7 Jonah Hill Quotes That Won't Make You Hate Him

Last week at Manhattan's 92Y, there was a buzz in the air as the packed house eagerly awaited Jonah Hill to come out on stage to be interviewed by Annette Insdorf, director of Undergraduate Film Studies at Columbia University. Clips from Superbad, Cyrus, and MoneyBall were played and after the interview a screening of Hill's latest film, the highly anticipated Martin Scorcese-directed Wolf of Wall Street , was shown.

Hill was criticized by some for a Rolling Stone interview he did this past summer that made it seem like his recent success had maybe made him a bit of a, what's the word? Ah yes. Pretentious douchebag. He clearly takes his craft very seriously (and lights up like a little kid on Christmas when he talks about working with Scorcese), but these quotes may restore your faith in Hill... at least a little.

On Dustin Hoffman

"Dustin Hoffman is the first person that really encouraged me to act. He got me my first audition which I ended up getting the role in for I Heart Huckabees. And he just happens to be my favorite actor."

On Scorcese

"Scorcese is my favorite director of all time and my favorite artist in any medium and I told Leo I'd rather audition for him and show him what I could do then talk about the character, which is what he usually does. I hadn't been on an audition in six years, so coming back and being an auditioning actor for Martin Scorsese was a little scary way to reenter that world. I was terrified. I did it and he gave me some notes. And I thought if this is all that it is, I still got the experience of getting to act for my favorite director."

On getting the part

"Two months passed before they let me know. When I found out I did a much grander version of that [the famous fist quench from Moneyball.] I was shouting in the streets. I hadn't even told my friends I auditioned I was so nervous."

On Goodfellas

[Hill talked about how his parents let him watch rather grownup and violent movies as a kid and Insdorf thought he said Goodfellas was the first film he ever saw. He said it was probably Bambi.]

Bambi and Goodfellas are actually very similar films if you dissect them. No, but I saw Goodfellas when I was 9-years-old and from that moment on I wanted to be a part of the movie making process.

On the roles he chooses

"I wanted to be Fredo in The Godfather. I'd always rather play the person that breaks your heart than this person who looks cool.... and you get a lot of sympathy. But in the film you're about to see, I play the world's worst person."

On films he watched to prepare for Wolf

Insdorf asked him if he watched other Wall Street films like Wall Street or Boiler Room.

"I watched Caligula. That sounds ridiculous, but it was appropriate."

On Wolf

"Nothing can really prepare you for the Wolf of Wall Street."

The movie hits theaters Christmas Day.

Image: Red Granite Pictures