At it's core, it's a movie about this group of friends at a time when it's you and your friends versus the world. The only reason to set it in the mid-'90s was because there were no phones. To me, it is as much high art as any other art form to me. To bring hip-hop up to that level is important because it is high art. It's a movie celebrating certain cultures, but also in the super-elegant film world. Tonight we're having a party with Prince Paul and Q-Tip. It was important to show that elegantly and to show that art form respect, because it's given me so much.

A Tribe Called Quest is to me what The Beatles were to my parents. Often in films it's used to show 'hood stuff' or, like, 'balling.' To me, it was the emotional backbone of my youth. Skateboarding is often butchered in film, which was a big reason I made Mid90s. Yeah, I was the music supervisor on the film, and I'd written the scenes to those songs. Did you handpick that music? Are you an old-school hip-hop fan? I loved all the '90s hip-hop in the film, like the Pharcyde and GZA. You snuck a Scorsese tribute into Mid90s, when Goodfellas is playing on a TV in Stevie's house.Ī tip of my hat to someone I adore and respect and look up to in my first film. I've seen master directors take an hour to fix a problem that it would take Scorsese 30 seconds. To watch someone on that level run a film set, tell a story, fix problems-the highest level of directing skills I've seen are high-end problem-fixing. I mean.do you have a few days? I think he's the greatest living filmmaker. What did you learn from Scorsese on Wolf of Wall Street? And you learn as much from people's mistakes as their triumphs. All these directors I worked for were like professors. A mistake I often saw was people doing it just to do it, you know? If I wanted this to be a career I'll be privileged enough to continue-to make another film-I knew I had to wait until I had the skills, confidence and maturity to lead.

But it was what I've wanted my whole life. You look at their first films and you go, Wow, those films clearly meant something to them.Īll the years you were acting in films, were you secretly fantasizing about being on the other side of the camera? I looked at my heroes-people like Mike Nichols or Barry Levinson, people who started in comedy and became great filmmakers. This interview has been slightly condensed for clarity. Hill spoke to Newsweek about moving from acting-to-directing, Mid90s's glorious hip-hop soundtrack and what it was like to attend 'Jonah Hill Day' as, well, Jonah Hill.

Download jonah hill skateboarding