Jonah Hill brands David O. Russell 'nuts'
Jonah Hill has admitted director David O. Russell was "f****** nuts" when they worked together on 2004 comedy I Heart Huckabees but he's actually a "super nice guy".
Jonah Hill thought David O. Russell was "f****** nuts" when they worked together on 2004 comedy I Heart Huckabees.
The actor was among the cast of the 2004 comedy alongside Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin, who was at the centre of a furious confrontation with the director while they were filming, and Jonah has now admitted the moviemaker was "buck wild" on the set.
During SiriusXM's Smartless LIVE event at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles on Saturday (25.04.26), co-host Jason Bateman asked Jonah: "What was that like being on a set [with David O. Russell]?"
The actor replied: "David O. was f****** nuts at the time.. He was buck wild and I’m like homies with him. He’s awesome. Super nice guy.
"But in that moment in life, and I’ve had my own, trust me, he was buck wild, dude. He was screaming at Lily Tomlin. It’s online and s***.
"And he’ll talk about it. He’s cool. He’s one of the best directors ever. I mean Flirting With Disaster and Three Kings, he’s so goated [greatest of all time]. It’s insane."
As well as revealing he witnessed the clash between Tomlin and O. Russell, Jonah explained he also saw the director wrestling a member of the production team.
He said: "Everyone’s screaming at each other [during filming]. The first time I walked on set, him and K.K. Barrett, the production designer, were joking around wrestling and then it turned into a real fight.
"It was like joking that turned into a fight, and these guys were fighting and they were setting up my first scene to act. I was like, Hollywood is so tight."
O. Russell previously admitted he enjoyed working on I Heart Huckabees but his bust-up with Tomlin is the moment that's always remembered.
The moviemaker told Indiewire: "{It was] one big party, except for maybe one day. The party just went right on past that day, but then that was the day that got remembered."
He added of the film: "[It was] my mid-life crisis movie. I was exploring these ideas of hiring someone to spy on you and then tell you about your life if you were in a crisis, like I was. 'What do I do about my marriage? What do I do about my bipolar kid?'
"But in retrospect I overthought it too much. There was too much worrying around it, and I checked out of it a little bit. If I could do the film again, as proud as I am of many parts of it, I would make it sweaty and intimate.
"I became a better filmmaker because of it, but it was painful. It was six years of losing my way a little bit."
