Jonah Hill Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters | GQ

I think I always had two dreams one was to be a filmmaker and one was to work with Martin Scorsese the wolf of Wall Street you never think you're gonna get that kind of opportunity to work with your favorite director and how insanely good leo is and how wonderful was to watch him and watch him work and you go ordered all the sites tell them about the side the side side $26,000 worth besides one of these signs that kill cancer decides to cure cancer that's the problem they weren't there that's why they were expensive shut the up I'm serious I know Bob it was just the best until making mid-90s it was the formative experience in my life because every day for like six months I get to watch Martin Scorsese she seems she solve problems come up with ideas on the spot and it was just such an incredible education it was great he's also the best he also has the best laughs he's funny he's I missed him a lot after it ended because I just like loved seeing him every day I learned so much from him and that was the best best acting experience I ever had for sure it's one of those ones that the experience matched what people liked about the movie you know I just remember I always tried to make my gold break like laughs like is a you know I'm seriously getting sick of you talking about her like that frankly if we can be honest with each other we do like why do you hate her so much you've never given me a reason I'm starting to just think that you like her no man I hate that never I can never break him he's so good like I could just never get him to laugh in a scene and then one time I just sneezed and he started like cracking up I was so frustrated that that's what got him to laugh like something I didn't even mean to do and it was just funny that that's what made him laugh I was trying for like two months to make him laugh in the scene and then a sneeze is all it took Superbad was a great experience and what it mainly did besides just being very fun in a movie I'm proud of it it was an incredible like opportunity to get a seed planted in me by Greg and Seth and Evan basically of like you can make a film that's exactly your voice and your ethic and your Sensibility for me it was really important to see that at a young age because these people were making something that really was exactly in their style and it was so epic to just watch and then later on you know that seed grew into like wow what could the thing that I want to make is you know 21 Jump Street I wrote the story for 21 Jump Street and created the characters and with my friend Michael Bacall and I started working on that when I was 23 and then we shot it when I think I was 27 maybe 20 26 and it was great the the the best part I think was watching it kind of turn from everybody was so didn't understand why we wanted to do it and they didn't get the idea of making fun of remaking a TV show and how lazy and like that's how Hollywood is and now I've seen that done a lot since in comedies where they're like so self referential and aware of like like winking at the camera almost in that way and I do think that was a novel idea of like the characters in the film being aware we're reviving a canceled undercover police program from the 80s and revamping it for modern times you see the guys in charge of this stuff lack creativity and are completely out of ideas so all they do now is recycle from the past and expect us all not to notice that they're in a lazy dumb big Hollywood idea is it was was something I was really into and then it was amazing because we were trying to find who's gonna play the other person Channing Tatum at that time was like known for like romantic like romantic movies and stuff he was in like he was in step up and he was in a Nicholas Sparks thing so he was a successful actor my pitch to him because no one wanted to do it and so I was like look women really like you but guys think you're like you know like a dancer or like a romance person you know he's like I think if you do this movie you'll become like this giant movie star because everyone will be a fan of yours because he was so funny when I met him I was like whoa and it ended up being this great partnership friendship he's someone who I really like love and respect and and also Phil Lord and Chris Miller who were so talented I hired them off of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and they hadn't even shot a frame of live-action film and now they're these you know big directors and it's it's it's cool to watch those films from back then or see what everyone's up to from when you were younger to see how their careers blossom and and how they sort of like grow Cyrus I love Marc and Jade applause I think they're amazing they had written a script for Cyrus and honestly it was like one of the best scripts I've ever read and that in Superbad stand out to me as the two best screenplays I've ever read where I was like you could see the whole movie so well and I just thought it was such a unique character I loved their film the puffy chair and I got to work with john c reilly and Marissa Tomei and it was I was like 23 or 24 and it was it was such a great experience I loved their script but then they wanted us to improvise but I thought the script was so wonderful that I kind of wanted to stick to it but then they they liked improvisation they're just insane dude and the funny thing about that movie is mark was an actor at that time and Jay was just behind the camera and I was like if I ever make a movie I'm gonna put Jay in it because he's such an interesting guy and it's the way toxa know he is and then Jay became a famous actor on transparent and so I didn't put him in the mood in my movie because I was like our Jill Soloway I already got him first but I was like he had no ambition of being an actor you know so it was interesting to watch him just like now with Jays like a famous actor it's funny you know it's great the whole set was lit so you could literally walk into another room in the middle of your performance and they could follow you it just was so free and fluid there on Steadicam so you know it was handheld so they could like follow you you had complete freedom as an actor and I had never really seen that before [Music] what sorry I was in the neighborhood and Cyrus came out to let me in i'm sorry i love john c reilly I think he's I don't know I've worked with a lot of great actors and he's definitely like top three or I don't know maybe number one he's so brilliant this is the end I just like think Seth and Evan are geniuses and they have they're such their own unique style and voice and they were gonna direct their first movie and of course I was gonna want to be in their first movie you know and they had written everybody as at versions of themselves and my only contribution was my character I was like he should be really really nice but it should be like false thank you that was really fun I had never gotten to work with Danny McBride I think Danny McBride is like the funniest person in the world I think he's bounding down is the most batshit wonderful show and I just think he's a huge talent he was my neighbor actually yeah Danny we lived across the street from you at one point and that was cool I love I love him poor dog war dogs was a crazy shoot it was shot in Morocco Las Vegas Los Angeles El Centro Miami Oh Romania yeah Romania Morocco El Centro Los Angeles Miami Las Vegas it was like that much movement with the whole film crew is chaos so like Todd is a really good director and really smart but it was like it was a hard shoot because of all the travel and all the different countries and adjusting a new crew in each country but I just thought this story once I read that article I was like I remember just reading the article in Rolling Stone was like this would make an incredible movie so and I'd been a fan of Todd's for a long time so it was kind of a no-brainer I grew up skateboarding in Los Angeles I worked a shop called hot rod I used to go to the courthouse every day it was just it was a great time so for me skateboarding really you know what it did was it kind of like connected me to an ethic and a point of view and an anti ethic it really gave me a really solid group of friends and at a time when it's you and your friends against the world and I always thought it's um in some way skateboarding and that kind of experience in point of view would be a part of my first film but then I didn't realize it'd be ending up like the complete just let say the backdrop you know it's not like a skateboarding movie it's just that's who these people are people just understand when you're the young kid and you're moving your way up through the animal kingdom and in trying to find your place amongst a group of people and find out how to belong and have such a special experience you think you're pretty cool to ghetto-ass friends you good you think you're tough and gives us some little kid a lot of the time we feel like our lives are the worst but think of you looking anybody else's closet you may trade your ship for their so let's go that's why we ride up he's some food like what that best to some mutton spear the kids in the film are amazing watching them become great actors and their skaters from you know that weren't actors like there's nothing more exciting than that this was an amazing first experience as a filmmaker because it now gives me courage to go on and go deeper and more meaningful and you know I think if I had done it any earlier I would have hit the brakes in certain parts in a way that would have made the movie worse my whole dream my whole life was to be a filmmaker and I got this incredible film school for the last 15 years and had this have this great you know lucky careers and after where you get to watch all these different kinds of directors work you know and I got to watch pretty much all of my heroes make film you know I'm very lucky in that way but I really wanted to wait until I felt I had gained enough knowledge and enough I would say courage to tell a story that really meant something

Channel: GQ

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Keywords: celebrity, gq, gq jonah hill, gq magazine, iconic, iconic characters, jonah, jonah hill, jonah hill 2018, jonah hill 21 jump street, jonah hill breaks down, jonah hill characters, jonah hill explains, jonah hill funny, jonah hill gq, jonah hill iconic characters, jonah hill interview, jonah hill martin scorsese, jonah hill movie, jonah hill movies, jonah hill roles, jonah hill show, jonah hill superbad, jonah hill wolf of wall street, this is the end, wolf of wall street

Id: 5qVIaa9Nr88

Length: 12min 58sec (778 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 14 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/slowhand88]

Wait, this is supposed to be the most iconic Johah Hill characters and it doesn't mention his role trying to buy fish shoes from the eBay store in the 40 Year Old Virgin?

Come on.

[u/ufruitloopdingus]

love this series gq have on at the moment! find it incredibly interesting

[u/colerpop]

"Smoke crack with me bro"

[u/Nuranon]

I didn't know that Jonah Hill (co-)wrote 21 Jump Street.

Seriously, together with the stuff one hears about Mid90s, thats a bit like finding out that Simon Spegg co-wrote all the Edgar Wright movies (and TV shows) he was in or finding out that Chris Nolan has a brother who is/was (co-)writing a fair share of his movies.

[u/firekil]

Everybody needs to watch Maniac right now. Fukunaga at his best.

[u/rancidangel]

snorri is top 5

[u/AkhilArtha]

He didn't talk at all about his characters but more about movie making experiences.

[u/sunofagundota]

Sucks it does get Maniac, I think that is one the most interesting things he's been in.

[u/MisterJimson]

Anyone know the name of the song that starts at 11:35?