Citing mental health, Jonah Hill says he won’t be promoting his new therapy doc Stutz
Hill: "If I made myself sicker by going out there and promoting it, I wouldn’t be acting true to myself or to the film.”
Aux News Jonah Hill
Timed to the upcoming release of his new documentary, Stutz, actor Jonah Hill has issued a statement today saying that he’s stepping away from doing promotional appearances for his film, or any other he’s attached to, for an undisclosed period of time. Per Variety, Hill released an open letter today discussing the ways that two decades of interviews, press junkets, and all the other public-facing parts of celebrity existence have exacerbated anxiety and other mental health struggles in his life.
As Hill writes in the letter (which was first published by Deadline):
The whole purpose of making this film is to give therapy and the tools I’ve learned in therapy to a wide audience for private use through an entertaining film. Through this journey of self-discovery within the film, I have come to the understanding that I have spent nearly 20 years experiencing anxiety attacks, which are exacerbated by media appearances and public facing events.
Thus, Hill says, while he is proud of the film, and happy to have it premiere at film festivals this fall, he won’t be there to promote it. “You won’t see me out there promoting this film, or any of my upcoming films, while I take this important step to protect myself. If I made myself sicker by going out there and promoting it, I wouldn’t be acting true to myself or to the film.”
It’s probably a coincidence that Hill’s statement comes on the day of the 15-year anniversary of the release of SuperBad—the movie that elevated him from likable presence on the sidelines of Judd Apatow’s filmography into an actual movie star—but it’s also not hard to see a connection between the two events. Stutz is his second film as a director, after 2018's Mid90s; his last credit as an actor was in Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up.
39 Comments
Genius marketing.
Leave them wanting more.
you should get that allergy to sincerity looked at
You should get a healthy dose of skepticism.
But I don’t have a movie about allergies to promote.
Not with that attitude you don’t. . . wait, that doesn’t really work here, does it?
Oh, it’s sincere.It’s also marketing.Because that’s what Hollywood does: takes something real, monetizes the fuck out of it, kills it, reanimates the corpse, kills it again, injects it with glycerin until it bursts, skins it, tans the hide, and drapes that leather over a department store dummy slathered in lifelike makeup to sell again.If it wasn’t marketing, one sentence from his publicist about “focusing on personal issues” would be all he needed.
I’ve no doubt he’s sincere. That doesn’t mean he didn’t instinctively use that sincerity to explicitly call attention to his latest project – and it worked! Now there are sincere articles in Variety, Deadline, and AV Club.
Dude was born, raised, and continues to live in Cheviot Hills. It’s like Love Canal, only the water there is polluted with narcissism instead of benzene.
I usually cringe at letters or statements like this but I’m different. And I need you to know that I’m different. I need you to understand that. Everyone needs to understand me. Understanding me will help you.
Nailed it.
Look at me! Look at me!
OMG STOP LOOKING AT ME!!!
Of course, us normal people just get fired if we cite our mental health as a reason we can’t work. But otherwise, good for him!
It’s hard to get pity when the boss is a sadistic psychopath himself.
Well, you do in the US, anyway.
Even in the US its not that bad. A lot of employers have started taking much more enlightened approaches to mental health days as well as physical health days. The biggest issue is there are no laws in the US that protect you like there are in many other countries. So while many companies do not suck, many others do.
depends on your job and country. Not all us Normal People live like that.
His letter actually continues to include this: “I usually cringe at letters or statements like this but I understand that I am of the privileged few who can afford to take time off. I won’t lose my job while working on my anxiety. With this letter and with ‘Stutz,’ I’m hoping to make it more normal for people to talk and act on this stuff. So they can take steps towards feeling better and so that the people in their lives might understand their issues more clearly.”
Yeah. He seems like a good guy, I’m just personally bitter at the moment.
“He seems like a good guy
He does?
Seems like a pretty important part of his statement that Jez left out in order to rile people up online
Yeah exactly – also, you don’t even need additional context to know it’s Wrong to be like, “b-but I don’t get the same benefits from my employer/government/etc as That guy…the problem must be…That guy!”
lmao – what?This must be some American thing I’m too European to understand right?
Im not sure what could possibly be hard to understand there, but okay…
Land of the Free, etc.
In America, you’re expected to use your mental issues to further your career. Or you’re weak.
You shouldn’t. You have rights under the ADA, which applies for behavioral (mental) health disabilities just as much as it does for physical disabilities. You can talk to a disability attorney to discuss it more, or if that’s cost prohibitive there’s info on the government’s ADA page. I’d say talk to HR, and they will have some info, but remember they’re there to protect the company, not you.
I sure learned that the hard way. HR will kindly pat you on the shoulder while stabbing you repeatedly in the back. And nothing scares some HR people like mental health issues. One I dealt with seemed to practically want to tattoo “I’M UNSTABLE” on my forehead and make me go live in a leper colony. All while smiling and saying how much the company valued and cared for me, of course. Because we’re family!
Ugh, the “we’re family” workplace are always the most toxic. Sorry you had to deal with that. You could try an EEOC complaint–it’s at least free whereas talking to a lawyer will cost money, thought they might do a free consultation!
I most certainly would not get fired for doing that at my 8-5.
You’re not kidding. My boss called me and threatened to not pay me because I asked to WFH one fucking day last year because I had insomnia and my brain was not functioning right. I needed a break from the office, but I was still offering to work despite the fact that a full on mental health day is what I really needed. Mind you, I do remote IT work. I shouldn’t even be in an office.If I said “I need a mental health day” he’d tell me I just wanted to waste time and not work, probably threaten to fire me too.
And he’d probably get a raise for it, too.
Er, my boss is the owner of our company lmfao.I should have phrased it better. I technically have two bosses. The head of my department, and the owner. Why you ask? Because our owner is a hardcore micromanager. The boss of my department gave me the okay, it was the owner who threatened to not pay me.I know I need to find a new company, but depression is killing my motivation right now.
In the U.S. the Americans with Disablities Act prohibits firing because of a documented mental disability, requiring that it be accommodated if possible.
Good for him!
Look at me! Look at me!
OMG STOP LOOKING AT ME!!!
[Takes time away to recuperate]Okay, now look at me again.
Maybe it’s meta-PR? What better way to promote a documentary promoting mental health than to model the behavior?
“From likable presence” – That’s not how I remember it.
I mostly remember his cock
Not surprised, I remember one interview where he was asked if he can still be funny after losing weight. Gotta be weird to have all eyes on you when you are just trying to work on your health.