"Jonah Hill LIVE"

Summary

SmartLess: "Jonah Hill LIVE"

Date: May 8, 2026
Location: Avalon Hollywood
Hosts: Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, Will Arnett
Guest: Jonah Hill

---

Episode Overview

This lively, laugh-heavy episode of SmartLess was recorded in front of a live audience at the Avalon Hollywood and features acclaimed actor, writer, and director Jonah Hill. In classic SmartLess fashion, the guest remains a secret until the moment of introduction. Over the course of the conversation, Hill dives into topics spanning his career—covering his legendary arrival into comedy, his affection for writing and improv, his ventures into drama, his experiences with Hollywood icons, and his joys and adjustments as a new father. The episode balances hilarious improvisational banter between the hosts and their guest with moments of real warmth and insight about creative life, Hollywood, and growing up both on- and off-screen.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Opening Banter & Live Show Energy (02:08–15:37)

• Warm-up: Joking about backstage rituals, accidental slaps, and nervous energy before the live crowd.
• Host updates: Discussions about current directing gigs, family logistics, and everyone's complicated work/life/travel balance (04:26–05:44).
• Technology tangent: Jason describes a same-day video call with an astronaut live on the ISS, dropping fun facts like zero-gravity’s effect on eyesight and the thrill of communicating out of this world (08:01–12:12).
  • Memorable quote: "She said when you go up there, something happens to the back of your eyes because there's no gravity. And it flattened the back of her eyes so she doesn't need glasses on Earth anymore." – Jason Bateman (10:02)

Jonah Hill Makes His Entrance (15:37–18:30)

• Jonah’s intro: After a humorously chaotic attempt at a heartfelt introduction from Sean (and much sweating), Jonah takes the stage.
• Settling in: Jonah shouts out his wife, best friend Matt Dines, and his San Diego neighbors—emphasizing his move away from LA and love for that quieter life (16:41–17:33).
  • Quote: "My neighbors are so cool. They never treat me weird or ask me about my job or anything." – Jonah Hill (16:46)
• San Diego stories: Hilarious anecdote about his neighbor's only celebrity question: "Is Jason Bateman a cool guy?" (17:26–18:09)

Jonah Hill on Skating, Comedy Roots & Mentors (19:00–23:46)

• LA memories: The freedom and creativity of growing up in 90s Los Angeles—punk, skating, and sneaking into clubs/movies.
• Skateboarding today: Still rides longboards with his son, though more for fun than tricks (19:42–20:14).
  • Quote: "I skateboard every day now with my son, but we surf skate, which is way easier." – Jonah Hill (20:01)
• Comedy obsessions: Early love for The Simpsons, hip hop, and comedy performance at family gatherings.
• Mentorship: Spike Jonze cited as Jonah’s biggest professional mentor; writing his film "mid90s" at Spike’s apartment (20:37–20:51).
  • On humor and happiness: Jonah shares that after family and some time being "overly serious," he found more fun in comedy again.

Writing, Comedy Influences, and The Simpsons (23:37–24:54)

• Simpsons passion: Jonah describes himself as a writer first, revealing he memorized Simpsons credits, wrote fan letters to writers as a child, and continues to idolize writers like David Mirkin (24:00–24:54).
  • Quote: "If you shook me in the middle of the night and were like, what do you do—I'd be like, I'm a comedy writer." – Jonah Hill (24:00)
• Formative jobs: Started with "Campus Ladies" (with host Keri Aisley in the crowd) and transitioned quickly from writing to performing.

Hollywood, Nepo Baby Jokes & Early Breaks (25:04–30:09)

• "Nepo baby" clarifications: Jokes about his professional lineage, explaining his dad's not in the industry—his "big leg up" was going to Crossroads, where entertainment jobs felt tangible.
• Early acting story: His first gig in "I Heart Huckabees" came via Dustin Hoffman encouraging him to try comedic acting after knowing his son Jake.
• On set chaos: Describes witnessing real-life director-producer fistfights on his first set—"Hollywood is so tight!" (31:05–31:54).
• Full-circle moment: Got to hire the same prod. designer (K.K. Barrett) twenty years later for his own film (32:20–32:35).

The Judd Apatow Era and the Rise of "Superbad" (33:09–47:42)

• Table reads and networking: Got breaks through table reads and auditions, meeting Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen, and other comedy heavyweights (34:47–35:30).
• "Superbad" backstory: After "40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up," "Superbad" gets made—described as a dream project and career-changer (43:10–48:06).
  • Quote: "Superbad was, like, my dream...what I wanted to see." – Jonah Hill (48:05)
• Fame shock: Adjusting to stardom at 22—suddenly recognized everywhere, both exciting and overwhelming.
• Staying grounded: Chose to write for the "Brüno" movie instead of taking repetitive comedy roles, keeping his creative juices (and normalcy) flowing (51:05–52:12).

Transitioning to Drama & Working with Great Directors (52:48–58:51)

• Career pivots: Chose the indie drama "Cyrus" over "The Hangover," feeling it would unlock deeper opportunities (53:26–53:37).
• Moneyball and Wolf of Wall Street: Recalls the surreal experience of working on "Moneyball" and then with Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio on "Wolf of Wall Street" (54:09–56:03).
  • On Scorsese: Raves about the director’s unique energy, human warmth, and inspiring creative presence.
  • Quote: "His ideology and taste in life and everything is like your favorite person…he's as human and real…it's like, the fuck is that guy doing?" – Jonah Hill (58:00)

The Joys of Comedy, AI, and the Future of Movies (40:20–42:59, 70:03–70:56)

• Love for writing: Jonah expresses gratitude daily for being able to write jokes for a living, never taking it for granted.
• On artificial intelligence: Not fazed—believes human experience and emotion will always be comedy’s core (41:54–42:09).
• Bringing comedy films back: Announces commitment to making more "dumb, funny" movies, including "Cut Off," starring Kristen Wiig, Bette Midler, and Nathan Lane (69:33–70:56).
  • Quote: "I'm dedicating the—til you guys make me stop—making people laugh more. Your break's over." – Jonah Hill (70:31)

Life Transitions, Fatherhood & Friendship (59:16–68:39)

• Personal joys: Speaks about fatherhood, surfing, jiu-jitsu, balancing hobbies with parenting, and the privilege to pass on comedy to his son (63:54–64:14).
  • Favorite dad moments: Loves when his 3-year-old tries to be funny: "'Da-da. Oh fuck.' And I'm like, family business, baby." – Jonah Hill (65:07)
• On letting go: The hosts share genuine, sometimes emotional stories about their own kids growing up and leaving for college—sparking a heartfelt segment on parenting (66:29–67:44).

Closing, Upcoming Projects & Goodbyes (68:00–73:13)

• Upcoming releases:
  • "Outcome" (now streaming on Apple): With Keanu Reeves, Cameron Diaz, Matt Bomer, and more (68:57–69:19).
  • "Cut Off": Wild comedy starring Kristen Wiig, Bette Midler, and Nathan Lane (69:29–70:56).
• Host camaraderie: Ends with an affectionate, unusually earnest exchange between Bateman, Hayes, and Arnett—mutual appreciation for each other and the honor of working with best friends daily (71:42–74:03).

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On writing:
  • "If you shook me in the middle of the night and were like, what do you do—I'd be like, I'm a comedy writer." – Jonah Hill (24:00)
  • "I cannot believe I get to write jokes for my job. I say it to myself every day." – Jonah Hill (40:29)
• On early stardom:
  • "You just cannot not become obsessed with yourself when something like that happens." – Jonah Hill (48:46)
• On Judd Apatow:
  • "Judd's like Kobe. He's so great at mining what you're going through and helping you find your voice." – Jonah Hill (39:04)
• On Martin Scorsese:
  • "The fact that I call Marty and don't have to stop and, like, apologize is psychotic to me." – Jonah Hill (55:59)
• On AI & comedy:
  • “AI will write, like, 50 shitty jokes…they won’t have the human experience that allows comedy to be funny.” – Jonah Hill (42:16)
• On fatherhood:
  • "I just prayed that I'd be able to do it in the right way, you know? So I'm so proud of what I get to do. Every second of it is so sick." – Jonah Hill (63:54)
  • "'Da-da. Oh fuck.' And I'm like, family business, baby. Get out there." – Jonah Hill (65:07)

---

Timestamps for Major Segments

• [02:08] – Live show kicks off, hosts' banter, and setting the stage
• [08:01–12:12] – Jason’s International Space Station call story
• [15:37] – Sean’s improv intro and Jonah Hill’s entrance
• [19:00–20:14] – Jonah on LA childhood and skateboarding
• [20:42–21:28] – Rediscovering joy in comedy after starting a family
• [23:05–24:54] – Comedy influences and The Simpsons obsession
• [31:05–32:35] – First set experiences and returning favors to mentors
• [33:09–35:30] – Judd Apatow and the road to "Superbad"
• [43:10–48:06] – "Superbad" shoot, release, and impact
• [51:05–52:12] – Retreating to sitcom writers’ rooms post-fame
• [53:26–53:37] – Choosing "Cyrus" over "The Hangover"
• [54:09–56:03] – Working with legends on "Moneyball" and "Wolf of Wall Street"
• [59:16–61:56] – Parenting, jiu-jitsu, surfing, balancing hobbies and life
• [68:57–70:56] – New films: "Outcome" and "Cut Off"
• [71:42–74:03] – Emotional gratitude and hosts' love-fest

---

Episode Tone & Takeaways

The episode is classic SmartLess: loaded with off-the-cuff humor, self-effacing jokes, hosting chaos, and heartfelt, authentic dialogue. The hosts riff with Jonah about the absurdities and joys of working in Hollywood, but also create space for him to reflect vulnerably on staying grounded, family, learning from icons, and falling back in love with comedy. Jonah’s anecdotes provide back-of-house insight for anyone interested in film and TV, while his humility and candor anchor the episode in relatable truths about happiness, creativity, and parenting.

---

A must-listen for anyone who loves comedy, Hollywood stories, or is just looking for a feel-good, laughter-filled conversation with some of entertainment’s sharpest, funniest minds.

Transcript

[Jason Bateman]

This episode of Smartless is brought to you in part by Skinny Pop popcorn. Which, yes, is exactly what we were inhaling backstage at the live show.

[Sean Hayes]

True story. There is something very satisfying about a snack that actually delivers and doesn't come with a paragraph of ingredients.

[Will Arnett]

Skinny Pop keeps it simple. Real ingredients, classic popcorn. Nothing weird, nothing you have to Google.

[Jason Bateman]

The original is light and airy, but still hits the spot. And if you want to mix it up, they got white cheddar butter, sweet and salty kettle.

[Sean Hayes]

It's one of those snacks that works for anything. Watching something, traveling, pretending you're only going to have a handful.

[Will Arnett]

Skinny P, deliciously popped, perfectly salted, popular for a reason. This episode of Smartless is sponsored by Ashley. Yep, the brand that helped turn our live event stage into a fully styled living space.

[Sean Hayes]

And it's not just about looks. Their stuff is built to hold up to the real life with durable materials and easy to clean fabric.

[Jason Bateman]

For the live show, we were on their Mod Max sofa. It's modular, so you can kind of move it around however you want, depending on your space. Honestly, that setup worked perfectly for the show.

[Will Arnett]

I'm not kidding. I would have taken that whole setup home. It looked great, Felt very comfortable, you

[Sean Hayes]

know, really did feel like we were just hanging out in someone's living room.

[Will Arnett]

Ashley is all about style that's made for real life with white glove delivery right to your room of choice.

[Jason Bateman]

Visit your local Ashley store or head to Ashley.com to find your style.

[Will Arnett]

Welcome to Smartless live at the Avalon Hollywood.

[Sean Hayes]

This was my first.

[Will Arnett]

Hollywood.

[Jonah Hill]

Pathetic.

[Will Arnett]

Sorry. Hi.

[Sean Hayes]

That was pathetic.

[Jason Bateman]

Sorry.

[Sean Hayes]

See the way he tried to come out last? No, no, no. Big entrance.

[Will Arnett]

No, no, no, no.

[Sean Hayes]

What happened?

[Will Arnett]

I got caught up back there. Anyway, hey, I'm here now. Hey.

[Jonah Hill]

Hi.

[Jason Bateman]

Well, hey, welcome Philadelphia, Los Angeles.

[Will Arnett]

Woo. One more crack at it. Get one more crack at it. Let him have one more crack.

[Jason Bateman]

Guys, we're so excited we're here and thank you for coming out tonight. This is very exciting for us.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah, I gave Sean a big smack across the face right before we came out and I waiting for it to hit me back. So just pardon me if I'm over here.

[Jason Bateman]

It was so loud. I can't believe you heard it.

[Sean Hayes]

It's a little bit red over here.

[Jason Bateman]

I'm sure it is.

[Will Arnett]

It's become kind of a tradition before.

[Sean Hayes]

This is how we'll do it. We'll do it. No, this is how we'll do it. We'll just keep him in a clinch.

[Jason Bateman]

It was so hard.

[Sean Hayes]

Fix your mic like I got. All right, so we're very thrilled to be here, huh?

[Will Arnett]

The rest of the show is going to be less violent.

[Sean Hayes]

Less violent.

[Jason Bateman]

Okay.

[Sean Hayes]

Very happy to be here.

[Jason Bateman]

Let's get through.

[Sean Hayes]

This is our second time here at the Avalon. Thank you for having us.

[Jason Bateman]

Let's. Yeah, come on, let's sit.

[Sean Hayes]

Thank you guys for. I'm going to do a little set, you guys.

[Will Arnett]

Okay? Yeah, yeah, go for it. This should be good now.

[Sean Hayes]

Thank you guys for coming.

[Will Arnett]

Look at these. We got our nice. We. We want to thank our sponsors. We got a nice stuff to sit on from Ashley. Yeah, we got some nice stuff from.

[Sean Hayes]

I mean, it's real home.

[Will Arnett]

Skinny Pop, right?

[Sean Hayes]

It's like a little living room set.

[Will Arnett]

Who wants.

[Sean Hayes]

Oh, yeah, T shirts.

[Will Arnett]

Got a couple T shirts here. Look alive, everybody.

[Sean Hayes]

No fighting. We're sorry. There's no. There's.

[Will Arnett]

I don't know. Close. Very close.

[Sean Hayes]

I couldn't get it up.

[Will Arnett]

We got more coming. We got more where that came from.

[Sean Hayes]

That hurt.

[Jason Bateman]

Oh, Jason leaves tomorrow.

[Sean Hayes]

Jason leaves, I leave. Yes. I'm going to go work tomorrow. Yeah, because this isn't work. This is fun. I'm going to go. I have to leave my family for a good long straight.

[Jason Bateman]

Now you know how my dad feels, huh?

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah. This is. It's high class problems. I'm not complaining, but it's hard because I've been home for like a year and now I'm not going to be home for three weeks.

[Jason Bateman]

But it's exciting because you're going to direct a film that he. Right?

[Will Arnett]

Yep.

[Jason Bateman]

And it's very. To us, it's very thrilling. To you it's work, but to us, it's very thrilling. Thrilling that you're going to get behind the camera again and wow us with this other talent that you have that not a lot of people have. And it's very exciting.

[Will Arnett]

I think everybody's happy that you're going behind the camera again. You know, I think you can make. Because you're a good director. Yeah, right.

[Sean Hayes]

That wasn't a compliment, was it? Did he sneak in an insult?

[Jason Bateman]

No, no.

[Sean Hayes]

But you just got back from working away from home for a long time. But you had Scotty with you, so all you missed was Ricky.

[Will Arnett]

What a show.

[Jason Bateman]

Yes. We were gone for three months. We just back last week. But Amanda will be with you in New York, right?

[Sean Hayes]

No, she's going to be here. Franny's going to be with me. Oh, that's for a little while. And then Amanda and Maple are going to come out for a little bit.

[Will Arnett]

You know what? Just email me the itinerary. We're good.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah.

[Sean Hayes]

What did you end up doing with your dog when you were in New York for so long?

[Jason Bateman]

We left the dog. Nobody knows. Actually, the dog is still missing. No, we left. Put the dog in a. What's it called when you board them?

[Sean Hayes]

Prison.

[Jason Bateman]

No. When you bored them.

[Sean Hayes]

No, I'm just saying what it felt like for the dog.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah, no, we. Yeah, it cost a fortune. But he was with other dogs and he could play and he was good.

[Sean Hayes]

He seemed happy.

[Jason Bateman]

He seemed happy when we talked to him on the phone. Yeah, no, he was good.

[Will Arnett]

Are you guys just meeting for the first time? What's happening? This is the weirdest. I'm so far away.

[Jason Bateman]

I know. Well, it's different than the podcast.

[Sean Hayes]

We are going to have a guest that's going to come out here in a second, so that's why we're all separated.

[Will Arnett]

We do have a guest, Sean, and I don't know who the guest is.

[Jason Bateman]

I really.

[Sean Hayes]

My guest. It is a he.

[Will Arnett]

Wait, but wait, we never know. We truly never know who the guest. Every once in a while, somebody who on our.

[Jason Bateman]

Except for, like, the presidents of the United States.

[Will Arnett]

The presidents. We knew. Yeah, but. But we didn't. We really don't know. And so it's always a surprise. And we do never talk about what we're going to talk about. Yeah.

[Sean Hayes]

The difference with this, though, is that usually you guys. We. Guys. I don't do it. But you guys, when I bring on a guest, when we do you guys on the microphone, I see you. I see you guys typing on your computer, quickly Googling that person as soon as they.

[Jason Bateman]

Well, if I don't.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah, no, no, but not because they don't know it, but like, to, like, come up with, like, questions and stuff. Like. You're not gonna have that.

[Will Arnett]

That's.

[Sean Hayes]

No, it isn't.

[Will Arnett]

I don't do that.

[Sean Hayes]

Typing away.

[Will Arnett]

Sean definitely does that.

[Jason Bateman]

I do it, but if I don't know the person, it's like if a sports person comes.

[Will Arnett]

I do not do that. How dare you accuse me of that. What are you basing that on?

[Jason Bateman]

No.

[Sean Hayes]

Well, what are you playing with one? I'm like.

[Will Arnett]

I'm messaging people, dude.

[Sean Hayes]

I'm busy playing. Yes. You're just gonna have to wing it.

[Will Arnett]

No, I mean, I don't. You. I don't know who it is.

[Sean Hayes]

And so you're gonna like him. I like him. He's a friend of mine.

[Jason Bateman]

Wait, can I. Before. Before that, can I just have a little Something I brought with me that I want to show everybody.

[Sean Hayes]

Boy, he loves to prepare.

[Will Arnett]

We gotta watch Guns Real. Yes. This is how.

[Jason Bateman]

So Today, today, only eight hours ago, at 11:05am this morning, Scotty and I chatted with a friend of ours and a friend.

[Sean Hayes]

Did you say shatted?

[Jason Bateman]

Chatted.

[Sean Hayes]

Chatted. Sorry, you can't hear ourselves up here. I'm so sorry.

[Jason Bateman]

We brought a friend over and we

[Sean Hayes]

just shat everywhere at 11:05. We both happened to shat.

[Jason Bateman]

No, no. We chatted with a friend of ours and a friend of ours and a friend of the podcast and it's pretty unbelievable. And we cut together, Scotty cut together this 20 second video to show you what we did only eight hours ago. Today, this is what happened.

[Will Arnett]

Okay.

[Sean Hayes]

Are we going to the tape?

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah.

[Will Arnett]

We haven't seen this.

[Jonah Hill]

Hello to everybody at the Avalanche.

[Sean Hayes]

What?

[Jason Bateman]

Isn't that crazy? Look at her shirt. That is so cool.

[Jonah Hill]

Hey, can you see my reflections?

[Will Arnett]

Yes.

[Jason Bateman]

That is wild.

[Sean Hayes]

Just looking at the shirt.

[Jason Bateman]

Look at that.

[Jonah Hill]

Ok, ready? Yep. I'm floating into our kitchen right now. So this is like our kitchen table. This is our. This is how we warm up food. We got some garlic and onions and some fresh fruit on the heat.

[Jason Bateman]

That's got to make the place smell real good.

[Jonah Hill]

Wow.

[Jason Bateman]

Isn't that amazing? Isn't that amazing?

[Sean Hayes]

Wow.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah. So we.

[Will Arnett]

That is so cool.

[Jason Bateman]

That was, that was this morning. And she's like, do you want to just chat? I'm like, on the fucking International Space Station?

[Jonah Hill]

Yeah.

[Jason Bateman]

So for 45 minutes we were just chatting. She showed us around, she showed us the Russian astronauts and the Japanese section and the. I don't know, it was crazy.

[Will Arnett]

So how cool is that to see our government, you know, tax dollars at work?

[Sean Hayes]

Did you say 45 minutes?

[Jason Bateman]

You talked 45 minutes. We hung out with her today.

[Will Arnett]

Isn't that cool?

[Sean Hayes]

Was there a phone number?

[Jason Bateman]

No. She sends us a link to like not Zoom, but something else. But wait, yeah, Google Meet or whatever. So wait, I wrote down these things, they are moving five miles a second and they rotate the earth every 90 minutes. That's how fast they're going. Isn't that crazy? And I said, what experience you're working on? She said something like, astronauts get blood clots, so they're doing something of that. And they're growing crops like Matt Damon and the Martian. And they're DNA therapeutics, protein crystals, future propulsion system. But what's fascinating is that she said when you go up there, something happens to the back of your eyes because there's no gravity. And it flattened the back of her eyes so she doesn't need glasses on Earth anymore.

[Will Arnett]

Isn't that amazing?

[Jason Bateman]

She doesn't need glasses and so she has 2020 vision.

[Will Arnett]

Sir, what's that book you're reading? I just saw you.

[Jason Bateman]

It's my phone. Anyway, I just wanted to share that with you because that happened today.

[Sean Hayes]

How are you? Because I remember when she was on the podcast. Yeah, we must have covered this, but remind me.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Sean Hayes]

How are you friends with an astronaut?

[Jason Bateman]

Because of the podcast?

[Will Arnett]

What's with the look on your face? So shitty.

[Sean Hayes]

But he. This guy.

[Will Arnett]

Why are you mad at. Why are you mad at him?

[Sean Hayes]

He doesn't know anybody. He never leaves his house. He barely knows his dog. He knows Scotty pretty good.

[Will Arnett]

What happens is he meets people and they want to continue to have a relationship because he's nice. He doesn't have a shitty look on his face.

[Jason Bateman]

And by the way, you just described yourself and you were describing me.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah.

[Jason Bateman]

Isn't that wild? Anyway, isn't that cool?

[Sean Hayes]

I just can't believe you can actually communicate. So she's currently on the space station till September.

[Jonah Hill]

Wow.

[Sean Hayes]

And I'm complaining about going to Jersey for three weeks.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah, exactly. But we can talk to her again. Like, we can hop on there. I asked her tons of questions. She loves it. They love it.

[Will Arnett]

Jb, Were you thinking about, like, how fluid would move differently if you were up there? Like in your face and stuff?

[Sean Hayes]

No, I. You do look puffy when they do those. Those little hits from out of space. I wouldn't be into it. No, no, I just do radio from.

[Jason Bateman]

But it does.

[Will Arnett]

It lifts radio.

[Sean Hayes]

Sorry, guys, camera's not working again.

[Will Arnett]

Radio from space.

[Sean Hayes]

No, I don't care about. This is just a bit. I don't care about that stuff.

[Jason Bateman]

All right, so there's no vanity.

[Will Arnett]

Sean, do you have any more bits? Any more stuff?

[Sean Hayes]

Any more pre tape Sean?

[Jason Bateman]

Yes, I always have. Tons of stuff.

[Will Arnett]

I just said that we never do anything planned. And then you went to a video package.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah, well, I wanted to make sure. I wanted to make sure I left space for her, but I didn't know how to plan it.

[Sean Hayes]

Oh, my God. I can't find my intro that I wrote for the frickin guest.

[Will Arnett]

This is so real.

[Sean Hayes]

Michael, bring me those cards down, please. God damn it.

[Will Arnett]

So what else is going on?

[Sean Hayes]

Unreal.

[Will Arnett]

You know, I just quit smoking recently.

[Sean Hayes]

No, you didn't.

[Will Arnett]

What? You did, Smokey.

[Jason Bateman]

It's Maple Bateman.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah, Maple.

[Sean Hayes]

Maple Babin. All right, this is Going to be a disaster tonight. All right, freestyling. Now intro the guest.

[Jason Bateman]

It could be short.

[Sean Hayes]

This guy. I'm an actor. This is supposed to be written for me. And then I see.

[Will Arnett]

I can see your sweat.

[Sean Hayes]

I know I'm in deep sweat right now. Okay, so this is a fella who, he is extremely. I think he's one of the greatest comedic actors we have. Full stop. Okay, that's a, that's a good start, right? See me vamping, but he doesn't just make you laugh, he makes you cry sometimes. Look at what? All the phones are up. What's going on? I feel like Ariana Grande. He's been nominated twice for an Oscar for fancy movies, right? Not just the comedy stuff. This guy's a big shot. He also writes and directs movies. Done a few of those. What is it, Ryan Reynolds? No, he hasn't written or directed a film yet. And I have found that while he's incredibly talented, his heart's even bigger because we've become friends over the past few years. You know him from Forgetting Sarah Marshall. You know him from knocked up, 40 year old virgin. You know him from Super Bad Moneyball, Wolf of Wall Street. Ladies and gentlemen, the one and only Jonah H.

[Jonah Hill]

Of course I'm sweating. I'm like, what is he going to say?

[Will Arnett]

Dude, what's up, Sean?

[Jonah Hill]

How are you? I was already nervous. I'm like, oh, he already.

[Will Arnett]

Yo, what were you thinking, Jonah? What were you thinking backstage when Baitman blew it with the.

[Sean Hayes]

It's just a total wipeout.

[Jonah Hill]

I, I, I, I'm just coming back out here, like, in crowds and stuff. My wife's here. I'm like. And I'm like, he's down in San Diego now. Jason's gonna hook me up. And he's like, oh, I don't have an intro. So I'm sitting back there going, like. He's gonna go, he's a guy that I'm friends with, I text with. And like, I was like, oh, fuck, he probably wrote something nice. And now it's gonna get, like, dumbed

[Sean Hayes]

down to, you know, you know how to improvise. I don't. I'm all right at the improvising. But you're, you're the, you're the mack dad. You and Vince Vaughn. No one better.

[Jason Bateman]

Brilliant.

[Sean Hayes]

Ever.

[Jason Bateman]

Brilliant.

[Sean Hayes]

All right, so, right, so you're not in front of, you're not in front of crowds all the time. You're not up in la. You're down in San Diego for the most part now.

[Jason Bateman]

Oh, you live In San Diego.

[Jonah Hill]

Oh, yeah. So, okay, so real quick before we go any further, my. My wife is here. My best friend and business partner, Matt Dines is here. Shout out to my beautiful wife, Liv. Where is she? Oh, what's up, baby? And then, so, so I live in a very small town in San Diego, and it's amazing. And my neighbors are incredible people. And when we had our first kid, we moved out there three years ago. And my neighbors are so cool. I. I want to leave LA and raise a family outside of Los Angeles and. And away from entertainment and I could maybe come back and then.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah.

[Jonah Hill]

You know, go back and forth. And my neighbors are so cool. They never, like, treat me weird or ask me about my job or anything. And my neighbor is one of my great friends, Dr. Sean. He never. He never asked. He's here tonight.

[Will Arnett]

Whoa.

[Jonah Hill]

But hold on. He never bothered me or was like, oh, what's this person like? And then like after like a year, we were in the sauna just chilling like two Dads. And he goes, he goes, can I ask you one question? And I was like, yeah, sure, man. And he's like, is Jason Bateman a cool guy? And that was his one question about show business? And I was like, yeah, he's an amazing guy. And he. And he goes. He's like. He's like, it's fucking cool. I'm a big fan of his. So shout out to Dr. Sean and Dr. Bob and Heidi and Laura. I love you guys. Welcome.

[Will Arnett]

You know what, it sounds like jb, you might be able to get in that sauna with these guys.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah, Listen, I love a good.

[Jonah Hill]

For one more.

[Will Arnett]

What do you think, Dr. John? You think JB is good in the sauna?

[Sean Hayes]

I get super nice in the schvitz. Jonah.

[Jonah Hill]

Yeah. Nice to see you all. Thanks for. Thanks for having me.

[Sean Hayes]

Jonah, thank you for doing this. This is a very easy no. And you said yes. You know, you could just say, ah, I'm down in San Diego now.

[Jonah Hill]

We drove in today. It was awesome.

[Jason Bateman]

Now, will you stay overnight or will you drive back?

[Jonah Hill]

Yeah, we're staying at a hotel. We brought our kids.

[Jason Bateman]

Oh, that's nice.

[Jonah Hill]

We have a new little baby who's like just a brand new baby. And then we have an almost three year old, both boys.

[Jason Bateman]

That's so nice.

[Sean Hayes]

So now what. What do you miss about LA when you come up? What do you like to do?

[Jonah Hill]

Oh, you know, nothing.

[Sean Hayes]

Citywalk.

[Jason Bateman]

You.

[Jonah Hill]

I grew up here. It's. LA was such a cool place to grow up in the 90s because you could, like, you know, you could go skateboard downtown or you could sneak into a movie premiere, or you could go sneak into a comedy club and see like, Chris Rock or some.

[Jason Bateman]

You.

[Jonah Hill]

You had access to, like, show business stuff, but you had access to, like, punk and skating and graffiti and all the, like, naughty stuff. And there was no Internet. It was just so awesome.

[Sean Hayes]

You were skating, right? Because your first film, mid-90s, which is awesome, that, like, you certainly were at least familiar with the skating culture. Do you know your way around a skate park?

[Jonah Hill]

I mean, yeah, I still skateboard every day. Like, come on.

[Sean Hayes]

You do?

[Jason Bateman]

Really?

[Sean Hayes]

Okay. Because my daughter Maple is. I took her to the skate park this morning. Pedlo over there in the Valley. She's working on Pop Shove. Its Ollie's. She just dropped in last weekend.

[Jonah Hill]

Amazing. You're already better than I ever was. When I say I skateboard every day now with my son, we surf skate, which is way easier. It's like, I don't do tricks or anything anymore. I'm too old. I'm 42.

[Sean Hayes]

So surfskate means you're on a long board and you just kind of cruise.

[Jonah Hill]

Let's not go crazy. I'm not on a long. I'm unassured, but yeah.

[Sean Hayes]

So you were part of that skate culture? Just a little bit, yeah.

[Jonah Hill]

I loved it. Yeah, it was amazing. Like, anything skating, hip hop and comedy. When I was a kid, I was like, anything about any of it, all I could.

[Sean Hayes]

Did you cross paths with Spike Jones at all back in the day?

[Jonah Hill]

Well, I did a ton. And Spike is my biggest mentor and one of my best friends.

[Sean Hayes]

Incredible director. What a nice guy too.

[Jonah Hill]

He's like one of the most amazing people. And before I directed mid-90s, I wrote mid-90s at his apartment.

[Sean Hayes]

Oh, really?

[Jonah Hill]

In New York. We were both living in New York and I basically spent like five years, you know, after kind of. What was it like? I've been gone for a while, so I'm kind of coming back and I'm like, excited. Cause I got all, like, serious for a while and. And I wasn't happy. I wasn't happy. And then I met. I had my family and I got happy. And now all I want to do is be funny again, you know? So like, it's.

[Will Arnett]

You were always funny.

[Jonah Hill]

It's a freaking blast to just like. That's why I said yes. I'm like, I want to go fucking be funny in front of a crowd and that'd be awesome, you know?

[Sean Hayes]

But the humor. Do you find that the Humor's coming from a more substantial place now that it's. I mean, you're still. You couldn't shake funny if you tried, but now you've got a whole deeper well of reflection and knowing yourself more, and you've peeled the onion, and now you've got a bunch of other stuff to draw upon to feed your humor. Yes.

[Jonah Hill]

Yeah, I think. I mean, speak for me. That's fine.

[Sean Hayes]

That's my special.

[Jonah Hill]

Hey, guys, I don't need to be here. There's no intro, and I just drive back to San Diego and go fuck myself.

[Sean Hayes]

I put the question and the answer in it, and then I say, he

[Will Arnett]

could have just zoomed in. He could have zoomed in. He could have just zoomed in.

[Jonah Hill]

Totally. No, that is a good. That's a good.

[Will Arnett]

Thank you.

[Sean Hayes]

Next question.

[Jonah Hill]

No, but it's more like if you're bummed, you don't feel like being that funny, right? And if you're happy. The first thing I thought about when I got, like, had my kids and was so stoked, it was like, I connected to back when I was just, like, 12, and I was just being funny for fun, right? And I was like, that's the thing. I fell in love with my whole life. Like, I dedicated my whole life to learning everything about the Simpsons and comedy history.

[Jason Bateman]

Who did you. When you were growing up in the 90s, who were your influences? Who were you, like, God, that. That guy is so funny or that show is so funny?

[Jonah Hill]

Everybody.

[Jason Bateman]

Everybody.

[Jonah Hill]

Everything. Like, anything good, bad, or in between, it was like.

[Jason Bateman]

But, like, you. But you're so. Like, Jason said, you're such a genius at improvisation. The first time I saw you was on a show called Campus Ladies.

[Jonah Hill]

Yes.

[Jason Bateman]

And one of my best friends, Keri Aisley, is here.

[Jonah Hill]

Is she here?

[Jason Bateman]

She's right there.

[Jonah Hill]

Kerry.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah.

[Jonah Hill]

Yeah.

[Jason Bateman]

And you were on the show with her.

[Jonah Hill]

Oh, my God.

[Will Arnett]

Hey, Kerry, have you met Dr. Sean?

[Jonah Hill]

Dude, Carrie. Carrie.

[Sean Hayes]

Shawn couldn't get them.

[Will Arnett]

You really can't see him.

[Jonah Hill]

Carrie gave me a huge break. Thank you, Carrie. You gave me a huge fucking break when I was, like, 18.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah, but I watched you on that show, and I'm like, oh, my. Of course you skyrocketed. You were a brilliant performer, actor, improviser, all of it. And I was just like, who is this person? So you must have.

[Jonah Hill]

I mean, mostly the Simpsons. I think the Simpsons is, like, the number one thing in the entire world. Like, if anything's left an impact on my life, it'd be the Simpsons over.

[Will Arnett]

It's some of the greatest comedy writing of all time. It's pretty. It's like such a heavyweight.

[Sean Hayes]

But it was, but that's. That was obviously there's no acting in that except for the voices, obviously. So were you following like the writing of that? Was writing the first poll for you not performing.

[Jonah Hill]

If you like shook me in the middle of the night and like what do you do? I'd be like, I'm a comedy writer. That's what I do. Like I write jokes every day. Like I go and write scripts like, you don't know this cause you just see the front side of it. But most of my job is writing comedy movies. That's like mostly what I do. And when I was young, I would VHS record the Simpsons and then pause it on the writers and write them all letters. Oh my gosh. And to this day, one of my biggest mentors and friends is David Merck, who's like an iconic Simpsons writer. And every time, like you've been to a screening of early cuts in my movies for notes, like, David Mirkin comes to every single screening, every table read. And he was like my childhood hero. So I wrote them all letters when I was like 7, 8 years old. And that was my dream. Like if I had written for the Simpsons, that's like, would have been more than enough for.

[Sean Hayes]

Did you write a spec Simpsons script?

[Jonah Hill]

Yeah, I've written a ton of spec Simpsons.

[Jason Bateman]

Oh, you did? Did they ever buy one or pick?

[Jonah Hill]

No, no, I never like sent them to them. I wrote them like.

[Jason Bateman]

Oh yeah.

[Jonah Hill]

As like an 8 year old.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah, they can't receive they. Well, just an 8 year old. Well then when did, when did the, when did the performance part of it start to take hold? Like when did you think that you could be in front of the camera?

[Jonah Hill]

Well, I got to think all three of you were like hams. Comedic hams.

[Will Arnett]

Right? What happened?

[Jonah Hill]

Like, did you just drift off?

[Will Arnett]

I just.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah, he's narcoleptic.

[Jason Bateman]

He said, he said we're all hams.

[Jonah Hill]

Must have been hams when you were little kids. Like if there was like a party at my parents house, I'd do like a comedy show. I feel like everyone here can relate to that. So it was just always like people were like, oh, you're funny. And then when I got to middle school, people's parents were like, you should pull them out of school to my parents and like make them a comedian.

[Sean Hayes]

Wow.

[Jonah Hill]

Yeah. People would like say that you were

[Sean Hayes]

going to schools where there were some people that were in the business. Like, like the center and people think

[Jonah Hill]

I'm a Nepo baby. By the way, my wife and I were just laughing about this, that I'm a Nepo baby. My dad's a accountant. If you ask these guys, he directs a lot of. Do you ever hire your business manager son for.

[Sean Hayes]

For.

[Jonah Hill]

For Black Rabbit or whatever?

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jonah Hill]

No, hire Jeffy Goldstein to play, like, the heavy and.

[Will Arnett]

But, Jonah, how old were you when we met? We met when you were. You were like. You were young.

[Sean Hayes]

Will, should we take a snack break?

[Will Arnett]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jonah Hill]

You were, like, hanging out at my school. Like, no, no, no, no, no, no. We were like a trench coat on.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah, no, that was a newly sober. That's something different.

[Jonah Hill]

Okay, all right, all right.

[Will Arnett]

No, it was at, like. I'm leading by example.

[Jonah Hill]

You had this, like, van.

[Will Arnett]

It was at the Whistler.

[Jonah Hill]

No. So I went to the school called Crossroads, which is a, like, full leg up. Because if you grow up out here and go to this school, everybody's parents. Parents are in entertainment. So to be fair, it wasn't an abstract job. That was like, my big leg up, where I was like, everybody's parents here works in entertainment. So if you want to, like, write for the Simpsons, that's not the craziest idea in the entire world. Right. So that was a huge leg up for me to just not be, like, show business as abstract and far away. Right, Right.

[Will Arnett]

We were. Yeah, we were literally at. It was Henry Winkle. We're doing the first season wrestle development, and I went over there for breakfast one Saturday, and you and Max.

[Jonah Hill]

So Max was like, my best friend in high school, is Henry's son, and he's an amazing guy and a great director.

[Sean Hayes]

Great director. Directs a lot of the Ryan Murphy stuff right here.

[Jonah Hill]

Ton of amazing stars. The Charlie Hunnam show he just did was incredible. Freak, monster monsters. And he's an amazing dude. Yeah. And so I met Will, and I remember meeting Will.

[Will Arnett]

You were a kid.

[Jonah Hill]

I was so hyped because I was interning for his brother and Arrested Development had just come out.

[Sean Hayes]

And Jake Hoffman was another buddy of yours. He interned on Arrested Development, didn't he?

[Will Arnett]

Yeah.

[Sean Hayes]

Dustin Hoffman.

[Jason Bateman]

Is that a TV show? Yeah, Arrested Development.

[Jonah Hill]

It's very funny, Jonah.

[Will Arnett]

Sean's never seen it.

[Sean Hayes]

Never seen it.

[Jonah Hill]

Is that real?

[Will Arnett]

Not a bit.

[Sean Hayes]

It's real.

[Jason Bateman]

Never seen it.

[Sean Hayes]

It's real.

[Jason Bateman]

I saw the first episode.

[Jonah Hill]

You guys have your first job in show business. I'm so jealous of you guys because you're on it.

[Jason Bateman]

This is.

[Will Arnett]

You're joining us?

[Sean Hayes]

We're looking to Replace one of us.

[Jonah Hill]

But like, like, you guys have, like. It's like being in a writer's room. Like, you're just bullshitting with your friends, but you don't have to make the thing at the end.

[Sean Hayes]

You just get paid, like a million

[Jonah Hill]

dollars to just show up to the writing and never have to, like, make the good jokes in or edit out the bad ones. You're just like, man, let's couch and order food and.

[Sean Hayes]

All right, but so wait, so you want to be a writer? You start doing it at 8. You're in a school. Schools where the pathway to entertainment industry is not unre. But at what age do you get the first sort of on camera idea and then it actually happens? Are you still. You're still in high school?

[Jonah Hill]

I was 18. So, like, fresh out of high school, I started working.

[Sean Hayes]

So what's that first job? Do you get an agent?

[Jonah Hill]

No, no, no. So it wasn't like that. I went to New school. I went to Boulder for one semester and got kicked out. My mom calls it her $40,000 sweatshirt. And she's really funny. My parents. Parents are really funny people and. And. And awesome people. But they. They said. I went to New school and in New York City, and I started just performing in, like, in theater school, but then performing at bars and doing, like, kind of stand up.

[Sean Hayes]

You're doing stand up?

[Jonah Hill]

Yeah, like stand up. And then, like, short plays. And like, they would let me perform at this bar called Black and White, which is an awesome bar.

[Sean Hayes]

Did you do Black and White, Willie?

[Jonah Hill]

No. It was so fun. It was like the most fun time. And then I started getting, like, a crowd of people, and I was already like, it's on, dude. I was like, it's so gonna be

[Sean Hayes]

on because you're comfortable in front of an audience. And then. So going to a camera then is not that much of a leap.

[Jonah Hill]

No. And then I got my first job in a movie called I Heart Huckabees, which was like, my first job. And Jake's dad, Jake's dad Dustin was like, you should be a comedic actor. Okay, so how did that.

[Sean Hayes]

How did that come to be. How did you get in front of Dustin?

[Will Arnett]

How did you get.

[Jonah Hill]

It wasn't like a performance thing or anything. We were just. I was just friends with his son, and he would see me do stuff, and I. And was like. And I make prank call CDs. I'd make prank call CDs. I was like a ham. I was just, like, trying to be funny all the time.

[Sean Hayes]

But you were just Making Dustin laugh around the house. And he says, you should maybe, like,

[Jonah Hill]

if Mabel had a friend over or like, you know, Rob Reiner. Rest in peace to the legend. I fucking love that dude so much. But, you know, Rob would bring Albert Brooks around, and Rob would tell me that, like, his dad was like, like, Albert is the funniest guy, but Albert was just Rob's friend.

[Sean Hayes]

Right, right, right.

[Jonah Hill]

You know, and it. And Albert's Albert Brooks. Right. So, like, so like, Dustin was like, I'm doing this movie. Here's. I got you an audition. And so he got me an audition.

[Sean Hayes]

You read for. For the casting director. She passed it on to David. David said, yeah, great. And then you get on that set and what's that like being on. On a set? Are you just looking around?

[Jonah Hill]

Well, David O was nut nuts at that time. He was buck wild. And I'm like, homies with him. He's awesome. Super nice guy. But at that moment in life, and I've had my own, trust me, he was buck wild, dude. There's like, you know, he was like screaming at Lily Tomlin and stuff.

[Sean Hayes]

Oh, it's online.

[Jonah Hill]

It's online. And, and. And he'll talk about it. Like, you know, he's really cool. He's one of the best directors ever. I mean, Flirting Disaster and Three Kings. I mean, he's so goated, it's insane. And. And I got on the set, I was like, everyone's screaming at each other. He. 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 and it was like joking that, like, turned into a fight. And these guys are, like, fighting. And it was. They were setting up my first scene to act in.

[Will Arnett]

Welcome to Hollywood.

[Jonah Hill]

I was like, hollywood is so tight. This is so cool.

[Will Arnett]

I saw a fist fight on set once too.

[Sean Hayes]

Really?

[Will Arnett]

Yeah, it was crazy. It was so crazy.

[Jason Bateman]

Can you say the name of the movie?

[Will Arnett]

I don't remember, but yeah, it was this weird thing I did, but it was out in the desert. Listen, guys, is everyone wearing. Point is. But I saw these two dudes, these two big dudes, like a grip and a gaffer get into it. They end up. They were arguing and they ended up getting into a fucking fist fight.

[Jonah Hill]

Well, full circle moment. Real quick. I want to give KK some shout out right now. But he. If I was like, if I ever get to direct movies, I'm going to hire K.K. barrett. And he did my newest movie outcome.

[Sean Hayes]

He did.

[Jonah Hill]

He was the production designer so full circle, like 20 years later.

[Sean Hayes]

He was the greatest production designer ever. One of them for sure.

[Jonah Hill]

So that was like a full circle moment. It was like a dream of mine.

[Sean Hayes]

So from there, you do a great job in that movie. You have to wait till the movie comes out until the industry starts to see it. Or does word get out from like dailies and early cuts and stuff like that? And get.

[Jonah Hill]

My part was so small that, like, it didn't make a dent. It wasn't like people were like, you know, trying to give me jobs and shit. And. And then I met a guy named Peter Principal, an incredible manager, who is my former manager. Awesome dude.

[Will Arnett]

And he introduced me.

[Jonah Hill]

That's what I was looking at. Will Legend. And. And he got me an audition for Campus Ladies. And that was my second job, was Campus Ladies. And I got like three or four episodes on that, and it was all Groundlings, people. And on that show because it was like Will Forte and Maya Rudolph and like every dope person I was in love with came onto the show. And then my life really kicked off when I met Judd Apatow, you know, so.

[Sean Hayes]

So did those people kind of get in Judd's ear and say, hey, you gotta check this guy out.

[Jonah Hill]

I think I was just starting to do, like, table reads. I mean, this is like inside baseball, so this might be so boring. Is this boring as shit?

[Sean Hayes]

Okay, so like, when somebody's gonna, like, has a script and they're thinking about making a movie, they'll get a bunch of really talented around a table and they'll read it out loud and see if it makes everybody laugh and the part.

[Jonah Hill]

And I was like, the funny, like 18 year old. There wasn't a lot of like 18. Me and Michael Cera would be at, like, all of them together, you know, so. And like Seth and Jason Siegel, like, all the young dudes would be at them. And then when Judd started blowing up was. I auditioned for four Year Old Virgin. I met him and Seth. And then my life from then on that day I shot 40 year old virgin. It's one scene in an ebay store. And it was raining that day. So we were only supposed to shoot that scene for like an hour, but it was raining, so they didn't have a cover set. So we shot it a whole day. And I just improvised a whole day in front of Judd and Seth and Shawna Robertson, one of my best friends. And Judd was like, what do you want to write? And I was like, you don't understand. All I want to do is write and so, but what about the. So he gave me. I pitched him two movies, and he bought them.

[Sean Hayes]

Them.

[Jonah Hill]

And my parents are like, who is this guy who's molesting you? That I was living at home and I was 19. They're like, who is Judd Abatow? And is he, like, touching your wiener? Because, like, you're like, a speaker donor who, like, doesn't have a job. And, like, why do you have a two picture deal at, like, Universal and you're, you know, like, it made no sense.

[Sean Hayes]

What were the films?

[Jonah Hill]

One was called Middle Child, which a lot of those jokes I won't say, but the movie maybe got swallowed into another movie. And then one called One was about an imaginary friend, which is really clever script. And then neither of them got made, but it, like, ingratiated me with those guys. And then we went on this whole crazy.

[Jason Bateman]

See, now I hear this all the time. Like, just those two, like, the title Middle Child, and something with imaginary Friend with you writing it.

[Will Arnett]

Where did those scripts go?

[Jason Bateman]

Like, why don't we resurrect them?

[Jonah Hill]

They're around. I mean, like, I could probably try and clean one up and get it made, but I have new stuff.

[Jason Bateman]

What's that?

[Will Arnett]

You want to take a look at it?

[Jason Bateman]

I just want to take a look.

[Sean Hayes]

I'll do the table reading hard for you.

[Jonah Hill]

Are you.

[Will Arnett]

Are you accepting notes still? Because. Sean.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah. We'll be right back.

[Will Arnett]

This episode of Smartless is sponsored by Ashley, the brand that helped turn our live event stage into a fully styled living space.

[Jason Bateman]

Ashley's whole thing is making your home feel like you with styles that balance timeless design and modern trends.

[Sean Hayes]

Slower, Sean. And it's not just about look. Their stuff is built to hold up to the real life with durable materials and easy to clean fabric.

[Jason Bateman]

For the live show, we were on their Mod Max sofa. It's modular, so you can kind of move it around however you want, depending on your space.

[Will Arnett]

And it's got that super soft performance fabric, which sounds fancy, but really just means if you spill something, you're not immediately in a panic.

[Jason Bateman]

Sean.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah. So the accent chairs were great. Too big. They're comfortable. The kind of chair where you sit, sit down, and you go, all right, I'm here for a while.

[Will Arnett]

And the coffee and accent tables tied everything together. Clean, simple, but somehow made everything feel finished.

[Sean Hayes]

It's just a beautiful setup.

[Jason Bateman]

Honestly, that setup worked perfectly for the show. The modular couch made it easy for us to fit however many people ended up on stage.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah, I mean, good luck with you, man.

[Jason Bateman]

Thanks.

[Will Arnett]

I'm not kidding. I would have taken that whole setup home. It looked great. Felt very comfortable.

[Sean Hayes]

You know, really did feel like we were just hanging out and stuff. Someone's living room.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah. And for Jason, this is the farthest he's been from his couch in weeks.

[Sean Hayes]

It's hurtful.

[Will Arnett]

Ashley is all about style that's made for real life with white glove delivery right to your room of choice.

[Jason Bateman]

Visit your local Ashley store or head to Ashley.com to find your style. This episode of Smartless is brought to you in part by Skinny Pop Popcorn, which, yes, is exactly what we were inhaling backstage at the live show.

[Sean Hayes]

True story. There is something very satisfying about a snack that actually delivers and doesn't come with a pair of grass of ingredients.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah. And Skinny Pop keeps it simple. Real ingredients, classic popcorn. Nothing weird, nothing you have to Google.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah. The original is light and airy, but still hits the spot. And if you want to mix it up, they got White Cheddar Butter, Sweet and Salty kettle.

[Sean Hayes]

It's one of those snacks that works for anything. Watching something traveling, pretending you're only going to have a handful.

[Will Arnett]

Jason, that's you. We had Skinny Pop backstage at the live show, and it disappeared fast.

[Sean Hayes]

Families, friends, zero restraint.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah, it's kind of our go to movie night road trip before we record. During the record.

[Sean Hayes]

White Cheddar butter, Sweet and salty Kettle.

[Will Arnett]

Sean, you put Skinny Pop on your pasta marinara.

[Jason Bateman]

Oh, absolutely. It adds texture.

[Sean Hayes]

It's upsetting.

[Will Arnett]

Look, the stuff we want to snack on and the stuff we should snack on, usually not the same thing. Skinny Pop bridges that gap.

[Sean Hayes]

Creates a bridge in between the Skinny Pop.

[Will Arnett]

Deliciously popped, perfectly salted, popular for a reason.

[Jason Bateman]

I'll say. And now back to the show.

[Sean Hayes]

But what about the stroke of genius luck that you landed in front of Judd Apatow? Like, one of the greatest sort of finders of talent and nurturers of talent.

[Jonah Hill]

He's amazing.

[Sean Hayes]

Giving people chances and championing them. Like, look what he's done. Just you alone. I mean, and there's what hundred people probably name 25 people right now that are household names that Judd has championed.

[Jonah Hill]

Judd's like Kobe. I mean, like, he's. He's so.

[Sean Hayes]

He's up there with Lorne Michaels as far as launching people into the comedy world.

[Jonah Hill]

Yeah, there was, like, me and my friends, but then there's, like, Lena Dunham, and it went on like, Amy Schumer and Pete. You know, like, he really just, like, see something in these people. And he's so great at, like, mining what you're going through and helping you find your voice. And what he really did was he put me through Harvard education of directing comedy movies. So, like, now that I'm 42 and we have our own company. Shout out, strong baby. Shout out. Matt dines my bestie up there and we produce the movies we make. Now, I, like, know what to do because of Judd.

[Jason Bateman]

Right?

[Jonah Hill]

You know, so I'd go. He'd. In his. He was blowing up. So my favorite thing was going to the table reads because you'd have writers at the table reads, and you'd dissect, accept, and give notes on the scripts. And that's what I love to this day. I love, like, the Rubik's Cube of cracking and making better and making a comedy script better.

[Sean Hayes]

You're not burdened by the idea of writing. Like, I love it.

[Jonah Hill]

It's my favorite part of the process.

[Sean Hayes]

But, I mean, do you love the part where you're sitting in a room by yourself and you're staring at a blank wall and you're just trying to, like. Trying to fill a blank page? Like, to me, that's the hardest thing in the business.

[Jonah Hill]

As dickheadish and insane as I was when I got famous at, like, 22. Like, I don't take for granted a day that I get paid to write jokes, I actually think. And I've grown way past that part when I was 21 or 22. But, like, I cannot believe I get to write jokes for my job. I say it to myself every day.

[Sean Hayes]

I'm like, what about mood structure and, like, character development and. And, you know, all is lost on page 75. And, like, all of this, like, stuff you've gotta, like.

[Jonah Hill]

There's like.

[Will Arnett]

It's the best job, by the way. Tony, if you notice. Everything exhausts him.

[Jonah Hill]

Yeah, everything. Dude, if I was on Smart List, I wouldn't fucking write scripts.

[Sean Hayes]

It's so hard.

[Jonah Hill]

Don't you guys have, like, a mobile. Mobile company? Like, dude, if I was you guys, I wouldn't touch a computer the rest of my goddamn life. I live in Tahiti and fucking phone this in on zoom, dude. All right, so I'm out here. I got to work in Hollywood, which, like, doesn't exist anymore. I'm like. I'm basically a cobbler. I make comedy movies. It's like me and two other people.

[Jason Bateman]

Well, Jonah, talk to me about that. Like, I know you're. You're half joking about Hollywood being whatever you just said, like, it's over, you know, because that's the feeling out there. Right now is that, you know, where is this going? And everybody's scared, and everybody's like, what's going to happen with AI and especially in comedy. Not especially in comedy, but like, oh, thank God.

[Will Arnett]

A conversation about AI. Oh, finally. Finally.

[Sean Hayes]

We can't. But, like, what you can put in a prompt that says, write me a joke that Jonah Hill might say on a stage with three other dudes. Like, you'll get, like six jokes. So, like, is that going to, like, affect. Affect the whole writing stuff and.

[Jonah Hill]

No, no, because you can't replace comedy ultimately is human. Human component page.

[Sean Hayes]

And then you're just plussing it.

[Jonah Hill]

Perhaps it'd be like having some grom. Writers in the writers room. Yeah, they'll write. AI will write, like 50 shitty jokes that you could rewrite or something, but they won't be. They won't have the human experience that allows comedy to be funny. Because you gotta get dumped to. To write a funny movie about getting dumped. Right, right, right. A computer hasn't been dumped. They know. Maybe they have. I don't know. I shouldn't say that. I'm sorry to all the computers in the crowd and. But, like, I don't worry at all. I also live in. I'm like. I just go until they fire me. Like, I'm so motivated by what I do and my family that, like, I just have two things. I have my family and writing comedy.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah. Yeah. So, like, well, where do I fit in in that?

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah.

[Jonah Hill]

Well, I'm here tonight.

[Sean Hayes]

All right. So how close are we to Superbad now? At this. This point in.

[Jonah Hill]

It'll be 20 years. Oh, you mean like at that point?

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah, in this. In this story here where you're so.

[Jonah Hill]

It was 40 year old virgin, and then a year later, we made Knocked up. And then two months after Knocked up, we made Superbad. So, like, a year after I met Judd, we made Superbad.

[Sean Hayes]

So who. I'm embarrassed I should know this.

[Jonah Hill]

And you guys were working with Michael, right?

[Sean Hayes]

Who wrote Super Bad.

[Jonah Hill]

Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg wrote the most brilliant script of all time.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah.

[Jonah Hill]

And it hit red. We all improvised, and everyone comes up with great jokes on those movies, but their script that they wrote was, like, flawless.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah, but like, do you remember Michael Cera going away to do that movie that was done during the hiatus?

[Will Arnett]

No, but I tell you something, this is a true story. So years ago, right before, like, the year before Superbad, there was a script that we were gonna do at a place. I won't say, because then you'll be Able to know who was in charge. And. And it was about. It's this crazy great script that Mitch Hurwitz and I worked on with Jim Vallee. Really, really, really funny. It turned out great. And I said to the guy who ran this particular studio, so this is super bad. Was 2007, right?

[Jason Bateman]

I mean. Pause for a second. You with the dates. He knows dates like so. Mary Lou Henner.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah.

[Sean Hayes]

And he'll tell you what. What month was the film released? In which one? Superbad, 2007.

[Will Arnett]

Oh, that. I don't know. I don't know.

[Jonah Hill]

It was 2007. Yeah.

[Will Arnett]

No, but what month?

[Sean Hayes]

It's probably a summer release, right? Yeah, probably.

[Will Arnett]

It might have been. But I remember going in and this thing that we were working on called for this dude, this character I was playing, and then these two teenage sons, and it was two teenage boys who were best friends. It was basically like a three hander. And I said to the guy, this is before all that, before 40 year old virgin. I go, it should be Michael Cera and this kid, Jonah Hill.

[Jonah Hill]

No way.

[Will Arnett]

And he goes, what? No, man, what are you talking about? And I swear to God. And a year later, or whatever it was 18 months later, Superbad comes out and it's like a huge hit.

[Sean Hayes]

And I'm like, enormous.

[Will Arnett]

This dumb. Yeah, this guy blew it and he got fired.

[Sean Hayes]

Did he?

[Jason Bateman]

He should have.

[Will Arnett]

I'll tell you after.

[Jonah Hill]

Thank you.

[Will Arnett]

I'll tell you after.

[Jonah Hill]

Because when I met Will, like when I was. Was 18, I met him at my friend's house and I, I was bugging out dude because he was job from Arrested Development. I was like, holy, dude.

[Sean Hayes]

Like, so good.

[Jonah Hill]

Couldn't believe.

[Sean Hayes]

So good.

[Will Arnett]

These guys.

[Sean Hayes]

Anyway, all right, so super bad happens. That's very, very cool. Very exciting. Yes. But I would imagine it was game changing too. That's my question. Was it disruptive or did you. Did you flow with it pretty good? Because I know Michael Cera was. Because Arrested Development was just finished, right?

[Will Arnett]

We were just done Arrested Development.

[Sean Hayes]

We had finished the three seasons at Fox.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah. Because we finished in December of 2005.

[Sean Hayes]

Okay, so then that.

[Jonah Hill]

So are you allowed to say Rain Man?

[Sean Hayes]

I remember he is Mary Lou Henner.

[Jonah Hill]

Are we okay? Okay.

[Sean Hayes]

No, I remember Michael was just. Even though he'd already had some, some fame, some notoriety from Arrested Development, Superbad was a whole. Another level. And there was a level of adjustment for him. I know for sure. For you as well. Was it. Was it comfortable for a bit or.

[Jonah Hill]

I mean, it was exciting as hell, but it Was crazy. It was just bizarre, you know, it

[Sean Hayes]

was like, can't walk down the street anymore.

[Jonah Hill]

Yeah. And Michael and I hung out every day still. We would go to Canters. I live behind Cantors in Seth's old apartment. And Michael and I would just walk to Canters. And people would be talking about this shit, like, in the. Like, our lives were like that movie. And people would see us and they'd freak out because it's like, we walked off the screen into the deli, you

[Sean Hayes]

know, like, people think you're shooting a sequel.

[Jonah Hill]

Yeah. It was just so bizarre, you know, it was trippy.

[Sean Hayes]

But are you thinking.

[Jonah Hill]

Because you're. You're.

[Sean Hayes]

How old are you at that point? 20.

[Jonah Hill]

22.

[Sean Hayes]

22. So you're at an age.

[Jonah Hill]

I don't think. I'm not Will. 22 or 23.

[Sean Hayes]

So you're at an age where you're thinking about, okay, I need to have a job, a career. I need to be starting thinking 5 years, 10 years in the future. I got to provide. I got to. So this is. Are you thinking now this is. I've got some momentum. This can be my career. Is it. Does it align with what your plans were, what your dreams were, what your goals were?

[Jonah Hill]

I was obviously stoked because I loved the movie. You know, I didn't know if I'd get to work on shit I loved. I knew I'd work in comedy in some capacity. Like, I had the confidence enough to know, like, I am professionally funny, even at, like, 18 or 19, whatever. But I didn't. Like, Superbad was, like, my dream. I was like, what I wanted to see.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah, Right.

[Jonah Hill]

You know, so I. I could. I was so stoked that Judd was in the position to make the kind

[Will Arnett]

of movies Super Superman comes out. You've got a pretty good idea that shit's working out. It's a huge head I'm going to watch.

[Sean Hayes]

The comedy features were a huge business, huh?

[Jason Bateman]

I'm going to watch it tonight. I mean, I've seen it, but I'm going to watch it again right after Arrested. Yeah. Well, now.

[Jonah Hill]

Now that I have kids. Now that I have kids, I'm like, oh, my God. Imagine when, like, my son, like, who's three, like, imagine him watching that movie.

[Will Arnett]

Oh, my God.

[Jonah Hill]

I never thought about that.

[Sean Hayes]

Maple loved it.

[Jonah Hill]

Does your cool kid still watch it and stuff?

[Sean Hayes]

She loved it.

[Jonah Hill]

That's right.

[Sean Hayes]

Loved it a lot. She was very excited to be here tonight.

[Jonah Hill]

Yeah.

[Will Arnett]

What I kind of want to know

[Jonah Hill]

is, but it was psycho. It was psycho. Like, we couldn't walk around and, and, and, and it was like so exciting and kind of scary. And then like you just cannot not become obsessed with yourself when something like that happens. It just is like, it's impossible. Become like a weird dude for like a year.

[Will Arnett]

Everybody's telling you you're great, right? So everybody's going, you're the greatest.

[Jonah Hill]

You just have all your friends that you're still friends with from high school, but all of a sudden one of you people like, respect and pay attention to. So like, you just are kind of a self centered person because it's about you a lot of the time. And thank God that time is over and it's not about me anymore.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah, but you're skipping over a very interesting, interesting part where you're like, you're kind of, you're munching on all the junk food of all that fame and all of that access and relevance and whatnot. And then you start to think, this is a question. What should I do about dramatic work? To make sure that.

[Jonah Hill]

I'll tell you. The smartest thing I did was like, Michael, Michael had Juno come out like two months later.

[Sean Hayes]

He was like, Michael Jackson, have you seen Juno?

[Jonah Hill]

But for real, Michael, Sarah had Superbad and Juno come out in like six months. And it was like he really, he was more famous than I was. And, and, and he retreated inward and, and I was like,

[Jason Bateman]

I'm gonna watch Juno tonight too.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah, sorry.

[Sean Hayes]

Best movie about Alaska you will ever see.

[Jonah Hill]

Soft spoken and inward. But he, he, he is still, I will say to this, he is top three best friends in the world to this day.

[Sean Hayes]

A great man.

[Jonah Hill]

We still talk like once a week.

[Sean Hayes]

Just finished directing a movie.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah.

[Jonah Hill]

He's in post on his movie. It's gonna be amazing. He's so fucking brilliant and cool and a great human being. But what I did was I got offered a bunch of movies for the first time and I was all in the comedy space or all the comedies. Yeah. And I was like, like, I can't make a. None of these are as good as super bad.

[Sean Hayes]

Right.

[Jonah Hill]

So I said what to my agent, what writing jobs are available. And Sasha Baron Cohen was looking for writers for the Bruno movie. And I, I auditioned for the writers room and I was in.

[Sean Hayes]

What's the writer audition like?

[Jonah Hill]

It's like you get like a day sit in, in the writers room. But I had been in the writers rooms with Judd and those guys. So I got the job and I was like, super. I was like arguably more famous than Sasha was at that time. And I was, like a pimply writer in his writer's room for, like, six months. I would ride my bike to the lot over here on Formosa from my apartment on Fairfax, and people would be like, yo. And I would just go and write jokes because I didn't want to think about, like, the outside world. I didn't want think about the pressure of, like, what do I do next?

[Will Arnett]

Such a funny move to do that, to go from that to then all of a sudden just to be a writer, a staff writer on the. Bruno.

[Jonah Hill]

It was the best time because it was like I. I was like, I just got to work with one of my heroes and pitch, like, I loved Bruno. Like, when the Ali G show came out, it was like. It was like when Arrested Development came out, I was, like, obsessed with Bruno. So, like, all of a sudden, I was writing jokes, and, like, Mickey Mouse was saying my jokes, like, you know, like. Like, it wasn't just, like, someone cool. It was like, a character that I already know.

[Sean Hayes]

He's an incredible talent.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah.

[Jonah Hill]

He's an awesome guy. He was an awesome boss.

[Will Arnett]

I kind of want to. I kind of want to get to. I think you were trying to get to it, but, man, you take a long time.

[Jonah Hill]

No, I do. I'm. I.

[Will Arnett]

You're.

[Sean Hayes]

You're allowed to. You're supposed to be speaking.

[Will Arnett]

We want to hear from you, Liv.

[Jonah Hill]

Am I being boring or.

[Jason Bateman]

No, no, no. This is fascinating.

[Will Arnett]

I love Jonah.

[Jonah Hill]

Sean, is this one of your favorite episodes? We love this. Or do we flip over to, like, Dax's podcast, Sean, or. No, do we keep listening to this or.

[Will Arnett]

I want to. Joe. I want to get into. Because then you go and you start doing interesting things, like Wolf of Wall street, in which you're amazing.

[Jonah Hill]

Thank you.

[Sean Hayes]

So, dude, don't skip over Moneyball, huh?

[Jonah Hill]

Well, I'll tell you. I'll tell you this, by the way.

[Will Arnett]

Moneyball. Oh, dude, Moneyball. First of all, the really hard film to make from that book is a great book, and you're. I remember thinking, like, they'll never do it. It so far. It's so. That movie's so great. You are so great in that movie. So you do Moneyball.

[Jonah Hill]

Well, can I say one thing before that?

[Sean Hayes]

Yes, please.

[Jonah Hill]

I don't want to jump straight. Straight to there.

[Jason Bateman]

Did we miss a couple?

[Jonah Hill]

No. I know the question. I know the question you're trying. The question you're trying to ask is this. In my opinion, is this. Is that I got. I was working for Sasha and got offered all the big Comedies. And. And I got offered the Hangover and Cyrus at the same time, and I

[Sean Hayes]

did Cyrus, and this is why we need agents.

[Jonah Hill]

I wish I did both, because the Hangover rips and is an amazing movie, and I love Todd, but, like, I

[Sean Hayes]

was like, Cyrus didn't suck. The two classes know what they're doing.

[Jonah Hill]

No, no, no. But it changed my life because I wanted to do dramatic movies and comedic movies, and that script in that part was incredibly and very deep and emotional and a lot like my work today.

[Sean Hayes]

And. And guess what? Bennett Miller probably saw Cyrus, and he probably did not see Hangover, so he

[Jonah Hill]

saw Cyrus and he cast me a Moneyball.

[Will Arnett]

I could let them let him speak.

[Jonah Hill]

Dude, sorry.

[Sean Hayes]

I get so excited.

[Jonah Hill]

Now we're. Now we're caught up. I'm just bridging. Bridging the. I'm just doing a little bridge. A little bridge work.

[Will Arnett]

But so then you work Ben Miller, and then you work with Martin Scorsese on Wolf of Wall street and with Leo DiCaprio. That must have been just a. A mind blow with first day.

[Jonah Hill]

Well, Moneyball was unbelievable.

[Will Arnett]

Oh, yeah, of course.

[Jonah Hill]

Like, Moneyball was such a trip because, like, my. Remember, my dad was a fan of that book, and he's like, how are they gonna make this?

[Sean Hayes]

Michael Lewis? Yeah.

[Jonah Hill]

How are you gonna make this a movie movie?

[Sean Hayes]

Didn't Aaron Sorkin write that script?

[Jonah Hill]

And Steve Zailing. I mean, Bennett Miller is not, like, a household name, but if you make.

[Sean Hayes]

I wish you direct more movies.

[Jonah Hill]

He is such a brilliant director. The director of that film.

[Will Arnett]

He hasn't made a movie. That dude hasn't made a movie in years.

[Sean Hayes]

Since Foxcatcher, I think, right?

[Jonah Hill]

Yeah, since Foxcatcher. And he's. He's an amazing guy. So much.

[Sean Hayes]

But didn't you. Didn't you want to direct early. Early on?

[Jonah Hill]

Okay, so all these guys, I would just work for them and sponge for them and write for them. And like, Spike at that time, I would just write for him for free for, like, five years. Whatever commercial, whatever, like, short film he was doing or whatever I'd help on because I was just an intern for all these great directors that I'd get the chance to work with as an actor. And then also the comedy writers. I was, like, such a nerd, where I'd meet someone who wrote on Arrested Development and geek out over them at the mall, and they'd be like, what? So it was. I'm so privileged because I. I just love the actual work of what I do.

[Sean Hayes]

Right. You know, so then talk about that

[Jonah Hill]

rare ass thing, you know?

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah.

[Sean Hayes]

I mean, you're so incredibly lucky to have been on the sets of all these incredible directors. You find yourself cherry picking from them, finding them.

[Jonah Hill]

Marty's like another level. He's another level than everybody ever.

[Sean Hayes]

But I feel like there's a bit of a paternal element there between the two. You guys seem so close and. And it's warm, it's genuine. He did a great cameo in this. In the last film he was in

[Jonah Hill]

Outcome, which is on Apple if you want to watch it.

[Sean Hayes]

Great movie.

[Jonah Hill]

Keanu Reeves, American Treasure.

[Sean Hayes]

Yep.

[Jonah Hill]

But, yeah, the fact that I call Marty and don't have to stop and, like, apologize is psychotic to me. You know, like Simpsons and Goodfellas, I guess would just be the two things that I think are, like, if you add to like, take my brain and freeze it, you'd cut it open. It'd probably be those two things. And so, like, so, you know, I got to direct him. This was the first movie he gave.

[Sean Hayes]

Did you give him a note?

[Jonah Hill]

Huh?

[Sean Hayes]

Did you give him a note and anything?

[Jonah Hill]

Get your together, Mark. Get your together. Time is money, man. No, I mean, like, he. He came in so prepared. It was. Honestly, the whole thing was so psychedelic. Like him coming to set and me directing him, it was so psychedelic. It was like childbirth. It was like, you see like colors and you're like, this is so trippy.

[Will Arnett]

And.

[Jonah Hill]

But then he interviewed me for Interview magazine and he had to talk to me about the movie and he loved the movie. And I directed two other movies which he liked, but he didn't love. And he was like, I love. He's like, this is a giant leap forward and I love this movie. And that meant a lot to me. That was so powerful. The critics did not agree. But, you know, I am introduced on the toilet for the first four minutes of the movie, so there's that. But, you know, like, to have him love the movie was fucking rad. It was fucking cool and meant a lot. And he's just the best guy. You go through withdrawal after you work with him because the poor unfortunate other directors you have to work with after cannot compare, no matter how wonderful, prepared and amazing they are.

[Sean Hayes]

Is there one thing that is louder to you about the experience of working with him that is different than other directors?

[Jonah Hill]

Is it just easy? Nothing comes within a billion miles with a billion with a B.

[Sean Hayes]

What is the one main thing do you think that he does different? Well, the most company excluded. Right.

[Jonah Hill]

So you know how, like, he's everyone's favorite director.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah.

[Jonah Hill]

So his ideology and taste in life and everything is like your favorite person, his. So it's like. It's not. He doesn't just. A director's work is like their worldview. So the reason you love Marty's work is because you love him, right? You love his lenses. He sees the world through and like, his taste. His taste, his humor, his fucking real realness. As, you know, like, you see someone in. Here's how I know I'll be friends with somebody. When you're, like, at the mall and you see someone and the person's being a fucking weirdo and you look to like the person you're with and you both see it without saying anything, Marty sees the fucking weirdo that you see. He gets it. He sees it all. Even though he's. And he's Martin Scorsese at the same time.

[Sean Hayes]

Right?

[Jonah Hill]

You know, like, he's as human and real. It's like, the fuck is that guy doing? And he's also the biggest genius you've ever met.

[Jason Bateman]

You're so. We're all so lucky to be immersed into the thing that we chose to do because we love to do. Do it right. And you've been enjoyed tremendous success, both writing and acting and now directing and everything. Is there something. And that really stimulates your mind? Like you said, there's my family and there's work. Right. And that's all you care about. That's all you love. Is there anything else?

[Jonah Hill]

I mean, I have friends. Swear to God, Jason is my actual friend. Great friend. Yeah.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah.

[Jonah Hill]

He is an amazing friend.

[Jason Bateman]

For sure. Sure. But say more.

[Jonah Hill]

And I look up to him very much. He's a. I would call him a mentor because I admire his relationship with his amazing wife, Amanda, and the father he is to his children. And he's great at his job and they don't have to be mutually. Yeah, it's true. He's a wonderful human being.

[Jason Bateman]

It is very true.

[Will Arnett]

He's got to go to New York tomorrow. I don't know if you heard of what he's up against. Yeah, it's just he's gotta be the way across. Humping it in 36. J.

[Jonah Hill]

Send me the intro you wrote. Yeah, I'd love to read it.

[Sean Hayes]

I kind of remembered it.

[Jonah Hill]

It was pretty close to that. I interrupted your. What was your question, Sean?

[Jason Bateman]

No idea.

[Jonah Hill]

Okay. I'm sorry.

[Jason Bateman]

No, no, no.

[Will Arnett]

It was.

[Jason Bateman]

Oh, no, no. I mean to being immersed, so. So deeply immersed in what we'd love to do. There's gotta be other things that interest you. Like, I'm obsessed with space and sci fi and all that are there. What are the other things that when we think of Jonah Hill instead of work and family, what is the thing that's like, oh, you know what? In skateboarding, what is the other thing that we're like, what I didn't know that you absolutely love?

[Jonah Hill]

Super great question. Because I would be. Hobbies are a huge part of my life and happiness as well. So, like, I love Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I love. Except my body is begging me to not love it. 42 isn't. My wife is often like. Like, you're not going to become like a professional fighter. You know that, right? Like, you're a comedian. Like.

[Sean Hayes]

But let me ask you something. If we got into it, I would you up. You'd up, right?

[Jonah Hill]

I would all truly right. And that's the best part. My favorite thing is people are like, oh, Jonah Hill, fat guy from Superman. And I'm like, I would annihilate you, dude. I'm not kidding. Every fight, quiet. If you see me chasing. Try it.

[Sean Hayes]

Every fight ends up on the ground.

[Will Arnett]

Bring it. Who's got it?

[Jonah Hill]

I will. Unless you are way bigger than me. I have like a around and find out. And also surfing.

[Will Arnett]

Surfing.

[Jonah Hill]

But then your kids take all that, you know, it was all that stuff like. Like pandemic. No life, selfish, have no family, no wife. But then, you know, kids, it's your life for sure, you know, like, it's. There is not a free moment. Like, I ask permission now to go do my hobbies, you know, because like, if the kid needs the kids need me, right? You know? But then you gotta fill your own cup. That's why I call guys with Jason, like, Jason to be like, how do you balance this shit, right?

[Jason Bateman]

I have a secret fantasy of wanting to get into a fight and. Cause I've never been into a.

[Jonah Hill]

It's not a fantasy. I feel really bad for the other guy.

[Sean Hayes]

Sean just likes the ground and pound situation.

[Jonah Hill]

By the way, I'm being funny. By the way, I would fuck you up, but I am being funny also.

[Jason Bateman]

You started.

[Jonah Hill]

You.

[Jason Bateman]

You like Jiu Jitsu. I'm gonna start a new one called Ground and Pound. Yeah, I'm gonna teach you.

[Sean Hayes]

Groundandpound.com is not what you think it is.

[Jason Bateman]

Get it now? Yeah. No, I've never been in a fight. And I've always been like, that has to be like.

[Jonah Hill]

But dude acting and like, I hadn't acted in a long time. And now I'm out there, maybe gonna Take a role and, like, start acting for other people.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah.

[Jonah Hill]

I'm so excited to act. Like, almost like I'm excited about to serve for juju jitsu.

[Sean Hayes]

Like, because you've been away for it a while or because of the directing and now you're going to bring that perspective to the acting.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah.

[Sean Hayes]

Like.

[Jonah Hill]

Like, I haven't done a movie where I acted for another director. I did McKay's movie. Don't look up. And then you people with Kenya, which was such a fun experience. I saw Lauren London today. Shout out, Lauren London, I fucking love you. Shout out Kenya. Shout out McKay. Shout out all the homies. And then. What am I talking about? And then.

[Sean Hayes]

So your hobbies.

[Jason Bateman]

Acting.

[Jonah Hill]

Yeah. Like, I was like, I might take a job. And I'm like, dude, I'm so excited to, like, just put on the T shirt you tell me to put on and go be funny. Yeah. Like, I want to do, like. Like, I'm so excited. Like I was when I was young. And what about fun feeling, you know?

[Will Arnett]

That's it. Yeah, I do know.

[Sean Hayes]

What about daddy stuff? Do you. What's your favorite part?

[Jonah Hill]

You were amazing. I called you. But you guys see. Is this thing on? Will was so incredible.

[Jason Bateman]

Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

[Jonah Hill]

And Bradley's just an amazing.

[Sean Hayes]

So incredible.

[Jonah Hill]

Yeah.

[Jason Bateman]

Who don't you like? I'm just kidding.

[Jonah Hill]

It's more like. Who doesn't like me?

[Sean Hayes]

What is your favorite part about daddy stuff? What's your. What's your. What have you found? Is your favorite thing to do with your kid that you kids that you didn't think. That you didn't know you were gonna love?

[Jonah Hill]

I knew I was gonna love it. I just prayed that I'd be able to do it in the right way, you know? So I'm so proud of what I get to do. Every second of it is so sick. Cuz like, even when he's like three and crazy, because one of the ones, a little baby, you can only yell at him, scream yourself horse at him so much.

[Sean Hayes]

But how's your swaddle game?

[Jonah Hill]

That was a joke.

[Sean Hayes]

How's your swaddle game? Are you a good swaddler?

[Jason Bateman]

Swaddle?

[Jonah Hill]

No, he's out of. Yeah, no, I'm not a good swaddler. I'm a good diaper change.

[Sean Hayes]

You just good diaper change.

[Jonah Hill]

No, no. Yeah.

[Jason Bateman]

Jay, put this.

[Will Arnett]

A whole swallow.

[Sean Hayes]

Swaddling is one you. You take and you wrap up. Well, they're probably past the young one's. Probably past the swaddling now.

[Jonah Hill]

Yeah.

[Jason Bateman]

Swallower.

[Sean Hayes]

No swad that's on ground and pound dot com.

[Will Arnett]

Amanda, was Jason, did you get on the swaddle?

[Jonah Hill]

He did.

[Will Arnett]

For real.

[Sean Hayes]

A great swaddler and a great diaper changer upper making your kid.

[Jonah Hill]

Like seeing your kid come up with something that he thinks is funny to make you laugh. Like knowing that that's like he wants. He thinks of something that is funny in his three year old mind and then tries to be like, da, da. And then says. Which is usually oh fuck or wiener. Cause he's my son and he'll be like, da, da. Oh fuck. And I'm like, family business, baby. Get out there.

[Sean Hayes]

Are you enjoying? Well, he's still the teal, but like, are you. I'll bet you're gonna enjoy starting to feather in like your sense of humor to him and like, you know, he'll start to like pick up on that from you and it'll start to maybe become kind of his sense of humor too. Like, I remember, I think it was Maple. Was it you or was it Franny? I remember, I'll never forget what time one of them said to me, like, daddy, how come you never smile after you say something funny? And it was like, you know, just like kind of like, well. Cause if you smile then you know it's a joke, but if you, you don't smile then it's kind of dry and that's like sarcasm. Like, it was like so weird that I, I was trying to formulate what the answer would be to that. But like, you don't know what the answer is to that.

[Will Arnett]

It's just like your kids have never seen you smile. Think about that.

[Sean Hayes]

That's what it is.

[Will Arnett]

Think about how fucking traumatized they are. Comedy. Comedy is not supposed to be fun in our house.

[Sean Hayes]

Stop laughing.

[Jonah Hill]

I mean, you don't have to teach them. They just watch you. They just watch you.

[Sean Hayes]

Right? That's what I mean. It's like you start to just like. I don't know. I, it's. I just, I'm. I don't want to go tomorrow.

[Jason Bateman]

You're gonna be brilliant.

[Jonah Hill]

Yeah, dude. I would be having a nervous breakdown if my kids were going to college. Because I think about, I start crying sometimes. I'm like a little baby myself. Because I'll look at them and be like, if like you're a teenager and don't want to hang out with me, I'll. I'll cry every night, you know, like, I can't imagine them.

[Sean Hayes]

Well, here's something that somebody said, somebody said to me that sort of like Got me off the ledge. When, when your kids go to college, you've got a long time to go. And Maple, they're not going to college.

[Will Arnett]

Let's be honest.

[Sean Hayes]

Maple's got another four or five years. So I'm still. The tiers are still pretty low, but when Franny, my eldest, left, I was like, I'm not gonna do well with this. Fortunately, she goes to school in town, so I'm okay. Okay. But somebody said to me a few years before she left, she said, you're not losing. Your 4 year old. Like it's not. Your 4 year old is not leaving. It's an 18 year old that's probably been spending a lot of weekends out at friends houses and stuff. Like, so it gets feathered in and it's not like, boom, your 4 year old, your 10 year old is like leaving the house. You're actually excited for them to leave the nest. Start flapping the wings and it's.

[Jonah Hill]

Can you like knowing you relationship with your daughters, you've seen them blossom into these incredible people. So you're like go shred.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah.

[Jonah Hill]

You're excited to watch them play the guitar.

[Sean Hayes]

Oh, you'll love it.

[Jonah Hill]

It's radical. It's all, it's all a blessing.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah.

[Jonah Hill]

All right, we're.

[Sean Hayes]

We're about done here. These people, they probably want to pee or do something or get the hell out of here. In closing though, we're done.

[Jonah Hill]

Oh my gosh.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah. We don't take.

[Jonah Hill]

So boring. What.

[Sean Hayes]

Talk to us about the film that's out right now and the film that's coming out that you. I saw that one too. That one's fucking great. You guys are gonna have to wait a little bit longer on that. You're still in post on that. Tell us.

[Jonah Hill]

Jason also gives the best notes because he's such a great director and friend. So.

[Sean Hayes]

But tell us.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah, incredible.

[Jonah Hill]

And Will. Will and I are. Will and I are friends, but it's like a newer friendship and then Shannon and I are going to become friends. Hopefully.

[Jason Bateman]

That's right. Right after sleeping over tonight, we're going to. Yeah, we're going to watch Super Bad tonight.

[Jonah Hill]

Yes. Right.

[Will Arnett]

Be beat. Beat him up.

[Jonah Hill]

Yeah. If you'd like the beaten out of you, please let me know.

[Sean Hayes]

Sean's got a single.

[Jonah Hill]

Come on down to San Diego we'll treat you right look in your rear

[Will Arnett]

view mirror San Diego so Jonah could beat me up.

[Jonah Hill]

Traffic was a nightmare.

[Will Arnett]

Scotty, let's go.

[Sean Hayes]

So tell us about these two films.

[Jonah Hill]

The new movie is called Outcome and you can stream it on Apple. And it's Keanu Reeves and myself and Cameron Diaz and the great Matt Bomer, who's incredible and a bunch of amazing people. David Spade, Laverne Cox. Really amazing cast and it's a really funny movie. And if you want to enjoy yourself at home and then pause it and take a piss and get snacks and stuff, you can totally go do that.

[Sean Hayes]

But it's also got filmmaking. Your stuff in it. Like, you shot it beautifully and it scored beautifully. And it's like it's. It's. You're doing it now and this and then this next one.

[Jonah Hill]

This next one is just pure stupidity. So it is just dumb.

[Sean Hayes]

Tell them what the concept is.

[Jonah Hill]

It's dumb. I'm about to go on a run of just the dumbest you've ever seen in your entire life. So I hope you left your brains at home. So it's called Cut off. And Kristen Wiig and I play two dumbass heirs. Rich, rich kids in their mid-40s who get cut off by their rich parents, played by Bette Midler and Nathan Lane.

[Sean Hayes]

So.

[Jonah Hill]

Oh, that's it is like step brothers, Clueless, Trading Places.

[Sean Hayes]

Just so great.

[Jonah Hill]

Classic comedy. And Kristen Wiig is the American treasure. I've been so lucky. My last two movies. Keanu Reeves and Cameron Diaz and Kristen Wig and Bette Midler and Nathan Lane. I'm the luckiest guy. But it's going to be in theaters. Shout out Mike and Pam and Jesse at Warner Brothers. And we are trying to bring comedy movies back to the.

[Sean Hayes]

Yeah, man.

[Will Arnett]

It's about time. Haven't been. We've been. There haven't been enough comedy movies getting made. And I think it's about time. And I hope that you're like, I'm glad you're leaving.

[Jonah Hill]

I am dedicating the till you guys make me stop making people laugh more

[Sean Hayes]

of you more often. Higher frequency. Your breaks over. Move back up from San Diego or

[Jonah Hill]

at least that I'm not doing. But I promise to try and make a movie every year that's funny. Please do critics. Do your best you and then. And I'm gonna make people laugh. So y'. All.

[Jason Bateman]

That's great. I love that.

[Sean Hayes]

We love you, buddy. We love you for join us. Jonah Hill.

[Will Arnett]

Jonah Hill.

[Jonah Hill]

Thank you. I hope that was okay. I love you, dude.

[Will Arnett]

I'm sorry.

[Jonah Hill]

I was like back.

[Will Arnett]

No, that's okay. That's okay.

[Jason Bateman]

So now we're doing a wrap up. Wrap up. Yeah.

[Sean Hayes]

No, we got to do the wrap up.

[Jason Bateman]

We got to do the wrap up.

[Will Arnett]

We got to do the wrap up.

[Sean Hayes]

Sean, I find, is the most genuine, warmest, sincere, attentive friend I could ever ask to have.

[Will Arnett]

That's a true story.

[Jason Bateman]

That's very nice.

[Sean Hayes]

Will has all of that and just happens to make me laugh more than anybody I've ever met in my life.

[Jason Bateman]

Yes.

[Will Arnett]

Honestly, you're pretty.

[Sean Hayes]

Jason, take your time.

[Will Arnett]

It's gonna take a minute to think of something. You are. You're so Jason, you know, which is what we love about you. You're just. You're the. No. Jason is such a sweet boy.

[Jonah Hill]

This is awkward.

[Will Arnett]

No, it's true. And he's. And he's. You've made such a great thing of yourself. You've really turned around. I mean, you kind of grew up in the woods and you just. You got out, and you're a beautiful person. And he's. And I give him shit. We give him shit for being so, you know, grumpy and so. But he's so squishy on the inside.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah.

[Will Arnett]

He is such a sweet boy.

[Jason Bateman]

I love you because you also are a genuinely kind person and you really think of other people. And you are one of the. You're grabbing my ass right now. And you're one of the smartest people I've ever known in my entire life. And, yes, you're squishy inside. This fella is also super squishy. The funniest person on the face of the planet. Both of them are. And I love you guys both.

[Will Arnett]

I love you, too. And I said, Sean and I were texting last night about something, and I. You know, you have those moments. One of the great things is that about our friendship. And I don't know why we're doing this, but is we love each other. And I think it's the age that we've got to where we can tell each other that we love each other. And it feels really great to be able to do that. And I said, sean sent me a text last we talked on the phone, then he sent me a really lovely text afterwards. And like Jason said, you cannot meet a person who is more consistently supportive and kind than Sean Hayes.

[Jason Bateman]

You can try.

[Will Arnett]

No. And constantly, he checks in on everybody he loves. He's always so selfless, and it's unbelievable. And JB's the same. I feel very, very honored that we get to do that. You guys listen to us fuck around.

[Sean Hayes]

I don't know if you guys get to work with your best friends. They are truly my two best friends. You guys let me me work with them and have the greatest time of my life and talk to some of the most interesting people in the world. So we cannot thank you enough.

[Will Arnett]

Yeah, we really, really appreciate it. Yeah, we do. And we do.

[Sean Hayes]

I also want to say sorry. Thank you. To Bennett and to Rob and to Michael Grantary. There's Rob.

[Will Arnett]

Rob Army.

[Sean Hayes]

This is a. This is a.

[Will Arnett]

There's Bennett over there.

[Jason Bateman]

Yeah.

[Will Arnett]

And where's Michael Terry?

[Jason Bateman]

Michael Terry. Somewhere.

[Will Arnett]

Michael Terry is. Somewhere.

[Sean Hayes]

There's. It is. It is six of us and our great partners is serious, but it is the six of us that make this thing happen. And so without them, we wouldn't have it.

[Jason Bateman]

And we didn't want to let another moment go. Bye.

[Sean Hayes]

Bye.

[Will Arnett]

Thank you.

[Jonah Hill]

Bye, guys.

[Will Arnett]

Thank you.

[Sean Hayes]

Smart, Smart, Smart. Less.

[Jonah Hill]

Smart. Less

[Will Arnett]

Smartless is 100% organic and artisanally handcrafted by Bennett Barbo Coe, Michael Grant Terry and Rob Armjarf. Smart lesson.