The “New Girl” veteran is currently starring in three TV shows: “Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed,” a cheeky Apple TV+ thriller opposite Tatiana Maslany that’s drawn critical raves; “Sunset P.I.,” an upcoming NBC comedy as a private investigator roaming L.A.; and “Cable Guy,” a Hulu pilot inspired by the Jim Carrey film of the same name where he’ll play the obsessive cable repairman. If that weren’t enough, he’s got three films coming out this year, the first of which is “The Dink.”
Directed by Josh Greenbaum, and out July 24 on Apple TV+, “The Dink” tells the tale of Dusty Boyd (Johnson), an aging tennis pro at his father’s (Ed Harris) country club who’s still dining out on a match he dropped to Andy Roddick (playing himself) as a teenager. Through a bizarre set of circumstances, Dusty’s drawn into a pickleball quartet comprised of older women, developing a crush on their ringleader (Mary Steenburgen), before squaring off against his nemesis with the future of the club on the line. The cast is rounded out by Chloe Fineman, Patton Oswalt, Fortune Feimster, Chris Parnell, Ben Stiller and a scene-stealing Aaron Chen as Dusty’s trusty sidekick.
Johnson was not a pickleball enthusiast (or tennis, for that matter) prior to “The Dink,” but trained with renowned tennis coach Brad Gilbert for the role and carries it home with his easygoing charm.
Variety sat down with Johnson at a bar in Midtown Manhattan to discuss “The Dink,” the 15th anniversary of “New Girl,” the residuals he lost out on and the special treat Tom Cruise sends him every year.
It was pretty indie. Sean Clements, the writer, is one of the funniest joke writers and people I’ve ever been around. We’re friends and play poker together. We got lunch a couple of years ago and he said, “What are you lookin’ to do next?” I was like, “I want to make something big, funny and ridiculous with big set pieces. I feel like that mid-level comedy movie has gone away, where there’s no big message or crazy surprise, it’s just really good jokes, one-liners and some heart in a three-act story.” He said, “What do you know about pickleball?” I said, “Nothing.” And he said, “Well, I have the story for you.” So, we started developing it together. We contacted Ben Stiller, who Sean knows well, and he came onboard to produce and volunteered to act in it, then we got a director, and we built it that way. Apple came on after we’d independently financed it, filmed it and did a screening in Hollywood. Apple was just the most aggressive buyer.
I did! I say this as a happily-married man: Kissing scenes and sex scenes are like drinking non-alcoholic beer in the sense that it takes like beer but doesn’t have that thing — and with that said, kissing Mary Steenburgen is a professional highlight. No question. The first time I saw her was in “Parenthood,” and that’s where I fell in love with her. I also loved her in “Elf.”
He was on set a couple of times, but not for that one! I don’t think actors in our business care about it at all! I think it’s very funny for people on the outside.
Agreed. It turns into a potential romantic thing, but more so that Dusty just gets a little turned around and it doesn’t work out not because they’re different ages or any of that, but because she doesn’t want to fuck him, which is so funny. I don’t think this made it into the film, but there are scenes where she’s like, “I’m not sexually attracted to you,” and I’m like, “You’re lying.” And she goes, “I fucked somebody else the other night who’s five years younger than you.” She may be older and he’s younger but it’s just not what she wants. And after the rejection, they can still be friends. You can be friends with people of the opposite gender!
No, but Brooklyn was so good on “New Girl.” Huge episode.
I would think so, too. Directed by Max Winkler! That one was the one where it really took off.
Crazy. It was an amazing job; life-changing in the best of ways. I’ll always be thankful for that job and those people. From what I remember hearing, they released the pilot early online, and because of Zooey’s promotion — Zooey was on “adorkable” billboards across the country — Fox said the pilot had the biggest numbers since “The Bernie Mac Show.” So, they knew what they were doing.
The game has changed, but I think it’s all relative. None of us are hard up and you’re never going to see any of us on OnlyFans. We’ve all done well, but the old-world money of the restaurant owner on the show being like, “I just bought my third mansion,” that’s over. What I appreciate about this era is that currently I’m on “Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed,” I’m on “Sunset P.I.” from Dan Goor and Luke Del Tridici, and me and Damon [Wayans Jr.] are doing “Cable Guy.” Back in the day, when I was on “New Girl” and wanted to do a movie, I’d have to ask, like, nine people permission, and the answer was mostly always, “We don’t know.”
So, yes, the residuals were bigger, but so were the contract restrictions. When people ask me, “Do you ever feel bad that you’re always connected to Nick Miller?” I’m like, “You guys are living in the ‘Happy Days’ era.” There is so much opportunity for work and so many jobs, so the fact that people will check out what I’m in because of [“New Girl”], is great. I don’t care if they say it’s “’The Dink’ starring Nick Miller” as long as people see it. We’re able to now do a podcast, fully independent, from our garages on Zoom that reaches millions of people. It’s like, what world are we living in, man! So, all that we’ve lost in residuals — which we did lose — we have gained in new ways to keep making shit.
It’s me, Damon Wayans Jr., [Jonathan] Krisel is directing it and it’s sort of like “Fargo” in that it’s a rethink. We’re not redoing it; we are inspired by it. Judd Apatow and Jim Carrey are not involved in it, but we reached out to them. We developed the script with Rob Rosell, who wrote on “New Girl” and “Always Sunny,” for five or six months, and we’re just doing a pilot right now, but the pilot is really good.
It made $130 million on a $17 million budget. To go back to the money, that movie changed me in terms of my career trajectory, but it also made so much and then me and Damon got a gift that’s not real money, and we’re supposed to be like, “Wow, thank you so much!” We had to do so much for the movie and were such a big part of it, so I started to think, “People are doing these movies just for the fame element because these big studios will do a big push,” and I’m not into it.
So would I, my brother! But it was the beginning of an era of me of going, “Always love what you’re doing, make sure you know what you’re doing and take some more ownership.” Make sure you’re producing it. Even if the project is smaller, don’t just jump into something that some huge production company and studio owns where in the end they can go, “And for you, this,” and you have to go, “Well, thank you,” even though we fought and scratched and did everything to make that movie work, and in the end, when there’s a $100 million profit, you go, “Oh, well it is yours, legally.” So, my thoughts on the lack of residuals in the business is that it’s also given way more control to the creators, and it’s something that I like about this era.
Facts. Facts. It’s such a funny way of putting it, but you are 100% right. I had gotten so close with Damon and then he left, and now Lamorne is like a weird brother to me.
She’s writing a Britney Spears biopic?! No way! I don’t know who I could be in it!
I am. He switched it for me because I have a dairy issue, so he sends me a gingerbread house with my kids’ names on it. It’s incredibly sweet. I loved working with Tom Cruise. He is, I believe, the best No. 1 in the business and one of the last true movie stars. I just saw a poster for “Digger” and he’s playing a character again, and I cannot wait to see what he does with that character.
No. There was nothing dark, strange or weird; it was just a movie. I got to work out with him, and we hung out in his house. I hung with him! We flew from London to Africa together. Every once in a while, something will happen in the news, and I’ll reach out and get a response from him. I loved, during Covid, his speech about following all the rules where he was like, “We have to do this!!” I loved it. It was harsh, but the business was going away, and I was like, “Put me in anything! I just want to go back to work. I love making movies and television. I love working.” At that time, it all stopped, and I was like, “I don’t want this all to go away! Fucking get this game back.” When you’re working with talented people and trying to make something, it’s so enjoyable.
I love it. I personally don’t feel a big difference between comedy and drama — it’s just the tone you’re going for, in the end — so there was no difference for me being there. What was different was, in between action and cut, Tatiana [Maslany] is so unpredictable in such an exciting way, and so present that it forces you to be present. She is a live wire. I think the show is really well-done, but I have no idea what’s going to happen and I have no idea if people are watching it.
To tell you the truth, reviews used to be a real swaying factor — especially early on, when I was making an indie movie, everyone would be like, “How are the reviews? How are the reviews?!” And if they were positive, that meant you were going to win. And that meant that if the reviews for a TV show were good, you were usually going to get two seasons because executives trusted the critics. Now? I feel like they are so disconnected. If it gets good reviews or not good reviews, it’s irrelevant to whether it comes back or people watch it. I hope it comes back, but I have no gut feeling. I would definitely work with those people again, but it’s such her show that I don’t know where they would go for me story-wise.
Yes. And I’m going to Idaho. And who is he if he doesn’t go? People thought I was the guy behind it all, and I was like, “Wrong read!”
“The Sun Never Sets.” We did that one in Alaska and Dakota Fanning is the lead of that. She’s so good. And Lamorne Morris, my brother from another mother, is in it. Whenever he would come see one of my indies, he would always go, “How come there’s no Black people in this, man? Too many white folks…” I think we were at the after party for “Digging for Fire” and people were going up to me saying “good job” and he was like, “You know how many Black people were in this? You don’t like Black people?” And I was like, “Man, will you shut up!” So, this is just to shut his ass up.