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‘Jumanji: The Next Level’ cast gathers in Cabo, San Lucas to talk of the movie and more
Los Angeles — It was a beautiful warm sunny day at Cabo San Lucas and the cast of the latest fantasy comedy adventure, “Jumanji: The Next Level,” were all excited to talk to us about the latest installment to the hit franchise.
Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan and Awkwafina shared their memorable experiences about doing the movie, learning more about each other, bonding on the set, and more.
Below are excerpts of our conversations with them:
Dwayne Johnson (Dr. Smolder Bravestone)
How much do you enjoy fatherhood? What kind of a father would you say you were?
I love being a father, I really do. I think I had a challenging relationship with my own dad, but he also had a very challenging upbringing himself, so he loved me to all the capacity that he had, which still made it very challenging for us.
That was my resource, so growing up and getting a little older, I couldn’t wait to become a dad. And then once I became a dad, I realized that there’s a difference between being a dad and being a father and I realized that and embrace that and love it.
And I have all women and surrounded by estrogen and I was raised by women, and I’m still surrounded by women, and the only piece of testosterone in the house other than myself is my dog.
But I have an 18 old daughter and a daughter who is going to be four in a few weeks and a daughter who is going to be two in about five months, so it’s just various ages and stages.
And they continue to be my biggest, not only inspiration, but source of love and also my biggest educators. I continue to learn constantly. And as far as being a good father, I think I am a good dad. I would like to think.
You are such a symbol of discipline. Do you sometimes fantasize about eating and drinking everything?
Well, I think I hear what you are asking me. I do fantasize about a lot of things, (laughs) food isn’t one of them. (laughs) And I drink too as well, sometimes more than I should, tequila.
So what is your nightmare?
Now if I am hearing you correctly, you are asking me did I ever have a nightmare where I became Kevin Hart? That’s what you are asking me, that is an awful nightmare, and I hope I never have that.
Jack Black (Prof. Sheldon “Shelly” Oberon)
So if you were to embody somebody, who would it be and why?
If I was to embody someone else's body, me Jack Black went into another? Oh, well, it would be great to go into like Usain Bolt's body just to be the fastest runner on the planet and see what that felt like.
I'd love to be, you know, you just think about what people like Baryshnikov in his prime although he's still a pretty damn good dancer. I saw him in an amazing piece only like a year ago at UCLA. He was in a two-man play with Willem Dafoe. Anyway, it would be fun to be a rad ballet dancer.
You have a successful career. Looking back on and thinking about where you are now, what do you most enjoy about this point in your career?
I mostly enjoy collaborations. I love working on music with my partner and Tenacious D and cooking up ideas for a performance and just spending time with Tanya and the boys.
I love hanging with the family more and more I feel like that's what I'd rather do than anything else and maybe it's because my boys are becoming young men now and I feel their childhood slipping away and I have like this little desperation of like I want to get all of that quality time before they leave the nest. I can feel the empty nest coming already and I have a little panic about that.
Kevin Hart (Franklin “Mouse” Finbar)
Talk about how intimidating it is working with Dwayne Johnson.
How intimidating? You know what, it’s the complete opposite of intimidating. Working with Dwayne has become a luxury because I got a partner, I got a teammate. And we don’t go into anything with the mindset of self, it’s about us, we, it’s a team.
So if he makes me looks good, in turn I can make him look good and in turn we can make our cast look good, and they help making us look good as well. So there’s not one individual that makes a movie and that can make a movie successful, you need a lot, a lot of people have to have their hands in.
So when I know that I’m going to work with Dwayne, I know that I got a guy that’s going to be a great teammate from the beginning to the end, that’s what he has been thus far.
You look great and sound great. We had all been worried about you. How are you feeling? Are you fully recovered?
No, definitely not fully recovered. I’m just an extremely positive person and I’m probably about 72 percent, I say the two just because I don’t like the number 70. But I’m going to be able to recover to 100 percent, get back to myself.
The reality is, if I wasn’t able to, I would still be okay and I would still be fine because I don’t have to be here. I don’t want to say I took life for granted, because I never took life for granted, but I don’t think that you truly understand how valuable this thing called life is, until you are faced with a situation that jeopardizes it, that almost takes it away or impacts it.
And what happens, you then are forced to realize what is truly important. And when I was in that hospital and I got to be with my wife, my kids, my closest friends and family, it just made me realize that I needed to take some time to be present and just mindful. So that’s the difference in me today, just much aware and mindful.
I’m not in control and I never really was, but I think because of how fast things were going within the business, you think you are for a little bit, you assume that you do have control, and you don’t, none at all. And that’s what this awakening was for me, so something that I am actually glad had happened.
Karen Gillan (Ruby Roundhouse)
How are your survivor instincts?
I think I've got good survivor instincts. I haven't been put to the test, but I will say I'm a resilient person. I feel like I could problem-solve my way out of most things. However, I'm not good with the physical stuff, so I don't want to be bungee jumping like people are doing. Definitely don't want that.
If you were to be transported to an exotic location, where would it be?
That's a good question. I'm going to Australia because I went there once, but it was only for two days and so I'd like to go back so it'd be like a free trip.
This is your first time to work with Awkwafina. So how was it working with her and how do you find her as a person?
I'm so happy to have another woman on the set. First of all, thank goodness, because I was surrounded by testosterone the whole time, so I was like, please give me another girlfriend to just be on the set with.
She's incredible. She's just so funny. She really gives the guys a run for their money in terms of the comedian department and she's so nice and pleasant and just a professional. I can see why she's blowing up right now. It makes total sense to me.
How do you see yourself as a comedian?
I don't consider myself a comedian. I am an actress who does comedic roles, but I don't feel like I'm a comedian, I don't think. I feel like I can hopefully be humorous if you give me a funny line to read.
Awkwafina (Ming)
How was your journey from “Crazy Rich Asians” to “The Farewell” to now “Jumanji: The Next Level”?
“Crazy Rich Asians” and also “Ocean’s Eight” before that, was a summer I just really couldn’t believe. It was a crazy year. And it was two movies that I think were very historic in what they were doing and I was very lucky to have my first intro into the world with those two.
“The Farewell” was something that came to me a little after “Ocean’s Eight,” I didn’t really know what was next, I didn’t know what was on the plate, but I knew that I loved the story and I really related to my character of Billi. And doing that was kind of its own very special experience. And then Jake Kasdan asked me to do “Jumanji” and I was like what, me, I’m not limber. And so yeah, coming onto it was really cool, and nerve wracking, because it was an existing group, but they very warmly welcomed me, so it was good.
How intimidating was it to be working with Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black and Kevin Hart?
You know at first it was intimidating, but they are really good guys. DJ is a really warm guy and he’s definitely the captain of our ship and Jack Black is my homey, he’s great. And Kevin, we were just doing a thing and yes, can’t stop laughing around that guy. But yeah, he’s a great guy. — LA, GMA News
