Jake Johnson: Beer on set is the best

Jake Johnson enjoys drinking on set.

The 36-year-old actor is best known for his role as Nick Miller alongside Zooey Deschanel's Jess Day in TV series New Girl. While filming the show Jake enjoys improvising, and makes sure there's always an alcoholic beverage at hand for his character

"Within a scene [of New Girl] they actually give us a lot of freedom. So we’ve got a guy on our set, a prop guy named Dallas, and he's like a young, hip dude. And he and I always talk about fun things we can do for Nick. So we decided that he should always be having a beer," he explained to elle.com.

"It is fun. When you’re there for 12 hours a day, the little stuff is what gets fun. And when I do a movie, especially a Joe Swanberg movie, I think, 'Well, why can't I have a real beer?' So we did Drinking Buddies, and I was really drinking, and then we did a movie this summer, Digging for Fire, where we're really drinking, and then you go to a project and you’re like, 'Well, if I’m sitting in a restaurant, and it’s a real restaurant, and it’s the last scene of the day...'"

Jake's next big feature is Let's Be Cops, in which he stars opposite New Girl co-star Damon Wayans Jr. They play pals Ryan and Justin, whose police officer fancy dress costumes get them tangled up in a real life crime.

The pair have great chemistry on seen, and Jake was pleased to have his pal alongside him the whole time.

"We didn't do New Girl together, actually - all we did was the pilot. But when I got the script, I got a call and they said, 'We want you to improvise a lot of it, and we want to put you with Damon Wayans Jr.,'" Jake explained.

"And so I called Damon and said, 'I’ll do the movie if you do it.' And he was like, 'I’ll do it if you do it.' And it was really fun because, on a buddy movie, if you don’t like the other person, you’re f**ked."