Jonah Hill: The Movieline Interview

If there's a Jonah Hill you thought you knew, you won't find him in Cyrus. Take it from Hill himself -- the 26-year-old actor is acutely aware of how he's perceived after starring in films like Superbad and Get Him to the Greek, and he hopes that his darker turn in Cyrus will surprise audiences the way it surprised him. Sure, it involves a lot of the improvisatory flair that he's gotten down to a science, but as the title character -- a manipulative man-child who's determined not to lose his mother Molly (Marisa Tomei) to her new beau (John C. Reilly) -- Hill gets to show off considerable dramatic chops, too.

In an interview with Movieline, Hill couldn't contain his excitement over the movie (directed by Mark and Jay Duplass), though when it came to the way it was being advertised, he had one strong quibble.

How are you holding up, Jonah? You've been pretty busy lately.

I got back from Australia last night for the Get Him to the Greek tour, so I'm a little jet lagged, but I love this movie, so it's kind of cool to transition from talking about one movie to the other one.

You've done so much press over the last year, whether it was at Sundance for Get Him to the Greek or this Cyrus press tour. You haven't even had time to shoot a film since Get Him to the Greek, right?

Yeah, I shoot Moneyball in a few weeks. It's going to be exciting to actually shoot a movie. [Laughs]

I'm sure a lot of the people interviewing you for Cyrus have asked you what you wanted to do with this character. I'm more curious, since there are so many pitfalls to playing someone like this: what did you not want to do with this character?

That's a good question. You know, this character is very different -- and the movie is very different -- from what you're used to seeing me do. It was an interesting thing to tackle because I don't know anybody like this and I don't see any semblance of myself in him, so I couldn't really relate to him. It's always been said in acting classes that you have to like or love the character I'm playing, but I don't like Cyrus. I don't love him.

Not at all?

No. He's so manipulative. I couldn't be friends with someone like that, with his manipulation and dishonesty and all those qualities he has. The way I found a way in, though, is that I sympathized with Cyrus. I didn't like him, but I found a tremendous amount of sympathy for him because I realized that all his flaws are not his fault. His flaws come from desperation and a fear of being alone. He and his mom have a special relationship in a lot of ways in that they're so close and they're best pals, but it's every parent's duty at a certain point to say, "Here's the world, go check it out. You're gonna be scared sometimes, it's gonna be hard, but you'll find your way and figure out who you are." For whatever reason, Molly couldn't force him to go out into the world. She couldn't bring herself to do it -- maybe she needed him as a friend. I felt bad for him, because his manipulation comes from not being brought up correctly. When another man comes into her life, it threatens his world.

When you say it's the most unlike any role you've ever done, what do you feel when you actually watch it onscreen?

I feel pride and I feel weird, to be honest with you. My brother and my girlfriend saw the movie on two separate occasions and they were both looking at me all weird [after]. I asked my brother, "Did you not like the movie? Did you not think it was good?" And he said, "No, it just really freaked me out. For the first time, I watched you in a movie and I didn't recognize you. I didn't feel like I was watching my brother, and it scared me really badly. There was no trace of you in there."

How did that make you feel?

I was weird about that at first, but it's such a massive compliment to say that I played a character where he didn't recognize any semblance of his brother in there. My girlfriend said the same thing, and that seems to be the general response -- from my loved ones, at least. Even when I watch it myself... a) I don't like this guy until the end when you feel bad for him, and b) I don't feel like I'm watching me. I think Get Him to the Greek is a good performance on my part, and I love the performance, but it's a character closer to who I am. I recognize things of myself in that character. In Cyrus, I don't feel like a parallel at all with who that guy is.

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