Jake Johnson recalls working with 'sweet kid' Olivia Rodrigo on “New Girl”

The "Vampire" pop star appeared on the Fox sitcom back in 2017.

Jake Johnson knows talent when he sees it.

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, the New Girl star recalled working with — and being impressed by — a young Olivia Rodrigo during the sixth season of the Fox sitcom, when Rodrigo was "just a kid."

The "Vampire" pop star appeared in the 2017 episode "Young Adult" as Terrinea, one of the students at Jessica Day's (Zooey Deschanel) school. Worried that her students don't think she's a cool principal, Jess enlists her roommate Nick Miller (Johnson) to talk to them about The Pepperwood Chronicles, a YA book he wrote that the kids are obsessed with.

"The Olivia Rodrigo [episode] was really weird because I remember her and those girls," Johnson said. "It was me, Zooey, and the girls, and they were such sweet kids. And some kid actors are just good."

Johnson added that he and Deschanel "used to have a joke that we were fake managers and how when a guest star would come on, one of the bits we would do with each other was that we would playfully compete over who’s gonna sign them. And Zooey's bit was always that she's a sweet manager who takes ten percent and I’m a little bit of an a--hole who tries to take twenty-five percent. And I remember when Olivia Rodrigo and those girls were on, I was for sure trying to scoop them up because I was like, 'There's money in these kids!' They were just good actors."

And that was just the start of Rodrigo's career. In addition to her New Girl appearance, she starred in several Disney projects, including Bizaardvark and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series. She has since broken out with her music, topping the charts and wining three Grammys.

"My kids and I watched Bizaardvark after that and I remember being like, 'I knew that f---ing kid was good!'" Johnson said of Rodrigo. "And when she really blew up, I've gotten really into her albums because I’ve got ten-year-old girls so I've heard 'em all, I was like, 'What a blast!'"

Johnson reminisced about his time working with Rodrigo while discussing his feature directorial debut, Self Reliance, which premieres Jan. 12 on Hulu. The film also stars Johnson, Andy Samberg, Anna Kendrick, and Natalie Morales.

Related content:

• The cast of New Girl: Where are they now?

• Olivia Rodrigo joins The Hunger Games with new Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes song

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Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.