This fall Jonah Hill will release his second directorial effort, following 2018’s Mid90s a documentary about himself and his therapist called Stutz that follows Hill’s own journey in dealing with his own mental health, specifically struggles with anxiety. While the Moneyball star says he is looking forward to sharing the film with the world and that he hopes it can help other people dealing with similar issues, Hill himself won’t be out promoting this film, or any others for the foreseeable future.
In an open letter written by Jonah Hill and published by Rolling Stone, Hill says that media appearances and other public facing events are some of the things that exacerbates his anxiety, and so, in an effort to help himself, Hill won’t be doing any media to promote Stutz Hill explains…
Through this journey of self-discovery within the film, I have come to the understanding that I have spent nearly 20 years experiencing anxiety attacks, which are exacerbated by media appearances and public-facing events… If I made myself sicker by going out there and promoting it, I wouldn’t be acting true to myself or to the film.
Hill says he won’t be doing promotion for this or any of his other upcoming films. This likely includes the upcoming Netflix movie You People, which Hill co-wrote and also stars in. Hill is also expected to appear in an upcoming Martin Scorsese movie about the Grateful Dead. While he stops short of declaring he’s done with doing media events permanently, he’s planning to take an extended time away. Perhaps in the future he’ll feel he’s up to doing them again, but that likely won’t be for some time.
Certainly, after making a documentary film about his anxiety Jonah Hill has a better understanding of it and what it is that he needs to do to remain healthy. Hill says that he hopes that the film helps people become more willing to talk openly about mental health, and the open letter, which Hill says makes him cringe when others have done it, serves largely the same purpose. While Hill admits he’s in a privileged position to be able to step away, perhaps seeing him willing to do so will inspire others who need to take similar steps.
Considering that Stutz is a movie about Jonah Hill, having him missing from the promotion of the film will be keenly felt, but Hill ends the letter by thanking those that worked with him, and he says he hopes that in the end the movie does the talking that he will not be doing…
I hope the work will speak for itself and I’m grateful to my collaborators, my business partners, and to all reading this for your understanding and support.
Jonah Hill has done a lot of interviews in the past, and been willing to talk about everything from Jump Street sequels to his thoughts on Baby Yoda, but certainly that all feels different when you realize it was causing him anxiety. We may be seeing less of Jonah Hill when it comes to movie promotion, but fans will almost certainly be happy to make that trade if it means the star is able to get to a better place. We still have plenty of great Jonah Hill movies to enjoy and it doesn’t appear he’s planning on taking any time away from making more of them.