Jonah Hill is one of the biggest names in Hollywood — and now he wants nothing to do with it.
The 42-year-old Superbad star revealed during a live taping of the SmartLess podcast in Los Angeles on April 25 that he packed up and left the city three years ago, trading the entertainment capital of the world for a quiet small town in San Diego to raise his family.
“So I live in a very small town in San Diego, and it’s amazing, and my neighbors are incredible people,” Hill told hosts Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett. “And when we had our first kid, we moved out there three years ago. I wanted to leave L.A. and raise a family outside of Los Angeles.”
Hill, who attended the taping with his wife Olivia Millar — the couple recently welcomed their second child — said his San Diego neighbors treat him like anyone else on the block.
“They never treat me weird or ask me about my job or anything,” he said. “And my neighbor is one of my great friends, Dr. Sean, he never asked. He’s here tonight. He never bothered me or was like, ‘Oh, what’s this person like?'”
Hill grew up in Los Angeles and spoke fondly of the city’s energy in the pre-internet era, but made clear it’s no place to raise kids today.
“I grew up here. L.A. was such a cool place to grow up in the ’90s because you could go skateboard downtown or you could sneak into a movie premiere or you could go sneak into a comedy club and see Chris Rock or something,” he recalled. “You had access to show business stuff, but you had access to punk and skating and graffiti and all the naughty stuff. And there was no internet. It was just so awesome.”
Hill launched to stardom virtually overnight after Superbad hit in 2007. He previously admitted his meteoric rise to fame left him unprepared.
“I was a kid,” he said in a prior GQ Style interview. “I had too much power at a young age and needed a break from Hollywood.”
He hasn’t given up acting — he’s currently promoting Outcome, an Apple TV+ film also starring Keanu Reeves, Cameron Diaz, and Matt Bomer. But the Hollywood lifestyle? That’s behind him.