Was is difficult to play this character without crossing the line into incestuous territory?
Jonah Hill: The point of the movie is you're never supposed to know how far it's going to go, and I think that's one of the great things about it. You don't know from one scene to the next how far I'm going to take it and how dark or unsettling it might get. I think it was just a great character, and Mark and Jay wrote a great script. The three of us knew how to approach it, and it was definitely different from the other movies I've done, for sure. I can safely say that. It was a great challenge, and it was interesting to do something like this.

Did you shoot any scenes that pushed it further?
Hill: No, nothing so far that -- Honestly, the only thing that got cut out was stuff where you felt too bad for me too quickly. Things like where I went off on my own when I leave, and you see where I go and do. It was hard because it was a hard balancing act between feeling sorry for Cyrus and feeling sorry for John. That was the only part that got cut out. We shot scenes where I go move into this place and have these panic attacks and have a difficult time relating to people my own age. Stuff like that. The audience felt too bad for me. It wasn't good for the story, because you wanted to make sure that they were equal competitors until the end.

Could you compare and contrast the improvisation in the humor-driven Get Him to the Greek and the drama-driven Cyrus?
Hill: My improvisation in Get Him to the Greek was far more improvising jokes within the character, whereas the improv in Cyrus was really just improvising emotion, a conversation within a character. You're in this character, and you're improvising what an actual conversation would be like, not having to worry about connecting jokes. In Superbad and Greek, the bigger comedy type of movies, it's really like a chess game in that you're trying to pay something off; it's like you make a move, and you know that three moves down, you're going to have to steal someone's queen. You really have to connect, setting yourself up or setting up someone else, hoping that they're going to land where you set them up for. In Cyrus, it was really this unique character who was really different than anything I've ever played, and it was really about just improvising to make things feel real and to really make those moments feel authentic. One of my favorite things about Cyrus is that there's never a moment that you could really call out as inauthentic in it, and I think that's a really cool thing for a movie, especially nowadays, to have. It was exciting and a totally different experience.

Since you don't have the traditional look of a leading man, do you think that you are helping to pave the way for a new generation or type of headliner?
Hill: No. I mean, Cyrus would be a weird movie if it was starring Brad Pitt and George Clooney. It just wouldn't be appropriate for the film. I never understand that question. It's just silly to me, because there's been all sorts of people who have played the leads in movies, there's all sorts of people in life. If you're going to do some movie about the best looking guy in the world, obviously I wouldn't play the lead character in that movie, but if you're going to make a movie about life, or any sort of movie that's just a story, people look all sorts of different ways, there are very few people I've met in my life -- having working with Brad now -- that look like Brad. I think people want to see movies about people they can identify with.

Before you got this role, were you afraid of being typecast?
Hill: Honestly, when you're starting out, you take whatever movie you can get, because you're lucky -- and I'm still lucky -- to get any movie at all. And I love comedy. I feel like there's this weird thing; I'm not doing Cyrus and Moneyball to say, "Finally, I don't have to do comedy anymore." I love comedy! I think it's great. I love making people laugh, I genuinely do. I never look at a movie and think, "Okay, I just did this funny movie, and now I've got to do a more serious movie." I don't look at genre perception, I just look at what's good at that time. And if there's nothing good at that time, I'll write something and not work, because to me, it should be what's good and not what's perceived as good. I could care less. People who know me know what I'm like, and thankfully there is a movie like this to show a different side, but it's not something that I'm going to get concerned about, because you can only do one thing. It's still just my job. I can still do other things that show different sides of myself. I just don't worry about that stuff, because as long as you do good work, it doesn't matter what genre its in.

What's next for you? Can you tell us about Moneyball or 21 Jump Street?
Hill: Bennett Miller saw Cyrus and gave me my chance at another dramatic role. Moneyball stars Brad Pitt and myself and Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Robin Wright. We started rehearsals... It's intimidating! I haven't met or hung out with Phillip Seymour Hoffman yet, but I've been rehearsing with Brad, and we have a reading on Monday with Phil and everyone there, so I'll let you know how it goes.

As far as 21 Jump Street, basically, they asked me if I wanted to help bring 21 Jump Street into a movie and I was like, "No, why would I do that?" And then I sat down and thought about it for a month, and I thought that if I was going to do this, since it's a big property, I wanted my version of that. It's completely not a spoof movie. Really, what it came down to, is that I like the back to the future element of the movie, where you get to relive a certain time period in your life back again. The big idea that I cracked that made me want to be involved was: What if there were these cops who used to go to high school together and were totally not confident, then grew confident and became cops, and suddenly had to go back to high school and revert back to being the way they were in high school? You have this John Hughes element to it, with some cool action sequences. I don't know who else is in it besides me.

Directing is my big goal, that's why I got in this business. For now, I'm going to make Moneyball and The Sitter, then 21 Jump Street, and then I think I want to find my first movie to direct. I'm not sure exactly what I want to direct, but I'm sort of reading everything and writing with different people, trying to figure out what that first thing is.

Are you excited to see the serious side of Jonah Hill? If so, express your excitement below, but if not, you have plenty of opportunity to re-watch his many films and one role.

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