'New Girl' Season 5 News, Spoilers: Jake Johnson Takes The Director's Chair, Talks About Nick-Schmidt Romance
Change is afoot in Fox's popular comedy series "New Girl." With its star (Zooey Deschanel, who plays Jess) on maternity leave, Megan Fox will step in to take her place and Jake Johnson (who plays bartender Nick Miller) took the director's chair for this week's episode, titled "Bob & Carol & Nick & Schmidt."
In his "New Girl" directorial debut, Johnson directed not just his cast members, but guest stars Bill Burr and Lennon Parham. The two took on the roles of Nick's cousins, who came to the city to ask him for a special favor. Schmidt (Max Greenfield), stayed close by and helped Nick handle the unconventional request.
Johnson talked to Entertainment Tonight about Nick and Schmidt's "romance," saying with a laugh, "Despite the wedding this season, it's about Schmidt's true love for Nick and Nick trying to fight it, but he's not as strong as Schmidt."
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"Everybody talks about Schmidt and Cece [Hannah Simone] and Nick and Jess, but I've never done a romance as an actor the way I have with Schmidt and Nick," Johnson told Entertainment Weekly. "Every episode, there's a moment where those two are talking about how much they like each other."
The actor also revealed how Deschanel's temporary absence inspired his directing stint. "In Zooey's absence we were losing something so I tried to add something," he shared with ET. According to Johnson, with Deschanel gone, things felt a bit off and he thought that taking on the reins would bring back some sense of normalcy to the set. He also said that he didn't go into the task expecting great things but wanted it to merely be simple but funny. "And I wanted the actors to grow," he revealed.
Meanwhile, Fox arrives at the "New Girl" loft in next Tuesday's episode, "Reagan." Fox plays the role of Reagan, a pharmaceutical rep who sublets Jess' room while she is away on jury duty.
The fifth season of "New Girl" airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.
