Having previously starred in New Girl, Jake Johnson isn’t particularly known for his action movie physique, or really any specific physique in general. When he signed on to star alongside Tom Cruise in The Mummy, the actor knew he’d have to get in shape, but wasn’t totally aware of what working out with Tom Cruise would actually be like, although he eventually found out the hard way.
When speaking with Thrillist, Johnson revealed, “People have told me in the past, including New Girl, that I need to lose weight and stay in shape.” He continued, “But they don’t tell me how. It’s like, ‘Hey tubbo, fit into these slacks!’ Tom [Cruise] said, ‘I really want you fit for this movie.’ I literally thought I was going to have to call [New Girl costar] Max Greenfield to do Crossfit. But Tom said, ‘You’ll be training with me and my trainers. If you want I’ll put you on a food plan with my chef. The food is great.’ And the food was great.”
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In addition to being on Cruise’s meal plan, the mega-star offer Johnson his personal gym to ensure he stayed fit as a fiddle.
“One day I [went] to work out and one of the [assistant directors] goes, ‘You can’t go in right now because Tom is working out,’” Johnson explained. “I thought, ‘That sucks, I got here an hour early to get this in, but he’s Tom Cruise.’”
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However, it sounds like the assistant director wasn’t aware of how committed Cruise was to getting Johnson in shape, confessing, “After, when we were shooting later that day, he said, ‘What happened to you? I thought you said you were going to work out this morning?’ I told him I was told not to bother him, and he got really pissed.”
From the sound of things, you do not want to get on Cruise’s bad side, with Johnson recalling, “He said, ‘Let me make something crystal clear: I don’t care what anybody on the crew says to you, they don’t know what I’m saying to you. And I’m saying to you that you are always welcome. I don’t care what I’m doing in there. You’re not other. You’re my castmate. Come in.’ He’s the best.”
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Johnson did star in Jurassic World, one of the biggest hits of 2015, so he’s no stranger to blockbusters. In The Mummy, though, he left the control room behind and had to dive head-on into the action.
While talking about how Cruise does his own stunts, Johnson revealed, “I read the first act [of the movie] and it’s like, ‘Nick and Vail jump off a three-story building as it explodes, they feel the heat on their backs.’ And when you read those little things somebody has to actually do that. That meant the fire would be touching us!”
The actor persevered, pointing out, “That meant I was jumping through fire and I was like, ‘I don’t want to jump through fire!’ [But Tom convinced me,] he said things like, ‘Yeah, it’s going to be really hard and you’re going to be really scared and you’re going to get hurt. You’re going to work your ass off. I think you should do this.’ So the answer was a very easy yes.”
The Mummy is in theaters now.
