Jonah Hill is among the successful personalities who transitioned his career from comedy to acting gaining major success by implementing his initial element in his projects. He gained major fame with the 2007 coming-of-age comedy film, Superbad and continued to deliver great roles in other films. While stardom is adequate on some level, having it in extreme could cause some severe consequences.
This is all too familiar to him as he has rejected a major franchise just to avoid typecast in his film projects. Had he accepted the offer, he would have been on a more elevated level.
Jonah Hill Rejected to Star as Lead Star in The Hangover Film
The Hangover trilogy was a great commercial project that grossed a collective total of $1.4 billion in the United States and worldwide. Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, and Zach Galifianakis are the main leading stars of the project but it could have starred Jonah Hill replacing one of them had he not rejected the offer.
He told Bullett Magazine via IndieWire that he was offered to play “any one of the three main parts in The Hangover.”
Following the immense stardom that chased him after Superbad won many hearts, he decided not to delve into projects that would turn out to be typecast. Not just this film, but he was also offered a supporting role in Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen alongside Shia LaBeouf however he turned that down as well.
He shared at the time,
“They were both really big decisions, and ones that most people didn’t understand. I knew I could be a dramatic actor, but I also knew I couldn’t go from ‘Superbad’ to ‘Schindler’s List.’”
While he chose to say goodbye to such a lucrative project, his extreme stardom had a major role in him turning down the offer.
Jonah Hill’s Overnight Fame Was Too Overwhelming for Him!
In a 2021 GQ interview, the 39-year-old actor opened up about how the stardom suddenly changed his life “overnight.” While he did his best to portray the role of Seth in the film, he was unaware of the wave that would change everything in his life.
He shared with the magazine,
“It was very overnight for me. [Co-star] Michael Cera and I talk about it all the time. We just had this really rare experience: One day life was one way, and then one day life was a different way.”
Having been awarded such great power at a young age, he felt that he should take a break from Hollywood.
“I took three or four years to reshape things.”
He returned to the industry as he found a harmonious balance between fame and his personal life. He chose to take on a low-key path by adopting a quiet lifestyle which eventually resulted in finding a positive aspect of his life.
Source: Bullett Magazine via IndieWire
