Jake Johnson and Erin Payne Are the Cutest, and They've Worked Together Plenty of Times

Apologies in advance to anyone who spends 11:11 wishing for a meet-cute with Jake Johnson, because turns out *heavy sigh* he's actually been married for, like, two whole decades.

And though I think we can all agree that this is the collective vibe about the 'sitch...

...Jake and his wife, Erin Payne, are the cutest. They even have twin daughters! So without further ado, let’s learn more about Erin and Jake's 'ship.

Jake and Erin met at a bar

During a September 2022 appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show, Jake revealed he met his now-wife while she was working at a bar. TL;DR: He was a regular customer who admired her from afar until he plucked up the courage to ask her out one day. And the rest is history!

They've been married for nearly two decades

Though much isn't known about when Jake and Erin tied the knot, what we *can* confirm comes from a 2012 interview the actor did with Marie Claire. During the convo, Jake mentioned that he and his wife had been married for seven years at the time. That means as of 2023—aka the year of mermaidcore—, they've been married for ~18 years, which is a lifetime by Hollywood standards. Moral of the story? Love isn't dead, people!

They have two kids together

In 2014—roughly a decade after they got married—, the couple welcomed their twin daughters, Elizabeth and Olivia. And because Jake and Erin are super low-key, their children aren't really featured on their social media accounts nor are they typically pictured out and about by photographers...save for at a fundraising event in May 2022. Ahem, witness them on the bottom-left:

Most recently, Jake mentioned his daughters during a May 26 interview with MTV U.K. while discussing his role as Peter in Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse. When asked about whether he would let his character babysit his children, the actor joked, "No, I would not. Well, actually, maybe, because he's Peter B. Parker and he could probably keep them alive."

He also revealed he and his character in the film share a critical similarity when it comes to their feelings on fatherhood: "When you have kids, you're kind of obsessed with them," he gushed. "You think that they're so incredible and so special and so much greater than all of the other kids that have ever come before and you think you have created the greatest child that has ever existed on Earth."

Erin has dabbled in acting

Though she doesn't primarily work in Hollywood, Erin has definitely accrued a number of cool acting creds, per her IMDb page. Just some of the shows and movies she's played a role in? The Other Guys, The Last Airbender, Sex and the City 2, Shutter Island, The Lovely Bones, and The Happening.

But she's primarily a different kind of artist

As in, her art has been featured in multiple (!!) art exhibitions at iconic spaces like the OBJECT Gallery, the First Street Gallery Art Center, and White Box Contemporary. She's been recognized by her industry for her talents and was even the 2012 winner of the New American Paintings Reader's Choice Prize.

During her subsequent interview, Erin opened up about her award-winning project, Piles Paintings. "I’m addressing an ambiguous relationship to place and the environment, and navigating the slippery definitions of those terms," she told the outlet. "The result is a mix of realism and abstraction."

Erin then went on to speak more generally about her preferred artistic style, saying:

She and Jake have collaborated on projects together

Yep, Erin helped out a ton when it came to Jake's 2015’s film Digging for Fire, which the actor not only starred in but also produced. For the project, Jake reunited with his former Drinking Buddies co-star Joe Swanberg to create a story that centers around a couple whose long-term marriage comes into question after the husband finds a gun and bones in the backyard of the home they're occupying for the summer. Strangely enough, though the premise of the film is, erm, interesting, it actually happened to Jake and Joe IRL during a time when the two had been renting a place together in Los Angeles.

Also taken from real-life events were the suggestions Erin had for her husband about the original script, which she didn't vibe with at first. According to a 2015 interview with The Mary Sue, the actor's wife confessed, "'Not only do I hate your character, but I hate this movie.'" She thought much of the plot and the protagonist's arc needed to be revised. "So I talked to Joe [Swanberg], and he 100 percent agreed. So at that point we needed a woman who was very strong and talented, who could help build that story in a way Joe and I didn’t think we could at the time," the actor recalled. *Le sigh* Look at that! Just another example of women making the world go 'round ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Another fun fact about how Erin and Jake are *chef's kiss* collaborators? Erin made the artwork that hung on the walls of Jake's New Girl character Nick Miller's room. "My wife, in real life, did those drawings, so I took those back," the actor told Fanfest when asked whether he'd kept anything after the series wrapped. S'cute!

Aaaaaand that's pretty much all we know about Erin and Jake's love story! Please excuse me while I endlessly 'ship the heck out of these two.

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