Josh Gad recalls meeting Jeff Goldblum during his 20s: 'I'm pretty sure his ball sack wasn't hanging out, but...'

In Los Angeles, you never know when you're suddenly going to be sitting opposite a celebrity.

Josh Gad recalled his own startling encounter with superfame on a recent episode of Let's Talk Off Camera with Kelly Ripa.

"I had a girlfriend from college who was — when I had just arrived in LA out of school," Gad shared, "who was like, 'Hey. I saw that you're out here. My boyfriend and I would love to have you over. If you have nowhere to go, just come chill with us tonight.' So I was like, 'Oh, cool.'"

"He lived in a real place called Mount Olympus. That is not just where Greek gods live, but where Hollywood gods live," Gad joked. "So I'm driving up on this rainy night, I'm 23 years old, and I'm like, 'Who the hell is her boyfriend?' He lives in a mythical god land, a kingdom. And so I get to this house, and there's this giant gate that looks like it's out of Jurassic Park. And I knock on the door, and my friend and her boyfriend open the door in matching bathrobes. And it is Jeff Goldblum."

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"They invite me in and he's like, 'Oh, hey, you must be Josh. And I'm like, 'I am Josh. You must be Jeff Goldblum. I know this because I know your work,'" Gad explained, proceeding to detail what he called "the most surreal evening of my life."

The Book of Mormon and Frozen star explained that Goldblum and his ex had "this weird sort of triangular seating arrangement where the two of them are sitting in these cushion chairs, and I'm at the point on the other end sitting opposite them. Jeff proceeds to engage me in a game of call-and-repeat acting, something called 'the Meisner Technique.' So he starts saying words and having me repeat them. And like, I'm pretty sure his ball sack wasn't hanging out, but was pretty close to it."

Developed in the mid-20th century by Sanford Meisner, the acting technique departs from the more widely known technique to come out of the Group Theater, the Method, by de-emphasizing the role of memory in preparation for a scene, and placing a greater emphasis on the role of physicality; hence, the repetition of words and gestures.

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Gad's exercise with Goldblum had him feeling like he'd been conscripted into yet another acting school. "At the end of this very surreal exchange, he looks at me and he goes, 'You're very good. You should come audit one of my classes. And I was like, 'Was I invited over here to give Jeff Goldblum another student in his Los Angeles acting class?'

Related: Josh Gad regrets using his own voice in Frozen because he was freaking kids out at the grocery store

"It was such a surreal, welcome-to-Hollywood moment," Gad said. "I thought I was in an episode of Punk'd." He might have taken Goldblum up on his offer, but had "literally just graduated college with quite a lot of debt" and "was not prepared to do more acting classes, but was thrilled to get a personal invitation from Jeff Goldblum in a bathrobe in his home."

Gad went on to mount a successful career in film and television after his Tony-nominated run in The Book of Mormon, lending his voice to films like Frozen and A Dog's Purpose and animated musical series Central Park, and appearing in Murder on the Orient Express, comedy program History of the World, Part II, and Peacock series Wolf Like Me.

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