Tonight Show fans were treated to a wide-ranging Jonah Hill interview on Monday, complete with insight into the Don’t Look Up press tour focused on a GOAT-spurred misunderstanding and the presence of a simulated flatulence device that inspired ire from Netflix.
In the new film from director Adam McKay (Step Brothers, The Big Short), which stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence as scientists doing their best to inform humankind of its impending doom, Hill plays the son of Meryl Streep’s POTUS character. “He’s a little bitchy prince,” Hill told Jimmy Fallon, later adding that part of his inspiration in developing the Jason character was to act as though he was the embodiment of “if Fyre Festival was a person.”
Later, around the 2:28 mark above, the Mid90s writer/director was asked about working with Streep in the dark comedy. According to Hill, she’s “actually cool” and “the best actor” in the business. To drive this point home during promo stops, Hill has been referring to the three-time Oscar winner as “the GOAT,” initially unaware that Streep wasn’t familiar with the widely used acronym.
“Then today we’re doing a press conference and she’s like, you know, ‘Jonah is so comfortable with me he’s been calling me a goat all week’ and I’m like ‘What the fuck?’” Hill said. “And Jennifer Lawrence explained to her, because she’s telling jennifer about this, and she’s so cool she wasn’t even offended about it. She was just like, ‘I guess he, like, loves me and is calling me a goat.’ And Jennifer is like, ‘No, Meryl. It stands for greatest of all time.’ So she was like, ‘Hey, thanks for calling me the GOAT. I thought you were calling me a goat this whole time.’”
The two-time Oscar nominee also detailed overcoming a moment of self-doubt surrounding his ultimately successful pitch for a Jerry Garcia biopic, his upcoming documentary focused on the power of therapy, the importance of supporting the Climate Emergency Act of 2021, and—as teased above—a contraption that mimics the sound of human flatulence. The latter, per Hill, was indeed met with condemnation from the folks at Netflix.
Hill’s castmates (save for Streep) also didn’t find the actor’s use of the device during press commitments to be funny, with Netflix eventually going so far as to have “formally asked” McKay to ask Hill to cease using the machine.
“No corporate entity will ever silence my digital farts, motherfucker,” Hill said, as seen below near the end of the clip.
The star-studded Don’t Look Up also features Kid Cudi, Timothée Chalamet, Ariana Grande, Cate Blanchett, Tyler Perry, Ron Perlman, Melanie Lynskey, Himesh Patel, Michael Chiklis, and more. Following a limited theatrical release this Friday, the comedy will debut on Netflix on Dec. 24.
