The day Jordan Feldstein, the brother of Jonah Hill, passed away unexpectedly, the actor visited his therapist.
In his latest film, Hill admits to his therapist Phil Stutz that he spends a lot of time trying to avoid thinking about that particular day. “I entered your office. It was without a doubt the most stressful day of my life. ”.
Stutz, a new Hill documentary that is currently available on Netflix, is an experiment that feels like it shouldn’t work but does. Known for his roles in movies like Superbad, 21 Jump Street, and The Wolf of Wall Street, the 38-year-old A-list actor chose to create a film where he spoke with his therapist, the eminent psychiatrist Phil Stutz.
Hill first argues that the film isn’t about him; rather, it’s about Stutz and the cognitive-behavioral techniques that, according to Hill, helped him get through his darkest hour. Hill does, however, finally admit that the film is, at least in part, about him.
He forces himself to talk about his late brother, who passed away in 2017 at the age of 40 after suffering a heart attack. (While filming the story, Hill discovered that Stutz also lost a brother when the therapist was only 9 and his sibling was only 3 years old. ).
Hill claims that the day he learned of his brother’s passing, he had a session with Stutz. In order to take a picture of the actor while they were there, Stutz asked Hill for his phone. Hill asks Stutz, “I wondered why you did that. ”.
Stutz responds, “It is exceedingly rare in life that you get the opportunity to record something at the crunch, most crucial time. And after that, you revisit it a week or a year later. During that time, you are surrounded by forces of recovery and healing. ”.
Hill informs Stutz that he hasn’t looked at the picture in four years after nodding in agreement. However, he feels prepared to confront it now that he has gone through the process of processing his grief, in part by working on this film alongside Stutz.
He holds a printed copy of the image and looks at it with Stutz. Hill claims, “I look stripped of everything fake. My face has an incredibly tranquil expression that is quite strange. But perhaps because it destroyed everything unimportant. ”.
With regard to the image, Stutz says, “That’s the picture of somebody who’s gone through hell, come out the other side, and is OK. Hill displays the image for the audience to see, seemingly moved by Stutz’s words.
Hill continues by describing how Stutz’s “loss processing” methods have eased his sadness, but he makes it clear that they weren’t a quick remedy. “I still feel that pain every day,” he claims. “I continue to miss my brother. ”.
Hill also discussed his issue with growing up overweight and the years he spent fighting with his body image earlier in the film industry. It may seem like no big problem, or ‘poor you,’ or anything similar, but for him personally, it severely messed him up, he claims.
When Stutz was 33 years old, Hill first started visiting him because of that struggle. Hill, however, wants to truly confront this beast, just like he did with his brother. He stares at a cardboard cutout of himself when he was 14 years old.
“At 33, I was very successful and in fantastic physical shape. All of which ought to have eliminated this version of myself,” Hill remembers, pointing to the cardboard cutout. “I figured they wouldn’t notice if I become successful. Then I did, and all the folks did was keep repeating that. ”.
Hill reveals that he has worked hard to appreciate and accept the person he was 14 years ago. But he acknowledges that it’s challenging, particularly in the face of ridicule and cheap jabs from the media. The Wolf of Wall Street received an Oscar nomination, but his successful career didn’t provide the solace he had longed for.
According to Hill, “it made me beyond depressed when success didn’t cure any of that stuff.”. “Meanwhile, the media continued to be quite critical of my weight. Everyone was free to hurt me where it hurt. As a result, I became extremely protective. ”.
Hill continues by claiming that he wasn’t able to successfully start ignoring the bad and build his own view of himself until he met Stutz.
Hill decided not to participate in a Stutz promotional tour as part of his efforts to take care of himself. His social media accounts were even deleted.
“You won’t see me out there promoting this movie or any of my upcoming movies while I take this crucial measure to protect myself,” Hill stated in a statement. “I wouldn’t be true to myself or the movie if I promoted it in a way that made me feel worse. ”.
“The work will speak for itself. ”.
