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Jonah Hill really, really hated one of his 'Superbad' co-stars

"Take off your vest, you look like Aladdin"

Jonah Hill really, really hated one of his 'Superbad' co-stars
Tom Victor
01 September 2017

Recently, we were reminded of the futility of existence and the slow march towards death as it dawned on us that Superbad came out 10 whole years ago.

Yeah, take a minute to adjust to that bombshell if you need.

Most of the cast have torn up trees since going into the film as anything but A-listers: Emma Stone is now an Oscar-winner, Jonah Hill now has an Oscar nomination, while Seth Rogen’s latest vehicle – The Disaster Artist – is expected to be in contention at next year’s Academy Awards ceremony.

Superbad itself worked on every level, not least because it had a cast that seemed to fit together perfectly, yet there was some surprising bad blood between two of the film’s stars.

Hill, who plays Seth in the film, was already familiar with some of his co-stars through his work on Judd Apatow films Knocked Up and The 40-Year-Old Virgin.

However, he didn’t have the same existing relationship with Chris Mintz-Plasse, who plays Fogell (better known as ‘McLovin’), and the pair instantly got off on the wrong foot.

“Chris just immediately shut me down,” Hill recalled in The Ringer’s retrospective on the film.

“So combative. I was really annoyed because this guy wouldn't let me say anything.”

Rogen and Michael Cera [Evan] have similar memories of the animosity between the pair, with the former recalling that “Jonah fucking hated [Mintz-Plasse]”.

“He was all over Jonah’s lines, completely disrespectful of the process, probably due to a lack of experience,” Rogen said.

“I remember he walked out of the room and Jonah was like, ‘Not that guy.’ And we were just like, ‘Oh my god, you don’t understand how much more that makes us want him’.”

“When [Chris] left, I remember Jonah being shaken up,” Cera added.

It is tough to conceive of a version of Superbad without Mintz-Plasse in his role, so it’s bizarre to think that – if Hill had got his way – it could easily have been someone else putting in that performance.

Ultimately, the film recouped more than eight times its $20m budget, paving the way for Hill’s major roles in Moneyball and The Wolf of Wall Street, Cera’s starring role in Scott Pilgrim vs The World, and Mintz-Plasse’s villainous turn in the Kick-Ass films.

Probably time to give that trailer another watch, huh?

(Images: Rex Features)