Jonah Hill has come a long way from being the fat, funny kid in Superbad .
He’s lost a lot of weight, taken on more serious roles, and even got to work with Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese.
While an arrogant reputation precedes him, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Come learn why, in addition to other interesting facts about the star.
1. Prank calls were his first foray into comedy:
When he was a student at a Santa Monica private school, he would make prank calls , pretending to be Tobey Maguire’s assistant.
He was so convincing that a hotel even installed a tank for Maguire’s fictional pet seal!
This actually got him into acting by accident.
That’s because Dustin Hoffman’s son was Hill’s classmate.
Hoffman would watch and be impressed by Hill’s prank calls. So much so that he invited him to audition for a small role in I Heart Huckabees .
2. He and Adam Levine went to school together:
“Our dads met in the principal’s office in junior high,” Hill told Howard Stern in 2014.
“We were in carpool, we lived at each other’s houses.” Hill even officiated Levine’s wedding! How sweet is that? Friends forever.
3. Channing Tatum helped him lose weight:
“I wanted to get in better shape, so I called Channing Tatum and said, ‘Hey, if I ate less and go to a trainer, will I get in better shape?'” he said during an appearance on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon in 2016.
“[He said] ‘Yes, you dumb [expletive], of course you will.’ It’s the simplest thing in the entire world.”
This pep talk began his journey.
“I wish there was some crazy thing that I did, like a pill or a genie or something, but I went to see a nutritionist,” he told ABC News .
4. He has a bad scar:
He was told Rolling Stone about the scar on his right arm. “This is one of the biggest things ever in my life,” he said.
And he isn’t the only one! These other celebs also have stories behind their scars.
For Jonah, his scar came about when he was 15 and he and his friend snuck out in an SUV at night.
Hill stuck his elbow out the open window while his friend started driving like a maniac.
The car eventually flipped and skidded down the road, dragging Hill’s arm with it.
5. You will probably recognize his sister:
She’s Beanie Feldstein, AKA, the breakout star of Booksmart and Lady Bird .
These two are crazy close. They had an older brother, but he sadly passed away suddenly in 2017.
6. His dream was always to be a filmmaker:
“Anyone who knew me was very surprised that this first half of my life went the way it did,” Hill told The Guardian .
He even wants to direct his younger sister, Beanie, in a movie.
7. He loves to skateboard:
“Skating broke me out of a racial and socio-economic bubble. It really opened my world up,” he told GQ back in 2018.
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He even wrote and directed a movie about it called Mid90s .
“It’s my best friend,” he told the publication.
“Like, anytime I was sad, angry, happy, lonely, I’d go in my room and I’d just write, spend time with this, cater to it, build it. This kind of thing is vulnerable in a way I’ve never experienced before.”
8. His dad was an accountant for Guns N’ Roses:
Meanwhile, his mother was a costume designer . This upper-middle-class family lived up in the Cheviot Hills, which is a rich neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Despite this, Hill spent his time indoors, calling himself “a Simpsons kid. A movie kid.”
9. He landed the lead role in *Superbad* after impressing Judd Apatow:
After Huckabees , he landed a small part in The 40-Year-Old Virgin .
It was there that he used rain delays as his chance to improvise new lines in front of Apatow.
10. He was almost in *The Hangover*:
It’s hard to imagine the cast with anyone else now, but Jonah definitely would have fit in.
However, he turned it down , though, to work with Jay and Mark Duplass in Cyrus .
11. He doesn’t like reporter interviews:
This has earned him a reputation for being arrogant in Hollywood.
But in reality, he’s just shy. “I always felt like this little kid who was being attacked,” he told GQ about reporter interviews.
“If you’re funny at all, people are allowed to just rip on you. And it makes you feel like [expletive].”
“You feel like you’re being bullied, like you were when you were 9, but you’re at work at an interview and anyone’s allowed to say whatever they want to you and you react. I reacted horribly.”
12. He doesn’t like small talk:
This is something that his Maniac co-star, Emma Stone, told GQ . “He doesn’t like to have small talk, ever, at all.”
They’d be on the Maniac set between takes, “and he wanted to talk about the nature of relationships and the starting point of insecurities.”
Hill blames this on his social anxiety.
“I’m so much better in a cozy environment than, like, a party environment,” he said.
“Because even at 34, I still get social anxiety.” Aww. Poor, Jonah! Sadly, this has made him come off as aloof.
