At the LA press day for the Universal Pictures comedy written and directed by Nicholas Stoller, Hill said it was great getting back together with Brand for another wild comedy. "I really respect Russell as a talented comedian and actor, and also as a person. I think he’s great," said Hill. "It was fun to get to work with him again."
Hill also worked closely with Sean Combs aka Puff Daddy aka P. Diddy in Get Him to the Greek. Combs plays Hill's boss at the record company, the man who sends him out to play babysitter to the hard partying Aldous Snow.
Hill recalled how Combs' casting came about: "He had acquired my phone number somehow and called me and said he was a huge fan of mine and he had heard about the role in this movie and wanted to come audition. So, he flew out and auditioned for Nick [Stoller] and I, and he just knocked it out of the park. He was very clear that we weren’t entering his world - he was entering our world. So it was not like I was recording a rap album or something like that. He was stepping into something that Nick and I were far more familiar with and was very humble and dedicated to giving a good performance. And it paid off because I think he’s shockingly hysterical in the movie."
Combs took his onscreen employee on a road trip to get acquainted. "Before we started shooting he took me and my friends from high school and him and his friends to Las Vegas. We had a wild time," revealed Hill. "I think it was very informative, although tiring, very informative for my character and for the upcoming experience of what it’s like to actually party with a megastar like that."
While Brand's Aldous is into the party scene, Hill's Aaron loves rock and roll but isn't used to the lifestyle. So when he heads to London to escort Aldous on his trip back to the States, he's totally unprepared for what transpires. Through Aaron we see what it's like to be thrust into such unfamiliar territory.
"I think the movie is kind of the ultimate fantasy in that who hasn’t dreamt about going on the road with their favorite rock star to party for three days," explained Hill. "In actuality, I don’t think in a cheesy way you kind of realize after all the fun, debauchery, and sex, drugs and roll ‘n roll, that a lot of times that life style can be rather empty and, without loved ones and people that you care about and that in turn care about you, life can be pretty sad."
Hill added, "I think that people who party like rock stars, and rock stars themselves, probably have a higher tolerance for that sort of thing, and the average person going into that world would probably not be able to handle it as well."
Looking Into the Future
Hill, who scored a box office hit with Superbad and is part of the Judd Apatow crew, has been offered a lot of films but says he's taking his time and carefully choosing his parts. "I just took my time and waited for the right movies like Get Him to the Greek or Cyrus and Moneyball - just took my time. And I think because I’ve only starred in one other movie, Superbad, people assume I’m like my character in Superbad who is a 17-year-old horny, obnoxious loud-mouth teenager. It was appropriate for that movie, but I’m a 26-year-old ambitious man and I’m not like that. So I think it’s important for this character to represent the audience because it is the ultimate fantasy. Who wouldn’t want to party with their favorite rock star? I had to represent the person watching it so it had to be more relatable, I think."Hill's also been working on the script for a 21 Jump Street movie, a project he'll be starring in. "We’re going to shoot that in early next year, January/February." The script's almost done said Hill, "but we’re going to work on it right up until we go."
Superstar Johnny Depp starred in the TV series back in the late '80s and has said he'd love to do a cameo in the feature film. Asked if he takes Depp's interest seriously, Hill replied, "Hell yeah, we take it seriously. It’d be great if Johnny Depp wanted to do a cameo. We wrote him a really funny one, so hopefully he does it."
So what's the attraction to bringing the series to the big screen? "I really like 21 Jump Street. Mostly when they asked me to turn it into a movie, the thing that I connected with the most was the idea of it. It sort of had a Back to the Future element in my head where it’s getting to relive your high school years again shortly after. I thought that was really interesting," said Hill.
"It’s almost like a time travel movie in a way, or getting to go back and re-experience a very important, significant time in your life. It was more the idea of young-looking cops infiltrating a high school than me being a massive fan of the show itself."
And Hill's currently busy shooting the dramatic movie, Moneyball, based on the bestselling book and starring Brad Pitt and Philip Seymour Hoffman. "I’m playing Paul De Podesta in Moneyball, and I did this film called Cyrus which comes out soon. I’m really proud of that movie. I play Cyrus and it stars myself and John C. Reilly and Marisa Tomei. I’d say it’s more in the tone of Sideways or Little Miss Sunshine, not content-wise but in that it’s funny but it also has a lot of dramatic and heartbreaking darker moments, and there’s some pretty dramatic stuff in there for me. Bennett Miller, who directed Capote, saw that and cast me in the second lead as Paul De Podesta in Moneyball. Brad Pitt plays Billy Beane, and Philip Seymour Hoffman and Robin Wright are in it as well."
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Get Him to the Greek opens on June 4, 2010.
