There tend to be two paths available to an actor who faces the end of a long-running and star-making sitcom. The first is performing a vanishing act, never to be heard of again except for a single TMZ article, decades later, attesting to just how “unrecognisable” they’ve become. The second is super stardom, by way of tentpole franchises and often, but not always, comic-book adaptations.
When leaving New Girl after seven years as its lovable couch potato Nick Miller, Jake Johnson gave the latter a go. He dipped his feet into the world of blockbusters with films like Jurassic World and Tom Cruise’s The Mummy, but found the waters tepid. Toxic, even. “Have you ever seen a salmon that’s been pulled out of the river for too long?” Johnson says now, his face contorting into a grimace. “It’s not a happy ending. Keep that salmon in the stream.”
