Nick Jonas says Jack Black is amazing team player

2 January 2018

Nick Jonas said Jack Black is an "amazing team player" and made their screen kiss in 'Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle' easy.

Nick Jonas

The 25-year-old star appears alongside Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Black and Karen Gillan in the sequel to the 1995 Robin Williams classic 'Jumanji' and in one scene his alter ego Jefferson 'Seaplane' McDonough, the avatar of Alex Vreeke, is kissed by Black's character Professor Sheldon 'Shelly' Oberon, a cartographer, cryptographer, archaeologist and paleontologist who is Bethany's avatar.

Jonas admits it took a few takes for him and Black, 48, to nail the smooch but they were able to do it because of their connection.

Speaking to the Metro newspaper, he said: "It was important for the story. We did have to do quite a few takes but Jack is an amazing team player. He and I really connected. He loves a good meal, as do I, so we ventured out to some of local spots on Oahu, Hawaii, where we were shooting."

Unlike the original, the new film follows four high school teenagers who discover an old video game console and are transported into the game's jungle setting, becoming the adult avatars they chose.

The four must work together to survive in the jungle and beat the game in order to return to the real world or they will be stuck forever.

The sequel was shot on site in the Hawaiian jungle and Jonas revealed it was the same location where 'Jurassic Park' was filmed.

He said: "Oh, we were pretty deep in the jungle, all right. It was like an hour-and-a-half drive into the middle of these mountains where they had shot 'Jurassic Park'. And it was really hot."

Jonas' co-star Gillan, 30, recently revealed the worst part of filming in the jungle was the carnivorous centipedes which would drop from the trees.

Gillan said: "It was so much rehearsal. I was training every single day: martial arts, basic punching and kicking and then learning how to dance, which was totally foreign to me.

"But the worst part was the centipedes in the jungle. They would fall from trees at any given moment so you were never safe.

"It was horrible. I had to up my calorie intake. It was never about losing weight, it was about gaining muscle and becoming stronger, which I think was really cool actually. It felt good."