Jay Baruchel’s on-screen disdain of Jonah Hill in their movie “This Is the End” was very real off-camera, too.
“Jonah and I don’t get along super well, or at least didn’t back then,” Baruchel, 41, said of working with Hill in the 2013 apocalyptic comedy during a resurfaced May 2023 interview on The Daily Beast’s podcast “The Last Laugh.”
The movie stars Baruchel, Hill, Seth Rogen, James Franco, Emma Watson, and several other stars who play exaggerated versions of themselves in the wake of a global biblical apocalypse.
Throughout the film, Hill’s character pretends to be nice to Baruchel’s character, even though he clearly hates him. The movie comes to a head when Hill throws a knife into Baruchel’s leg and pushes him into a sinkhole.
When the podcast host tells Baruchel that their mutual hatred “comes through on screen,” the actor replied, “Yeah, no f–king s–t, it does!”
“And also, it was this weird thing of mining personal s–t,” he added. “But not for catharsis…mining it just for comedy. So mining it in the most monetized, capitalist way of, ‘we’re going to dig up real personal s–t,’ but nobody’s going to go home feeling better about it. We’re just going to turn it into a f–king product.”
And Baruchel admitted that they didn’t work through their issues through the film or behind the scenes.
“We never talked about any of the real s–t,” Baruchel said. “Like, it never came up for real. Because … we’re both 1982 kids which means we were raised in a great misogynistic tradition of not talking about s–t.”
He continued, “Especially two boys … we’ll air grievances. When we’re mad at each other and say that, but it’s very rare to be vulnerable.”
Baruchel — who also worked with Hill on “Knocked Up” and the “How to Train Your Dragon” series — called the whole situation “f–king weird,” but noted that despite really despising their scenes together where Hill would poke at him, that tension ended up translating well for the movie.
“I’m not saying I wasn’t justified in being annoyed sometimes, but what I’m saying about it was all my assumptions about it were wrong,” he said.
This isn’t the first time Baruchel has addressed his beef with the 39-year-old “Superbad” actor.
“I know the man. I wouldn’t say that [I don’t like him] … It was contentious once upon a time, but I think now we’re sort of each the devil the other one knows,” Baruchel told Larry King in 2017.
Baruchel’s not-so-warm-and-fuzzy reflection of his relationship with the actor resurfaced amid Hill’s ongoing drama with ex-girlfriend Sarah Brady.
This week, Brady claimed Hill was emotionally abusive and shared screen recordings of their alleged text exchange in which he tells her not to wear a bathing suit in social media photos.
He also allegedly texted her telling her he didn’t want to date her if she continued to have “boundaryless [sic] inappropriate friendships with men” as well as “friendships with women who are in unstable places.”
Brady also released new text messages where Hill was allegedly “sexting” her right before his romance with Olivia Millar.
Millar, his rumored fiancée, and Hill welcomed their first child together in the Spring.
Hill has not yet commented on his ex’s accusations.
Following Brady’s claims, actress Alexa Nikolas came forward alleging Hill “slammed” her against a door and “shoved his tongue” down her throat when she was just 16. Hill said in a statement via attorneys that Nikolas’ story is “a complete fabrication.”
Brady called the “Zoey 101” alum “brave” for sharing her “scary” story about Hill’s alleged assault.
