Jonah Hill / "Mid90s"

you as a director. Did you watch the film? I did, okay a couple of weeks back. That's some waterfoo that would be awesome. I wasn't that screening at the New House? Oh cool? Oh the one in l A. Yeah, yeah, sorry, we were like bouncing, bouncing was pretty cool. It was that the skateboarding was there at the skating one. Yeah, thank you. Lots of warm beers getting pasted around. That's great. That awesome. M that's a good context to see it in. Yeah,

for sure, I loved it. Great work man. He's gonna grab like over the shoulder and then you guys chatting, how's it. They've been going so far, so good. Yeah. Yeah, I love being an l I don't live here, so it's like I treat him. Yeah, if he was like vacation. I live in New York for the coast, like five or six years. Nice, well part of town downtown. I'm just gonna bring this back afters on the brist Side for a year. Yeah, did you like it? I did.

I like that neighborhood a lot. Yeah, of course they it in that you know, the queue goes up there now after I've moved away. That would have been nice. When I lived there, we've been very helpful. Yeah, seventy second Street stop and stuff like that. I was just up there last week. Actually, it's all pretty different. Yeah, I I really you know, because benefits to living everywhere here cool as you get older, it's out here because

it's relaxing. Yeah. For just I was telling somebody, it's like you can just step out on your porch and there's trees and you know, and you're not like in the middle of life. You're not in the middle of the community immediately out here, which can be nice. But anyway, we're up and running, all right, sir, I'm here with Jonah Hill, the writer and director of mid nineties directorial debut. In fact, Jonah, thanks for coming on the show. Thank you for having me. I enjoy the show. Thank you man,

thanks for listening. Uh you know the old adage you only get one chance to make the first movie, right, so, uh, you know it was it difficult to decide what would be the first movie you would direct. I would say yeah, because uh, you know, yeah, you only get one shot at it. So you know, I think after the first one, if I'm lucky enough to get to make more, it will be freeing to have made your first one already, right.

And and if I look at my heroes, people who started out in comedy who had great filmmaking careers, like Mike Nichols or Barry Levinson, if you look at their first films, a lot of the time they are films that really meant something to them. And I really wanted to take time and have patience to wait until I really he was mature enough emotionally be had my own voice and see how a story that really meant something to me, which is mid nineties Yeah, did you have? Uh?

Were There are a couple of different ideas that we're floating around and we're you zeroing in on this one kind of the whole time. Well, actually, originally I was writing a play with Spike Jones at the time. We were co writing a play together, and we would do this exercise where we would talk about the screenplays we were writing and walk each other through the story. And originally the film was about you know, this is four

years ago. The film was about something else, and it kept flashing back to when the kids were young and skateboarding together. The main character was with his friends, and Spike wisely pointed out that I was far more exuberant about the flashbacks the B story than I was about the A story, and so I kind of just made it all about that. Yeah, it's kind of obvious. What's

dragging you, what's pulling you to it? I think it's just I think anything that's the first draft of anything so bad, you know, I did twenty drafts over three years. That uh I was called it's like it's just a bunch of trash and hopefully there's a little heartbeat. It's almost like an ultrasound, And that was the ultrasound of my like initial first thought of a story. I wanted to tell and and the little heartbeat came from, you know, the group of young kids together when you first started

out in the business. Was this like an end game for you at all? Like, is is directing something you expected to come around to eventually or did you just naturally end up in a place where you wanted to be a filmmaker? Also, my dream, my whole life, is to be a filmmaker, writer, director. Um I really accidentally fell into this amazing fifteen year acting career, and uh,

my life went in a really wild other direction. But it ended up being incredible, not only because I love acting, but because you know, I got this incredible fifteen year film school and I got to work with most of my heroes. And you know, as an actor, you have the ability if you wanted to be in a front row seed education to the filmmaking process. So I've also had the good fortune of being a lot of bad movies as well as good ones. But you can learn

as much from, you know, as the good ones. And and you know, I've had just a lot of incredible professors that I've learned a lot from. And at the same time, like yourself, I imagine I'm I'm a cinophile. I just love I breathe and sleep and eat talking about movies, thinking about film, and have very strong distinction in my own taste and as an actor, you know, your one color and someone else's painting. And I've been

a decent green for a long time. But ultimately, the you know, the painter wants to paint purple over it, that's their decision. And so, uh, I was waiting till I had, like I said, the I'd say, emotional intelligence to be a leader, as well as the confidence in my own voice to paint my own painting. What were some aesthetic influences early on? I guess if you wanted to be a filmmaker and that was like your your goal.

Uh you mentioned my Nichols and and Levinson and stuff, But I'm just curious, like aesthetically, particularly visually visual storytelling, like what really spoke to you as a kid and made you want to do this aesthetically purely? I mean, I think every film is different. So for the film and right next, like the aesthetic things that are interesting about that relates to it are far different, you know, and for me, um, aesthetics serve emotion and people in story.

So uh, it wasn't like I was really ever, I'm not a candy visual filmmaker, even though I've made one film or it's not the thing that excites me the most. I'll say, um, people, emotions, feelings, characters, stories, you know, those are the things that are really incredible to me. And then the aesthetics should serve that. And so like for this film, you know, Elephant, uh, this is England.

There there were just certain films that I think aesthetically serve the tone and the emotions of these people in this time that we're right for that That gets in the my next question I was gonna ask, you know, what did you discover about the process of directing that that like excited you most? Was was was was you

know your favorite part of the process. And I was gonna say, was it you know, working with you blah Velt and figuring out the the visual schematic, or was it you know, working with the actors and and that element. You know what, what part of it ultimately did you take away was your favorite part? It's all of it. You know, as an actor, you're you're you're parachuted into someone else's world. So you know, the director hires, all the people, all the artists, all the department heads, all

the you know people year around. So to me, this was a culmination of fifteen years of people I had admired and grown close with, to higher as the family of artists creating this thing together and so just getting your hands dirty finally as really yeah, you just you're just watching. And I kind of waited till I couldn't take it anymore, and it was time to sort of curate not only the artists that you love, but the people you're spending your life around, which is such a luxury,

such a joy. That's why it's like the reward of all this would get to be to do it again, you know, so bloud belts like my brother, you know, Nick Whoe, my editor, same thing. It's like those are the two closest people probably collaborators, um Scott ruden Eli Bush and and and uh Scott Robertson my first A D who I had done Super Bad and and Moneyball with, and you know, he had done everything from like the Revenant to his Fox Catcher. He's just a brilliant guy.

And he was one of the first people I called, you know, first a D. Definitely helps make a film or break a film, right general. Yeah, He's he's the man,

you know, he's amazing. And Heidi Bibbins my costume designer, and you know, there's just so many people I knew I had hired three years before we even started shooting, you know, and I get to me, it just was curating a community that was making something together, you know, and singularly, the most moving thing is uh, you know, having something that means something really deep to you emotionally and then having these actors connect to it, these young

kids who had an acted before then bring it to life, and then showing you to an audience and having people laugh or cry or you know both. And I don't know, just the fact to me that the movie holds so many different emotions is very moving to me. I was just hanging out with Scott and Eli and New York last week. Actually, uh, you know, speaking of Blah Belt, you know you mentioned Elephant and and and uh, what's

the other one? This is England? Um, you know great DP came up under Harris A. Vitas, the Great, the late Great. This is a conversation I'm so grateful to have. Yeah, because you know, not many people care that deeply about like blah Belt's background. To me, it's incredibly important, you know, yeah, absolutely, well just talk about that and and and zeroing in

on what the visual language of this movie was gonna be. Well, first of all, you know, blah Bel Kay did come up under Harris Abides, who was my favorite DP ever. He did shoot Elephant and so Blaha even operated on Elephant, right, so, um, he was an operator on Speed, to which I love. He's I mean, his family also is uh, you know, the blow Belts are like lifelong um camera people. You know, they are craftsmen with a family of craftsmen and crafts people.

And even when I met with Martin Scorsese before the film, He's like, who's shooting your film? And I was like, Christopher blaw Belt and He's like he related to blow Belt and he was like yeah, and he's like the best operator I had on Raging Bull And I was texting blow beout under the table and love. I was

like crying. You know, um, you know that kind of stuff I feel in a new generation, even me shooting on film or even having my film released in theaters, you know, it's like, um, I feel like apprenticeship and like that kind of thing is lost and I believe in it and the idea that I I did have fifteen years of apprenticeship before I went out, or blah Belt had twenty years under Harris before you know, he started deepeeing his own films with Kelly Reichard and stuff

like that. And now my film it it means something to me, you know, like I I believe in that. It's emotional to me. It's he you know, speaks of Harris how someone would speak of a god or father or mentor you know, and it's like blah blah and I designed and ethic that we didn't break. You know. The camera wasn't going to move unless it necessary absolutely had to, and it was for a deep purpose. You know. It wasn't too show how fancy we are, you know, it was mostly still um. We stayed wide a lot.

It just it just were things that you design an ethic. And the best compliment blah Belt gave me was that he's, like most directors, we designed this ethic and they break it out of fear, and we didn't break it. And that's something I'm proud of, proud of him and myself and everybody. Uh, did you have any Scotty I wanted more coverage than I got, but he was cool. I mean, like like I love Scott the most protective artist, friendly producers I could ever imagine. But to me, it's like

I want to be the I want. I would tell the actors I'm shooting this in one shot, so like you, you know, Luke, I would tell Lucas and Sonny like that scene with the two brothers on the couch. We ended up cutting it up just to shorten the scene, but I had them do it in one take, you know, And I was just like, this is about the two of you in the frame together. It's not to show how cool I am. It's too show all of your body language and you're the way you both behave with

one another in one frame. So you guys better be ready to do it in one take, you know. And they did and they were amazing. Did you guys have any like Were there any reference points in the world of photography at all? I mean, not not necessarily movies you mentioned elephant and stuff, but just outside of the realm of movies. Were there any actually to like for me?

Decline of Western Civilization one, the Penelope Spheres documentary that covered early punk was something that photography wise, Chris and I talked a lot about street Wise Mary land Mark film. Um, you know, we knew we were shooting Super sixteen always so still Super sixteen. I always assumed we were shooting four by three, but it was a battle to get

their aspect ratio. Um. But yeah, and also just scape videos from that time period and really trying to really be honorable to that which is always really butchered on film. You know why I go with that ratio by the way, Well, again, not to just be cool, right, anything like we couldn't the worst thing. I think you can get accused of just trying to do it because it's cool, right. I think it has to have a purpose, And to me

two reasons. One, with kids, I wanted to show their body language more than their faces and so and how their body language spoke to who they were at that point in their lives. And for four by three, it's it's less of wide screen and the background and it's more square so you see really their whole bodies, you know. And also we were going to cut you know, one

of the characters of shooting height footage. Fourth grade is actually shooting during the scenes, and I won't give away that I mean, but but we were planning on I was planning on perhaps inter cutting the hight footage with the film footage throughout the film. And so when we did test if you if you shot you know, normal aspect ratio and cut with the highan footage, it was very jarring. And the four three in the high footage

cut like butter. So there were just multiple reasons. The fight to get there was its own battle, and the god bless a twenty four and Scott Rooting for letting me fight my way into doing that. Yeah, all the needle drops are so great in the movie. I think you get one of my favorite songs of all time and there which so mischief. Um, I agree. I think

it's a definitive song of that era at time. Yeah, I mean, I should say I'm like the biggest early mid nineties in the world, and just just the whole just everything was going on in the culture at the time, like you know, the the rise of a new kind of politician and Bill Clinton and just what was going on with the mishmash of cultures and pop culture and stuff.

It was just a really interesting time. But regarding the music, ELI told me all of these were bear to kind of clear naturally, but you gotta have that flavor in there, you know. I mean it's like, I mean every song in the I was a music supervisor. I am the music supervisor and it I had written every song to

that scene. So every single song we got, every song that was written to that's seen years before, and I had given the kids iPods, everybody an iPod on the crew and cast, and the first song on it was ninety three Infinity because I feel that encapsulates um l a culture, skate culture, hip hop culture at that time. That's the best example to me. UM. But uh yeah, we didn't have a big music budget, so we I wrote heartfelt letters to all of these artists and UM.

I went to Morrissey first because I figured he would be the most challenging, and he was so generous and right away was a good luck with mid nineties and it was amazing. I was like to Eli and everybody, and Sut was like, I'm friends with Morrisey. He knows what mid nineties is so exciting. And then I have a personal friendship with cute Tip, who happens to be

one of my heroes. And so once I got more c and Q Tip, I figured most people would be, you know, pretty receptive that this was a serious thing to be a part of and and actually worthy of

being a part of because they're such respected artists. But a big part of the movie was to the thing I wanted to do was to frame hip hop in a way that it means to me, which again, like skateboarding, is often butchered in films, like it's usually showing someone driving through the hood or popping champagne or some stereotype.

And to me, it was the emotional backbone of of my growing up and so I wanted to make an elegant film that framed hip hop in the way that tribe call Quest to me were what the Beatles were to my parents, and that was really important to me and something that it's been enjoyed, and not only show skateboarders, not only show you know, everybody, but to show these hip hop artists how I view their music and how generation views their music. And it's not just like a

fad or you know, um some gimmicky thing. It's real, siminar it's just emotional. Yeah. Well, the you know, regarding music, I mean, you got Trent resident Atticas Frost to come in and do the score. I mean, what were you looking for? And like the interstitial music essentially that would would kind of fill out the musical identity of the movie,

I guess. I mean, well, I never in my wildest dreams would I think that my favorite modern composers, you know, Trent Resid Natticus Ross, would score my first film, you know, and that was luckily. We just showed them a cut of the film and they wanted to do it and it was amazing. But my idea was, I didn't realize how much a filmmaker is responsible. You know, they are asking you for direction, and I thought that Trent Natkis were gonna send me music and that was going to

be it. But I didn't realize like you play with the stems, you changed things around you, you really formulate what it is together and it was an amazing process um for me. My My major idea was, you know, they're so known for the Social Network's score, that score matches that film, which I believe to be about like, you know, sort of coldness and beauty and its coldness, And to me, I was like, what would it be like if Trenton Atticus did Warmth? What would that feel like?

With their perverse take on warmth? And I'm really happy with how the score turned out. The kid's Sonny, Uh, your lead is just such a natural. Um, he's amazing to watch. You know, what were you looking for out of who was going to lead a project like this? And was the search exhaustive? I mean talk about that? I guess it's one Everything in directing is like the

preparation is the hard part. So imagining how hard it was going to be and preparing to have a nationwide search for the kid was more of the preparation than actually finding him. Who was right here at the local skate park and he I just knew it was him, you know, I saw him and I knew because he had what I was looking for, which is a kid who was very young looking for their age, but was small for their age, but was ten feet tall inside.

And I knew I wasn't going to hire someone who was meek and have them learn confidence and portray confidence. I knew it was a lot more real to have someone who's very confident and verse engineer to the beginning of the film and almost try and have them understand meekness. And Sunny's just he was eleven when we shot. I'm thirty four, had been acting for fifteen years and I've never had to strap a film to my back and like walk across the field like that. He carries the film,

you know. So he's just so impressive. There's something in his eyes too. I mean, you know, the camera loves his face if you will, and you kind of get lost in there. Um, he's just I mean, he's just a serious, real deal actor and he's only thirteen. I just am so interested to see where he goes. All the actors are great. These characters, they leap off the screen and it feels like they're sitting there in the

theater watching the movie with you, you know. I mean, that's that's gotta be a tough quality to pull off on set, that real that naturalism, that sense of just these guys that know each other so well, and you know, and then translating that off the screen to the audience. How how do you how do you get it something like that? It's just work, Like I said, it's preparations. So when you get there, it's not as hard, you know. Um, some of them didn't know each other really well in

real life, which was really helpful. Um. But the amazing part was I had worked on the script. I did twenty drafts over three years, and I was willing to throw it away because I figured these non actress I knew I was gonna cast first time actors, and I was like, Oh, they're gonna want to improvise. They're not going to be able to like become these other people and memorize these lines and deliver them honestly and genuinely.

But what I was surprised was they didn't want to improvise, and they worked so tirelessly to become good actors that that's singularly the most like moving experience in my life was watching them just literally learned how to become artists and be empowered to become artists and take that opportunity and grab the bull by the horns. And by the end they were you know, they would be running scenes when I got there at the trailers and they'd be

you know, they'd have them up and running. Yeah. They just they just they just were worked harder than I ever could have imagined. My wildest dreams. I'm proud of them. What do you think what's the big takeaway from the entire experience for you? I mean, did did? Was there something about the whole thing that truly surprised you that that you learned? Or you know what? What? What are you really taking away here? The The reward is the process. Yeah. I've never been more happy in my life than when

I'm either writing, shooting or editing a film. And uh, the reward solely is that I get to do it again. If I get to do it again, I think you get another crack at it. Man, your mouth to God's ears. That would be great. What are you do? You want to phase out acting a bit? You would you rather? I don't view it like that. Like I view it like I have the next film I want to write, So I want the time to write that. You know, right now I'm doing this getting the word out about

our film Midnight Um. But there's no plan to you like, do one or the other. It's more like I want to do things, you know the first A lot of my career has been things that I kind of was told I should do or what people thought I was And with this film, and even this magazine. I just are putting out like it. This is me, like coming out as who I am, you know, and I intend to do things if I'm lucky enough that just means something to me and reflect myself as an artist and

not what everyone else wants me to be. Before I let you go, if we can talk about acting just briefly, I'd love to talk about the Beach Bomb, the Harmony, Corinthrum, I mean working with Harmony and and just tell me but I can't wait to see this movie. I mean, I have a tiny cameo like like he does in in my film. Um we traded, We traded cameos and um. He's just someone who is a close friend and was super supportive and gave notes on this film and vice first on Beach Fum and Uh. He's just someone I

admire very much. He's someone who is truly his own artist. He really does not care what people want from him or want of him. He wants to make things and we live in a world where that's less and less, and we live in a media, we work in a medium where it's harder and harder to make those kinds of projects. And I admire his ferocity and fight to get the things he wants to get done done, which no one ever really wants to seem to help him

just do. If I was up to films, I'd say give Harmony Curran whatever he wants, you know, But um, I don't know. I adore him and he's a good person and a really really generous with his advice and thoughts and and just a talented man. Yeah, awesome, looking forward to that. Everybody should go see this. Mid nineties is October nineteen is a release date. Check it out. Joan is gonna be doing this, I think more and

more because clearly love so that's very kind. I'm just a film a nerd, like like like everybody else that I can't believe I get to you know, have even made such a meaningful film to me. We'll congrats. Thanks Ago for coming on. Yes, it's great. Highlight my day