Photo: Getty Images
On this episode of the New Girl rewatch podcast Welcome To Our Show, castmates Zooey Deschanel, Hannah Simone, and Lamorne Morris sit down with director Jake Kasdan to talk about his journey to the show, the hallmark of a great director, and how many times Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson had to audition for Jumanji. (“I don’t think The Rock knows what auditioning is,” Jake laughs.) Jake revisits the auditioning room, remembering that Max Greenfield and Jake Johnson were obvious choices, but it took quite awhile to find Hannah and Lamorne. “You decided you had to round out the cast with a couple of VJs,” Hannah laughs.
Kasdan is no stranger to helming hilarious shows; before New Girl, he had already directed and produced Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared, though those shows didn’t last past one season. So it was really something special when New Girl hit 19 episodes: “I was like, ‘Oh, that’s how it feels,’” he remembers, laughing. Lamorne jokingly accuses Kasdan of “hazing” his actors after Hannah tells a story about shooting a scene for the pilot where she’s dressed as a giant bird and they brought in a live vulture. They told everyone on set to be dead silent because talking could make the vulture attack, “but I was like, ‘I have to speak!’” The scene was cut, so all her worries about being attacked by a bird were for nothing. Lamorne had a scene like that too when Kasdan “dumped yogurt all over me” for a flashback scene that was also cut. “I thought it was gonna look so funny,” he laughs.
But of course, nothing good can last forever: “Your career took a downward turn when you were obligated to create the new Jumanji franchise,” Lamorne jokes. “What was that process like, going backwards with a lesser cast?” Making a movie is a lot like making TV in most ways, Kasdan answers, “but there are a lot more digital ostriches in Jumanji than New Girl!” Hannah quickly replies, “Wait a minute, you’re saying the vulture could have been digital?!” Hear their whole hilarious conversation with Jake Kasdan on this episode of Welcome To Our Show.
If you want to be sure you're listening to the podcasts everyone else is checking out, iHeartRadio has you covered. Every Monday, iHeartRadio releases a chart showing the most popular podcasts of the week. Stay up to date on what's trending by checking out the chart here. There's even a chart just for radio podcasts here, featuring all your favorite iHeartRadio personalities like Bobby Bones, Elvis Duran, Steve Harvey and dozens of others.