say, “He looks like a clown,” but they're also suddenly getting a turkey sandwich. When I put the stuff on, even though it's just on set, that is where I find Doug and where Doug is different than Jake. He peacocks and he loves it.
Q: Doug really, really wants to be successful as a publisher, and he really wants to be taken seriously. And he'll do just about anything to get there. Is that a familiar feeling as an actor?
A: Oh, yeah, there's always got to be something when you play a character that you personally connect to, and when I was about 16 or 17, I did my first play in high school and thought, “Man, I want to do this.” I was in the suburbs of Chicago and I didn't really know how you make it a career. But I was like, I don't want to do another job and do this as, like, a hobby at night; I want to figure out how to do this.
It became an obsession. It was a manic push for a lot of years to do anything — to be on any stage, to get any offer. Nothing was beneath me. There was no judgment of the material. If they said, “Do you want to stand on stage while we throw rotten veggies at you? We'll give you 25 bucks.” I'd be like, “Thank you for the opportunity!” I used to do this stuff in New York for a period of time, I would go on subways and perform. I would have like a weird mask and just try to do random shows simply to perform.
Q: Tell me more about this.
A: My sister had got these masks from the Czech Republic that were like beautifully done clown masks, old man masks. I was performing on stages and I was at NYU for writing and that era was ending. And I was worried. I was starting to figure out day jobs and it was like a random Saturday and I thought, maybe if I just get out and perform, I could make 50 bucks, 25 bucks. There was no act. There was just desire. But similar to Doug Renetti, you just keep pushing forward and if something lands a little, then you've won and then there's your momentum and takeoff.
Q: There's no way we can't talk about “New Girl.” I know you're a big TV lover — “Cheers” was so foundational for you. “Roseanne,” too. I interviewed Max Greenfield (his former co-star on “New Girl”) about his children's book at our Festival of Books at USC, and the number of college students who swarmed him was insane. I'm curious for you, as somebody who knows what that connection is like, what's it like to be part of something like that?
A: One thing I'd like to say that is something that can get picked up as a headline, but I think all press and people can stop apologizing for bringing it up as if it's something that we don't appreciate. I think back in the '90s, or the '80s, if you did something like “Wings,” that meant you didn't get to work again until you did “Sideways.” But that meant for 20 years, you just had to live in your mansion in Montecito and do Pilates and keep your body right.
My dream growing up, which was very clear, was I used to believe as a child that people on TV shows were obviously real, their families were real. I believed “Cheers” was a real bar and I wanted to live in that bar. And when I watched, it was an out of body experience. I was not somebody who watches who was half in and half out. I was in the bar with them. I was in Roseanne's house. And I loved it. And I wanted to live in the TV.
When I started doing that play in high school, and then I found out about Second City in Chicago and I found out that George Wendt (who played Norm Peterson on “Cheers”) had done it, Bill Murray had been there, John Belushi — all these people were five miles south on a stage, and that stage could lead to “SNL,” it could lead to movies and TV shows, it was everything.
When I made my move out here (to Los Angeles) and we booked “New Girl,” even just booking a pilot of a TV show, had that been it and then I left, I did it! I could have gone back to Chicago and felt like, “I can't believe I have booked a pilot!
Wow, man.” Then it got picked up to 13 (episodes) and I remember my wife and I were in Seattle, we were doing “Safety Not Guaranteed.” We were in a hotel and I was hysterical. I had tears coming down. I could not believe that I would be on an actual TV show. And it was the first time in my life I started going to therapy because I was like, “I can't deal with all these emotions.” In that first year, I lost my mind; I was like, I don't know how to fathom that this is real life. And then the show kept going and it had an audience.
TV was the dream. So when it finished, I thought, “Oh, I don't know if I'll ever get another one like this.” But I did get one. And then this one (“Minx”) keeps finding new audiences. As an old man, there's going to be a day where I'm done doing this business, where the internet and people's reaction to me, which is really flattering and nice, it's not my real life. My real life is a guy who really wanted to do this. I have really bad dyslexia and I have an enormous nose that's broken at half and I was not a picture of a guy who you go, like with athletes where you go, “That's a first round draft pick.” I'm the equivalent of a guy from Europe who was like 37, spent time in a Lithuanian jail, and one coach went like, “Maybe we'll have him on the bench ...” and I keep playing.