(Credits: Netflix)
Sat 3 January 2026 16:45, UK
He’s a bit of a divisive character is Jonah Hill. Aside from the fact he’s clearly a talented actor, brilliant in Superbad and Moneyball and especially The Wolf of Wall Street, he does have something of a tendency to do stuff that comes back to haunt him publicly in a big way.
There were the text messages that were shared by his ex-girlfriend that made for exceedingly cringey reading, in which he asked her not to post certain photos to her social media account and not to have friendships with certain men, or women, for that matter. Obviously, they were inexcusable, and she accused him of being an “emotionally abusive misogynist narcissist”.
And then there was the incident in 2014 when he was being hounded by a member of the paparazzi and allegedly called him a homophobic slur in response. That wasn’t good at all, either. But that one opens up the question of just how much Hill gets prodded and poked and made fun of, and if you look at some of his media appearances down the years, you start to have a bit more sympathy for him. After all, as someone who struggled with his weight for years, he’s probably quite sensitive about his appearance.
For instance, there’s the bizarre conversation with Jimmy Kimmel back in 2018 when Hill went on his show, and the host said that he smelled good, describing that as a surprise, which understandably prompted Hill to ask him quite why that would be. Cue at least a minute of awkward back and forth during which Hill looked like he was close to just walking off at any moment.
Then there was an appearance on French television in 2016 to promote his film War Dogs, during which it seemed like the hosts had decided before the show that Hill would be fair game to take the piss out of relentlessly, something which he evidently wasn’t alright with. One of the female presenters, Ornella Fleury, kicked things off by telling him that her favourite scene from his career was: “When I saw you get sodomised by a three-meter-tall demon in (Hill’s apocalyptic comedy)This Is the End I told myself, ‘Now that’s the man of my dreams!’”
Hill, having her comments translated live into English, looked very unimpressed by this barb and shot back, “And you? I hear you get sodomised pretty often,” which is quite a full-on comeback, let’s be honest, if not a particularly inventive one.
But then Fleury strangely decided to take things further and told him about a sexual fantasy she had in which Hill took her to a hotel room, made her laugh a lot, and then introduced his friends Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio and then left them to it.
As the awkward studio laughter went up a notch, Hill, by now looking like he not only regretted being on the show but also like he would rather be literally anywhere else, attempted his second comeback, which fell completely flat due it having to be translated, and told her: “I’m glad I came to this show to get ridiculed by a local weather girl – it’s nice”.
Although there were reports that Hill then cancelled all his further press commitments in France following the broadcast, that wasn’t the case, and he did go on to appear at a film festival in the country.
As for Fleury, she went online and apologised to her credit, saying she’d mistakenly bantered with him as though they were friends, and pointing out he was a two-time Oscar nominee while she had a YouTube channel with two videos on it.
Now, after three years without a film, Hill has written and directed Cut Off, a comedy which will be released this year, in addition to writing and directing a movie called Outcome starring Keanu Reeves and Cameron Diaz, which has completed filming.
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