Jonah Hill has a few projects coming out. One is You People, a comedy Jonah co-wrote with Kenya Barris and also stars in that doesn’t have a release date yet. The other is Stutz, which Jonah directed and just finished filming. Stutz is much more personal to Jonah as it’s a documentary the chronicles Jonah and his therapist as they explore his worsening anxiety attacks. It seems the anxiety attacks stem from Jonah’s movie promotion, and he documented their discussions detailing that. It must have been a raw and difficult project for Jonah to work on. Jonah’s hope in releasing the film is to help people with anxiety to both recognize the signs and to feel more comfortable pursing the tools to aid in their own mental health journey.
Upon completing the film, Jonah released an open letter announcing that he would not be publicly promoting his films for the foreseeable future to protect his mental health. Jonah said that he would be being dishonest to himself and his fans if he continued to work red carpets after everything he laid bare in this documentary.
I have finished directing my second film, a documentary about me and my therapist which explores mental health in general called “Stutz.” The whole purpose of making this film is to give therapy and the tools I’ve learned in therapy to a wide audience for private use through an entertaining film.
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.
I am so grateful that the film will make its world premiere at a prestigious film festival this fall, and I can’t wait to share it with audiences around the world in the hope that it will help those struggling. However, you won’t see me out there promoting this film, or any of my upcoming films, while I take this important step to protect myself. If I made myself sicker by going out there and promoting it, I wouldn’t be acting true to myself or to the film.
I usually cringe at letters or statements like this but I understand that I am of the privileged few who can afford to take time off. I won’t lose my job while working on my anxiety. With this letter and with “Stutz,” I’m hoping to make it more normal for people to talk and act on this stuff. So they can take steps towards feeling better and so that the people in their lives might understand their issues more clearly.
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.
I said red carpets above but Jonah sounds like he won’t be doing any promotional rounds. So no interviews, photoshoots or festivals either. And he’s disabled his social media. I know he wrote that he usually cringes at these types of letters, but I think this is not only interesting, it’s smart to let people know ahead of time. Outlets would be full of speculation if Jonah wasn’t doing promotion for projects he helmed. And future collaborators need to prepare for who will and won’t be available for promotion. It’s a good business decision. And even though I know this was possibly not intentional, it’s already good promotion for Stutz. I don’t know that I would’ve been invested in this project before but now I’m curious to see what they uncovered. Plus, mental well-being should always come first. I think that’s a message society has to get better at promoting. It was huge when Simone Biles did it, it was important when Tom Holland recently announced it and it’s important that Jonah is doing it. People who want to be d*cks about it can f**k off. I hope Stutz helps a lot of people understand signs of anxiety and I hope this break – permanent or not – helps Jonah find some peace. He’s done a lot of work on himself, and he deserves to continue down that road unabated.
Photo credit: Avalon Red and Getty Images
He is a talented actor. I really enjoyed him in Wolf of Wall Street.
I will see Stutz, sounds interesting.
I’m glad to see progress being made in mental health issues.
Shine a light, ask for help. The days of shaming people should be over and done.
Not going to watch his doco but I like how he speaks out. I feel like there is something deeper going on from childhood and I hope he gets the help he needs.
I just want to remind you that panic is a biological process, no matter the initiator. It’s your sympathetic nervous system gearing you up for life or death- an overactive response. It’s *not* just a psychological issue that can be fixed with therapy alone. Without medications to block or blunt that response (like beta blockers and various antianxiety agents), therapy can’t even begin to make a dent.
My feeling is that it’s largely a part of genetics- there’s a lot of anxiety, etc, on both sides of the family. We have three kids, all have similar issues with anxiety and depression and panic disorder has shown its face with all three of them at different stages of development- our twins, in third grade, our eldest in her first and second years of university (two of them are identical twins, more genetic anecdotal evidence).
I appreciate your compassion.
It’s been interesting watching his evolution over the years and I appreciate his openness. I’m looking forward to watching Stutz.
As someone psych-adjacent the doco sounds fascinating. I generally enjoy his projects come to think of it but man he really seems to have been struggling the last few years. Hope he’s ok.
I’m happy he’s being allowed the space to protect his mental health while still doing the job he loves.
No one but a straight white man would be given this grace, and he ought to acknowledge that.
Truth.
He is riding the wave on the backs of people who stood against the masses, and the ones who paid the price the heaviest are Black & Woman of Colour.
Like Simone, Naomi. Naomi was tormented & fined (!!) for not doing interviews.
It opened a much needed conversation, and is pathing the way for others. Everyone needs to acknowledge those sacrifices.
He’s a white man, but people have been AWFUL to him in interviews, treating him in ways I really have not seen interviewers treat anyone else.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7OVAGmymbQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW0RK9ho4XY
https://www.avclub.com/interviewers-please-stop-shitting-on-jonah-hill-1827866142
Like, white male privilege is a thing, but I think sometimes that privilege makes people think they’re an acceptable target for abuse. I’m a feminist, and I think the patriarchy hurts men too, by not recognizing them as real human beings who can be hurt, who also struggle with bodily insecurities. With Jonah Hill in particular, for the immediate response to be: “He should recognize and admit his privilege,” denies that the regular failure to treat the guy with any kind of level of humanity has a lot more to do with this decision than any innate mental health problems. A great deal of his mental health is probably shaped by the fact that people tell him he’s ugly and fat to his face frequently.
I’m glad you included the links. I was going to say something similar. People have been mean to him his whole career while playing it off as humor. Like he’s immune to being body shamed. Chris Farley experienced similar treatment and look what happened. I don’t particularly enjoy Jonas as an actor but I get what he’s saying here and I’m glad he’s getting help.
@ppp so well said!!
@TeeCee, yeah I was originally going to write in my comment “hopefully this move can help someone else” and then thought “literally who else could do this?”, certainly no one less famous than him, even more certainly no actors of colour or women at any level of fame imo.
I mean, I wish Brad Pitt would.
“I mean, I wish Brad Pitt would.” You made me snort coffee out my nose. LOL
Yep, my thought exactly. This is such an entitled move when you know that people of color or women would never get this grace. If red carpets and promotion- a fundamental part of the job (literally it’s the final ultimate phase of the “7 phases of filmmaking”- it’s inherent) are too difficult that’s totally fine and understandable- take some time off from the industry then. Don’t go making special rules for yourself while others struggle with the same issues. Especially when you add in the extra element that it really screws over people who work hard on these films to not have their star promoting it. Dozens and dozens of cast and crew rely on the headliner to push their product. Again I come back to if you can’t do it, go chill for a while away from it, don’t make the entire world cater to you alone at the expense of everyone else you work with. This read like him very much thinking he’s special enough to have it both ways. And the self aggrandizing statement trying to justify it as some woke empowerment move sits wrong with me. Jonah’s exclaiming his empowerment to the world while he leaves equally struggling colleagues in the dust because he’s got the power to do this and they don’t. It just highlights the stark inequities. Any BIPOC or women actor would have to take time away from the industry for these accommodations. I feel like if less was in earnest and not a “me” move but a true “we need to fix this practice” issue, he’d put some actions for others along in here with the special privileges he gets himself.
He does acknowledge that. “I usually cringe at letters or statements like this but I understand that I am of the privileged few who can afford to take time off. I won’t lose my job while working on my anxiety.”
…and I’m sorry, but gtf out of here with the idea that you shouldn’t be allowed to manage your anxiety if you aren’t a BIPOC woman. That is some ableist bullshit. Intersectionality doesn’t mean only empowering the MOST marginalized group, it means that all these battles are best fought in solidarity. Show up for Jonah and expect him to show up for you. F right off with this.
I find much of Jonah Hill’s comedy to be the ultimate d-baggery so I am surprised by (and love) that he is speaking out about mental health struggles. I feel like a lot of incel-type white men love his comedy and maybe his openness will influence them to get mental health care when they need it…which in turn will have a positive effect on the rest of society who are the victims when these men lash out because their mental health goes untreated.
I like what he says about sharing the tools he’s learned in therapy with the viewers of the film. As someone who is DEEP into therapy with a troubled son, I am regularly amazed at the ongoing expense associated with getting well, and I think how fortunate we are to be able to afford it, and no wonder so many terrible things happen in our country because I can’t imagine that the vast majority of people could afford what we are paying right now to get help that they or their children might need. Nice to see him passing on some of that info for free to people who might be able to benefit from it.
Hugs to you. What your family is going through is a huge struggle.
Good for him! Reading this story next to the Lili Reinhardt story, it really feels that even these incredibly privileged people still deserve and need to call their own shots when it comes to maintaining boundaries. Studios really need to remember that they’re not in the old system anymore, where they can abuse people like Judy Garland and get away with it.
I’ve grown to like him a lot as an artist, he really has built a great body of work.
It sounds like his film is very personal, so it makes sense that he wouldn’t want to go digging around in his psyche to promote it.
I think anxiety and mental health challenges of all types have run rampant in the pandemic. I have dealt with the challenge of social anxiety disorder, something I did not struggle with before the pandemic. My challenge over the last ten years has been driving, and the pandemic challenges have exacerbated it.
As a person who has mental health issues , I appreciate anyone who comes forward to share their experience, especially in the instructive way that it sounds like Jonah has.
There is nothing wrong with not putting himself out there, prostituting his soul for a film. He will stay mysterious to us all in the future and will be healthy, good for him. He is a talented actor, but my hope is that he becomes a great producer so he can work on films without being front and center of attention. Take over your newfound ticket to freedom with anonymity, jonah!
I appreciate how famous people are coming out with their mental health struggles and making it less like something you should be ashamed of. This happened to me in my 30s and back then, no one else around me struggled, or went to therapy, I felt like a failure at life. I wanted to end it all many times because I thought I was defective and couldn’t do regular adult things like the rest of my friends without severe anxiety. My generation seemed to suffer in silence and take drugs to escape or commit suicide sadly.
This will save lives what people like Jonah Hill are doing. This will make it so much easier for people who aren’t famous to seek help and at the very least, not feel like a loser.
I wish him the very best going forward, along with Simone Biles, Shawn Mendes, Mike Patton, and anyone else who’s come out to share their mental health struggles. It means more than you know.
Good for him and this film sounds fascinating. Even when you are in the privileged position of being ‘able’ to make some choices about your life/work it doesn’t necessarily make them any easier to enact. When I was diagnosed with depression a few years back I made myself tell my boss (who was outstanding) and then realised that one thing I really needed was to not be working full time. I could afford to do that at the time and agreed it with her (that was frankly terrifying). The weight that lifted was incredible and made such a difference for me.
Sure explains that weird vibe w Leo on the red carpet. I’ve got a lot more sympathy now & in fact feel badly for being so judgey about that.
Thank you, Jonah. I was supposed to go to a meeting in Cali with colleagues half my age. Was dreading it and I am not going now bc I shouldn’t have to be stressed out. This story helped me!
I wish more work places would be sensitive to what having anxiety actually is. I’m required to do presentations at my job. Nothing that is directly required in order to accomplish my work, but something my employer requires to help raise the profile of the organization. In my early career people told me that it would get easier. It doesn’t. I am physically sick for days before I have to present. Not just butterflies in the stomach, puking and light-headed. Just typing this up, I can feel my heart starting to race. It’s excruciating to me.
I presented once to a group of students entering the profession through a professional organization that I volunteer with. One of the things I talked about was how you would be required to present on your work. One of the students raised their hand and said they had anxiety and weren’t comfortable doing that. I talked a little about some of the ways I try to make it easier for myself, but another member interrupted me and said “of course not everyone HAS to present. Everyone can do what they’re comfortable with,” and the student seemed relieved. That’s how it should be, but I thought it was so disingenuous to present that as how it is. The world is not AT ALL accommodating to people with anxiety.
A lot of famous people should step away from social media, its dangerous and can ruin people’s careers. One poor wording and you have a mob of people after you not to mention everything one says is documented so if someone were to try to bring you down they can pull receipts on you and use your own words against you.