Top 35 Quotes & Sayings by Jake M. Johnson

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American actor Jake M. Johnson.
Last updated on December 22, 2024.
Jake M. Johnson

Mark Jake Johnson Weinberger is an American actor, comedian, film producer and screenwriter best known for his role as Nick Miller in the Fox sitcom New Girl (2011–2018), for which he was nominated for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actor in a Comedy Series in 2018, and as Peter B. Parker/Spider-Man in the Oscar-winning animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), a role he will reprise in its sequel (2023). He also starred in Let's Be Cops (2014), and appeared in Paper Heart (2009), Get Him to the Greek (2010), Safety Not Guaranteed (2012), 21 Jump Street (2012), Drinking Buddies (2013), Jurassic World (2015), The Mummy (2017), and Tag (2018). He co-starred as Greyson "Grey" McConnell in the ABC drama series Stumptown (2019–2020).

We didn't make money but we never lost money. We'd sit around Times Square with fliers, walk around the Village and try and get people to come. Now you'd just tweet it, but that was the beginning of emails, or the beginning of me doing emails - I'm sure there were people in 1986 who were doing emails.
I had spent 10 days of my life digging for garbage.
Aspire to do better. Instead of being the leader of the group, be the little person. — © Jake M. Johnson
Aspire to do better. Instead of being the leader of the group, be the little person.
Some actors pride themselves on disappearing into a role. I'm into the game because I like experiencing and exploring themes, so I put a lot of myself into the person.
I've always been, in games, the bad guy. If there was ever cops and robbers I was always a robber.
We tried to do a show once every three weeks to a month. We'd always do a new show. It was not successful. It did not become the Matt & Ben show, but it taught me what I like to do as an actor and what I like to do comedically.
There is always going to something very grounded about the characters I play, because of my Chicago roots, because the city is so grounded. Even my wife pointed it out when we were in the city, she said that even the architecture is grounded in Chicago, it's so solid. Because it has to deal with winters. There is something about Chicago that keeps people centered and grounded.
I never thought I'd be one of those guys who gets recognized.
Sometimes, when you work with directors who have done it a lot and are established in the business and know the game, there are all these rules that they have. First-time directors will allow you to come in with choices. They're not so jaded by actors that they're like, 'Ugh, just do your job, man.
I'm not a guy who sees the desire to transform with each part; I'm not a piece of clay.
I like fictional stories - like, things that never happened but the seed of it starts as real.
If I were a teacher, I would like to teach freshman English - so I could be the Robin Williams type in Dead Poets Society. I wanna be that guy. I couldn't teach seniors because they'd be smarter than me.
My day job is acting - I wouldn't direct something if I didn't feel passionate about it.
If I'm not directing it, I need to be right in the director's ear so we can be talking about this." You do something like use the wrong music, the tone's off, and everything feels off". And I was like, "I'm not going down with this one. I wrote it, but I don't like that play." Then I thought, "Well, no one's producing my stuff, letting me star in it, and direct it at these theaters, so I'll just do them in comedy clubs."
I was in a two-person show [with Oliver Ralli] called the Midwesterners where we wrote all of our own stuff and we traveled the country with it. That's what eventually led me to L.A.
I got really into writing plays. I did that for years and years and got some produced and didn't like it as much when I wasn't able to control it.
I don't have an interest in being a director-for-hire on sitcoms - but if it's a really cool show that I thought I could bring something to, I would love to do that.
The craziest thing about TV directing is I turned in a version, and then they made their final changes - so I don't know what they are. So I'm like, "Ooo, I'm dying to see the final print."
I like dogs, but I have more respect for cats.
If I took over the 'Glamour' offices for a day, I would put Joe Pesci on the cover. I would say 'We've got to change all these magazines a little bit. We have to bring out a different version of what is, like, cool. You know, what's winning. Joe Pesci, Burt Reynolds.
Everybody has their different tastes with television - there are some characters people like, some characters people hate.
It's a really weird feeling when you write something and you really know it and then you watch actors come in and do it.
When somebody is doing something really funny, in real life and as a performer, my instinct is to join them.
I don't believe in karaoke. Let's let the singers sing.
I think a lot of people are very good, but I don't think anybody could do my rhythm. I was thinking, "If you want my rhythm" - and when I was writing, I was writing them for myself - "why am I watching another actor doing what I should be doing?" It was just a really unpleasant experience.
I like to move quickly. I don't like the nature of television of just sitting around and overshooting. — © Jake M. Johnson
I like to move quickly. I don't like the nature of television of just sitting around and overshooting.
If I'm in a bar and I gotta be sitting next to some clown who's like, "It's my tune," I don't want to hear you belt out Bruce Springsteen. That's why we have jukeboxes! Let's let Bruce be Bruce.
There are a lot of comedic actors who are just out to be the funny one and get all the laughs and they'll sacrifice your joke, the scene, the story just to be the star. All they want is attention and to be number one. You can spot those guys from a mile away and they're the worst.
I view cats as more like wild animals. We feed it, but a lot of times it's not eating the food because it's murdering other animals outside and eating their meat.
If you have the ability to work with people smarter than you, always try to be the least smartest person in the room and surround yourself with talent, because iron sharpens iron.
Problem is that my athletic abilities in my mind are greater than what my body can accomplish. And my level of fear and anxiety of getting injured is greater than my courage.
I aspired to be a writer and then I just started getting acting work. I really didn't have a direct goal, I just knew I wanted to be in this industry telling stories and doing this for a job. I thought my path was going to be as a writer, but I'm pretty happy doing it as an actor.
My big break was really Liz Meriwether saw me in a movie called 'Paper Heart' and really liked it, and then saw me in a movie called 'Ceremony' because she knew Max Winkler and said, 'I want you to be in 'No Strings Attached,' but you gotta audition for it.' From that it was easier for her to get me in 'New Girl.
All of a sudden Mindy [Kaling] was writing on The Office and had sold a TV show. When we'd try to write shows, we'd jokingly call the word documents "Hit Show." We just couldn't crack the code.
I try to collect money and I keep it in a special place called the bank. I collect a bunch of things called money, dollar bills, and I keep them in a safe under my bed.
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