Jonah Hill Discusses Moneyball and Feeling Like an Honorary Member of the Oakland A's

Tamara Palmer

Jonah Hill

​We recently sat down with Jonah Hill at the Ritz-Carton San Francisco to talk about his quiet but pivotal role as a statistician in the feature film Moneyball, which stars Brad Pitt and opens tomorrow (Sept. 23). The unlikely movie, based on the 2003 book by Michael Lewis, talks about the Oakland Athletics' use of sabermetrics, a statistical analysis of players that is a departure from conventional baseball wisdom. It is a moving departure for Hill, who came to fame through bold comedic films such as Knocked Up and Superbad, and it's an important junction in a flourishing career.

Were you a baseball fan before you landed this role?
When I was younger, I played baseball and collected baseball cards like any red-blooded American kid does, and then I grew up to be more of a basketball fan. When I got this part, I really reconnected with baseball in an intense way.

And the A's, was that a team that you had to familiarize yourself with at that point?

I now consider myself an Oakland A, basically. After making this movie, it's really special now that we are here after touring the country. I feel like whenever I come back to Oakland, if I go to a game, I really feel a kinship because I was a part of something that really celebrated this team.

You play a genius statistician in the film. Are you a numbers guy at all?
No, I realize I had never played a character who was good at anything, let alone brilliant at something. I can barely count to 10 so I had to learn a lot. I had a statistics tutor because Bennett Miller, the director, wanted me to be able to improvise statistics. I honestly have a very difficult time with math so I had to sit down and get better at it.

Acting alongside Brad Pitt, how much of the Brangelina paparazzi stuff did you have to deal with?
When you're around Brad and his family there's a strong presence of interest from photographers, but they keep a wonderful group of people around them, and they are all very kind. I get followed by photographers sometimes, so it wasn't like I wasn't aware of it, but to this level is honestly a little frightening. Their whole family just seems so wonderful.

Did you get a chance to explore the East Bay's amazing food scene while you were shooting here?
I went to Chez Panisse when we were shooting, which was insane. I feel like Alice Waters is like the Brad Pitt of the food world. I stayed at the Claremont while we were shooting, and Berkeley is a magical place. It affected me greatly, it's really cool.

You've gotten into voice acting in the last couple years -- is that something you enjoy more?
No, it's just something fun to do. I created an animated show that's going to be on Fox after The Simpsons called Allen Gregory.

What's the premise?
Allen Gregory is about the world's most pretentious 7-year-old, like a 7-year-old Truman Capote pretentious douche. He has two dads and one of his dads is an heiress and loses his money, so he can't be home-schooled anymore and has to go to private school. He talks like an adult in my voice. It's a very funny character to play, you get to be a jerk to everyone all the time. I grew up worshiping The Simpsons, and an animated half-hour sitcom was something that was really interesting to me. It premieres on October 30 in between The Simpsons and Family Guy.

Wow, that's the holy grail time slot right there!
Yeah, between Moneyball and Allen Gregory, I think I'm kind of living a dream right now.

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