Jonah Hill Doesn’t Want to Be Typecast; Signs on to New Apatow Flick

Posted by Neil Miller (neil@filmschoolrejects.com) on June 14, 2008

Superbad and Knocked Up star Jonah Hill has been many things over the past few years, including at times extremely funny. One thing he has failed to really ever be though, is a serious, rangy actor. Not to say that we don’t love him for being the “funny fat kid”, we just don’t see where he’s done much else. In fact, Hill is just one fish in the great sea of Hollywood, constantly trying to strike a balance between continued work and artistic integrity.

That brings me to a recent article that popped up over at IESB, in which a production insider on Transformers 2 has written in, stating that Hill was all but signed on to the project, until he read the script. Speculation says that Hill was not in-tune with playing Shia LaBeouf’s chubby sidekick whose only purpose was to provide some comic relief.

This news is really irrelevant, especially considering its speculative nature, unless you combine it with the fact that Hill recently signed on to Judd Apatow’s next film Funny People, which will most likely feature him as chubby comic relief. It reveals an interesting quandary for Hill — an internal battle, perhaps. 

Further evidence of the typecast confliction came back in April, when Hill told a reporter during a morning walk that he was “working hard not to be the Artie Lange of the Apatow gang.” This leads us to believe that the speculation of Hill turning down the Transformers sequel might not have anything to do with typecasting. Then again, it is hard to say either way.

As for Transformers 2, the production seems to be going just fine, with “The Wire” star Ramon Rodriguez stepping in as Shia’s on-screen roommate. Hill joins the likes of Adam Sandler, Jason Schwartzman, Seth Rogen, Leslie Mann and Eric Bana in Funny People, which will follow the story of a comedian who has a near death experience.

Sound Off: Do you think that Jonah Hill avoided Transformers 2 to stay away from being the chubby sidekick? Would you like to have seen him as Shia’s college roommate?

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