Miles Teller Explains How His 'My Girl' Duet with Keith Urban Came to Be

"I literally was not going to do it," says Teller of his hesitation to perform with Urban

Photo: Andrew Lipovsky/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty

Miles Teller recently took the stage at a Keith Urban show in New Mexico to duet on The Temptations’ 1965 classic “My Girl.” And if you were wondering how that all happened, Teller is now opening up.

The War Dogs actor, 29, chatted with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show and explained that the pairing was all Urban’s idea.

“The first film I did was this film Rabbit Hole with Nicole Kidman, so I’ve known Keith kind of loosely for a couple of years and he and Nicole have always been very warm to me,” Teller said. “I was filming in Santa Fe, he was in Albuquerque so I went to the show, met him backstage and I was like, ‘Great, nice to see you, Keith.'”

The reunion didn’t end there. While waiting for the show to begin, Teller got a text from Urban. “He’s like, ‘It’s too bad you don’t know any of my songs, I’d get you on stage to sing with me.’ I was like, ‘Dude, totally don’t worry about it. Not a big deal. Do your thing. I’m a fan, I’m happy to be here.'”

But Urban wasn’t taking no for an answer and came up with an offer Teller couldn’t refuse.

“He goes, ‘”My Girl,” key of G,'” says Teller of Urban’s next text. “And you know, I’ll perform, I’ve done some theater, but he’s talking about going on stage and singing in front of all these people.”

His cold feet soon got the better of him. “I literally was not going to do it and my girlfriend looked at me and said, ‘Miles, if you don’t do this, I guarantee you’ll regret it.'”

The teaming ultimately made for some pretty great entertainment. Teller and Urban clearly had a blast together, altering the verses to suit the occasion. In a video posted to Urban’s Instagram and Twitter accounts, Teller sang, “What can make me feel this way? Keith Urban!”

Urban countered his lyric switch by replying, “Talking about Miles Teller.”