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One of my favorite points in Moneyball is that people have traits that are undervalued. For you as an actor, do you feel as if you have any traits that are undervalued? Or has Moneyball started to expose some of those qualities?

JH: I think that is a really, really strong question. The movie is about underdogs to me and people that are undervalued, like you said. What’s interesting is that how I feel right now is how I felt when Superbad was coming out. With Superbad I was an underdog. I was saying, “Hey, I’m Jonah. I’m in this movie and I would like to make more of these kinds of movies, and I hope you accept me. Watch the movie.” Now it’s not unexpected for me to do a comedy. I’m no longer an underdog within the comedy world, not that I’m good at it or anything, but I made a few of them. Now with this film, I am the underdog again, because I am unexpected and unlikely to be chosen to be in this movie with Brad Pitt and Phillip Seymour Hoffman so I’m saying again, “Hey, I’m Jonah. I’m in this totally different movie that you’ve never seen me in. I would love to make more of these and I hope you accept me again.”

One of the many things that makes the movie work so well is this great dynamic between you and Brad. How did you go about developing that?

JH: We spent a lot of time with each other, which for me was awesome, for him it was probably … whatever (laughs). We had a great time. We rehearsed quite a bit and we just got along. We knew our characters had to really get along so we bonded, hung out, talked a lot about All the President’s Men. It was a big thing Bennett, Brad, and I would talk about, just as far as how the Woodward and Bernstein relationship was with their candor in those scenes when they are figuring out everything, going back and forth, throwing stuff at each other… Brad and I talked about throwing a football back and forth – just understanding that this relationship between us is essential to the film.

I heard that there was an intense prank war between the two of you.

JH: It was more one-sided. He is like the Bobby Fischer of pranks. I consider myself a funny guy, but I am not that great at pranks. They take a lot of time and effort, especially at his level of skill – he’s remarkable.

Can you give an example?

JH: He decided that I was obsessed with the band Wham! He decided this for me. I had no knowledge of their music before working with Brad. I went into my character’s office the first couple of days and there was a big-framed Wham! poster above my desk. Then he started messing with my golf cart, which we all had and would race around the Sony lot together, smash into each other, and cause trouble. He knew how much I loved it … so he started messing with it. I’d come out sometimes and there would be no wheels on it, it was on cinderblocks. I walked out one time and it was completely upside down.

Wow, that is a lot of effort.

JH: I know! But also, he is in there with me shooting a scene, which means that he has secret prank elves that do this while we are working (laughs). One time there was a fake genitalia hanging from my golf cart, and my actual car. Next he put flowers all over my golf cart and then [used a car wrap] to make it bright pink. Then he photo-shopped a photo of me and George Michael together and put it on the hood saying, “Wham!-mobile: Jonah Hill #1 Wham! fan.” The icing on the cake was that he had it engineered somehow that every time I turned on the golf cart, that was now a pink Wham!-mobile, it blasted at full volume “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go,” any time the engine was on. … So he is pretty committed.

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