With a pivotal role in the new sports drama "Moneyball," there's no question that Jonah Hill -- previously known for his comedy roles -- has entered a whole new ballgame.
And like once before, the actor is hoping the fans will cheer him along.
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"I feel the same way promoting 'Moneyball' the way I promoted 'Superbad' because it was my introduction to everyone," Hill said in a recent interview. "It was like, 'Hey, I'm Jonah, and I want to make some comedy movies and I hope you accept me."
"Now a few years later, I want to break out of whatever box I'm in and say, 'Hey, I'm Jonah, and I'm in a drama, and I want to make more of these kinds of movies and I hope you accept me,'" Hill added with a laugh.
Hill, of course, made his mark with the comedy smash "Superbad" in 2007, a film gave him tremendous momentum, leading to roles in such laugh fests as "Knocked Up," "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and "Get Him to the Greek."
But it was his title role as the conniving adult son of John C. Reilly's girlfriend (Marisa Tomei) in the 2010 indie dramedy "Cyrus" that proved Hill was just as capable of playing drama as he was comedy. (In fact, some of the cold, blank, uncomfortable stares Hill gives as an overgrown son jealous of his mom's new beau make you believe Cyrus could be a serial killer).
"I think 'Cyrus' was the perfect bridge from the comedy films I've done to 'Moneyball,'" Hill said. "It was really funny but it had a lot of drama in it and it was a good character."
From bestseller to screen
Based on Michael Lewis' bestselling book "Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game," "Moneyball" tells the remarkable true story of Billy Beane (Brad Pitt), a former hot prospect who struggled through his brief career as a player in the major leagues with four teams in the mid-1980s before becoming an advanced scout with the Oakland Athletics, the last club he played for.
In the film, opening Sept. 23, we find Beane in his eventual role of general manager of the Athletics, where his team not only suffered a painful divisional series loss to the New York Yankees, but the loss of three of his star players to free agency.
Left with little money to sign marquee replacements, Billy hires a statistical genius named Peter Brand (Hill), an economics graduate from Yale who approaches the game in a decidedly different way: Instead of rebuilding the team with the age-old method of scouting and observation, Brand suggests to Beane that he find undervalued players through the computer analysis and crunching numbers of performance data.
While it is set in the world of Major League Baseball, "Moneyball" is ultimately a movie about underdogs, and Hill is confident that is why the film will appeal to a broad audience, whether they're fans of the game or not.
"The movie uses as a beautiful, aesthetic backdrop to tell a moving story about underdogs who are undervalued," Hill observed. "In relation to Peter, he's never been given empowerment before. It's like a light has been shined on him for the first time."
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While "Moneyball" is based on a true story, Hill's character's Peter Brand, differs from the "Moneyball" book in that his character is an amalgam of different people, including groundbreaking MLB executive Paul DePodesta.
"Paul DePodesta is the character in the book, but even in the book, he was a composite of a few guys who worked for Billy at that time," Hill said.
"But I was able to meet Paul and spend time with him, observe what he did and get information from him."
A lesson in baseball, economics
Like DePodesta in real life, Brand in the film has a degree in economics and is perceived as an outsider in the world of baseball scouting. Hill, who said he's long considered himself as an underdog, said he was able to identify with the outsider part, but admitted he needed help with the economics.
"I got a statistical tutor prior to the movie because I can barely count to 10," Hill said with a laugh. "I think that was the most difficult part of anybody who worked on 'Moneyball' was trying to teach me to sound like I knew what I was talking about when it came to Sabermetrics (a measure of objective, empirical evidence in baseball) and statistics."
Besides, the 27-year-old actor said, he wanted to enter director Bennett Miller's film not just as a character, but an informed character.
"Bennett really wanted me to improvise lines about stats, which is difficult if you're not from that world," Hill said. "Plus, I dove head-first into the world of baseball. It was a priority of mine to learn as much as I could about the sport, plus what goes on behind the curtain and how the machine works."
While "Moneyball" presented Hill an intense workout about the economics of baseball, it also presented him the unique opportunity to work with Pitt. And while Hill believes the time he spent with Pitt only helped him developed his acting skills, he said there was also plenty to learn from him about the way he approaches the movie business as a whole.
"I think the main thing I learned from Brad is that he inspired me to make different choices of what I'm doing as an actor," Hill recalled. "He was encouraging first and foremost by allowing me to play this part in such of a different type of movie. If you look at his resume, it's filled with unexpected choices. I think that's the main reason he's so iconic. He doesn't do what you think he's going to do."