Celebrity News
Jonah Hill Admits He Got ‘Serious’ and Unhappy Amid Anxiety Struggles, But Is Ready to ‘Be Funny Again’
Jonah Hill wants to make people laugh again.
Speaking on a live taping of a SmartLess podcast episode on Saturday, April 25, the Moneyball actor — who announced in a 2022 statement to The Hollywood Reporter that he would be stepping away from the spotlight after “nearly 20 years experiencing anxiety attacks, which are exacerbated by media appearances and public facing events” — revealed what prompted him to come out of hiding.
“I’ve been gone for a while, so I’m kind of coming back and I’m like excited because I got all, like, serious for a while and I wasn’t as happy,” the 42-year-old admitted, per The Hollywood Reporter.
“If you’re bummed, you don’t feel like being that funny, right?” he added, before confirming that he is married to online vintage shop owner Olivia Millar and they have two children.
“And then I had my family and I got happy, and now all I want to do is be funny again. That’s why I said yes [to being on SmartLess],” Hill added at the event at the Hollywood Palladium with hosts Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes and Will Arnett. “I’m, like, I want to go f**king be funny in front of a crowd and that’d be awesome.”
Hill, who became a breakout star in the mid-to-late 2000s films Superbad, Knocked Up and Forgetting Sarah Marshall, said that becoming a father brought a spark back into his life.
“The first thing I thought about when I 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,” the 21 Jump Street star explained. “That’s the thing I fell in love with my whole life.”
“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,” the L.A. native revealed. “I wanted to leave L.A. and raise a family outside of Los Angeles.”
Hill directed and stars in the new Apple TV dark comedy Outcome, costarring Cameron Diaz, who is also returning from a hiatus from Hollywood after focusing on her family.
