During a retrospective of Superbad for its 15th year anniversary, Judd Apatow reflects on how Jonah Hill initially hated McLovin actor Christopher Mintz-Plasse. Apatow produced the film alongside co-writers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg amid a career hot streak, including writing/directing The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up and producing Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Alongside his contemporary Adam McKay, Apatow's improv-heavy style more or less helped shape film comedy for the better part of a decade, though his most recent effort, the Covid pandemic satire movie The Bubble, fell flat with most audiences.
Although most of them had already been acting for years, the 2007 teen comedy was a breakout film for much of the cast, including Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, and Emma Stone. Perhaps the film's biggest breakout character, however, was Fogell, a.k.a. McLovin, who was played by Mintz-Plasse. While ostensibly a story about Hill and Cera's characters' friendship, Fogell steals just about every scene he's in as their dorky classmate with an outsized sense of cockiness and a fake I.D. He's become so iconic, Rogen still wishes McLovin a happy birthday on Twitter to this day.
Although Hill, Cera, and Mintz-Plasse's chemistry is so good together as friends, a Vanity Fair retrospective recounts how that friendship wasn't always mutual on Hill's part. Hill had already been cast as Seth and was reading opposite actors who were auditioning to play Fogell when Mintz-Plasse came in for his third callback. Apatow remembers how Mintz-Plasse leaned into improvs heavily bashing Hill, and that Hill immediately didn't like him. Afterwards, he aired his grievances, saying he found it difficult to perform with him, and that Mintz-Plasse was messing with his rhythm. Check out Apatow's response below:
Jonah said, ‘I don’t like that guy. I don’t want him doing it.’ And I said, ‘That’s exactly why we’re hiring him. It couldn’t be more perfect. The fact that it bothers you is exactly what we want.'
Despite Hill's protestations, Mintz-Plasse was cast, and the proof of Apatow's point is evident in the final product. Talks of a sequel have abounded for years, with Apatow's idea that Superbad 2 should follow Seth and Evan into college. But most of the film's other creatives, including Rogen, Cera, and director Greg Mottola, have discussed their disinterest in returning to characters for fear of ruining a good thing. Still, Superbad was a hit, grossing $170 million worldwide and enduring in the minds of audiences to this day.
The lasting power of Superbad lies not only in its wide appeal, but in the cast's chemistry. It's funny to know Mintz-Plasse irked Hill so much, given that their exchanges remain some of the film's best. Hill eventually came around on Mintz-Plasse, and the two have popped up in projects together in years since, playing meta versions of themselves in This Is The End and the film crew in The Disaster Artist. Hill may have hated Mintz-Plasse at the outset, but that's a lucky thing for everyone who's enjoyed Superbad over the years, because their antagonism struck comedy gold.
Source: Vanity Fair