Two-time Oscar nominee Jonah Hill was just 21 when he encountered the strangest film set of his life.
“David O. Russell was f---ing nuts at the time,” Hill, 42, who debuted in 2004’s I Heart Huckabees, said during a live taping of Smartless, a podcast by Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes.
“He was buck wild. And I’m like homies with him. He’s awesome—super nice guy—but in that moment in life, and I’ve had my own, trust me, he was buck wild, dude,” he continued.
“He was screaming at Lily Tomlin. It’s online and s--t. And he’ll talk about it,” The Wolf of Wall Street star said.
Leaked footage from the 2004 set shows acclaimed director David O. Russell, 67, shouting at the film’s star, Lily Tomlin, 86, including calling her a c--- and a b---h.
In the two videos that first leaked in 2007, Russell screams at Tomlin, throws props around, and storms off the set before coming back to shout more. Both brushed off the fiery encounters in later interviews.
“We were always doing something, and then we’d get manic and crazy, and I just flipped out on him. Then he flipped out on me. And you know, stuff goes on,” Tomlin said before stating she would work with him again. “But I adore David.”
Hill, however, revealed an even crazier on-set fight involving Russell that he said occurred just before he shot his first-ever film scene.
“Everyone’s screaming at each other,” Hill recalled. “The first time I walked on set, him and K.K. Barrett, the production designer, were joking around wrestling, and then it turned into a real fight. It was like joking that turned into a fight.”
“They were setting up my first scene to act, and I was like, ‘Hollywood is so tight! This is so cool,’” the actor-turned-director said.
In a “full-circle” moment, Hill recalled his chance to right the wrongs of that first set by making a commitment to Barrett that if he ever directed a film, he would hire the famed production designer.
“He did my newest movie, Outcome,” Hill said. “Full circle, 20 years later. The greatest production designer ever.”
A decade after the film’s release, Russell called the shoot “one big party,” except for a few incidents.
“The party just went right on past that day, but then that was the day that got remembered,” he said in a 2013 interview with IndieWire. “I became a better filmmaker because of it, but it was painful. It was six years of losing my way a little bit,” he added.
After directing his third feature film, Hill said he felt sorry for any director not named Martin Scorsese.
As an actor, Hill said you “go through withdrawal” after being directed by Scorsese, 83.
“The poor unfortunate other directors you have to work with after cannot compare, no matter how wonderful, prepared, and amazing they are,” he concluded.
