Citing mental health, Jonah Hill says he won't be promoting his new therapy doc Stutz
Hill: "If I made myself sicker by going out there and promoting it, I wouldn’t be acting true to myself or to the film.”
Timed to the upcoming release of his new documentary, Stutz, actor Jonah Hill has issued a statement today saying that he’s stepping away from doing promotional appearances for his film, or any other he’s attached to, for an undisclosed period of time. Per Variety, Hill released an open letter today discussing the ways that two decades of interviews, press junkets, and all the other public-facing parts of celebrity existence have exacerbated anxiety and other mental health struggles in his life.
As Hill writes in the letter (which was first published by Deadline):
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.
Thus, Hill says, while he is proud of the film, and happy to have it premiere at film festivals this fall, he won’t be there to promote it. “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.”
It’s probably a coincidence that Hill’s statement comes on the day of the 15-year anniversary of the release of SuperBad—the movie that elevated him from likable presence on the sidelines of Judd Apatow’s filmography into an actual movie star—but it’s also not hard to see a connection between the two events. Stutz is his second film as a director, after 2018's Mid90s; his last credit as an actor was in Adam McKay’s Don’t Look Up.