Jonah Hill was warned to "stay in [his lane] when he moved away from comedy.

Jonah Hill

Jonah Hill

The 36-year-old actor admitted people were surprised to see him move into more dramatic roles in the likes of 'Moneyball' and told him to stick to comedy, and he again defied advice when he stepped behind the camera to shoot 'Mid90s'.

Discussing how he was "conditioned" not to care about fashion, he told America's GQ magazine: "I think I was conditioned for that based on my acting career. Because, (A) being overweight and (B) comedy, you're not supposed to be into fashion on either of those sides. When I was coming up in comedy, you would get made fun of if you cared about fashion, but I always did.

"When I started to do dramas as an actor, people were like, Stay in your lane, dude, stay in your lane. And I bucked against that, even at a young age. And then when I'm like, I want to be a director, they're like, Stay in your lane, just be an actor. And I bucked against it.

"And then when people started writing about my fashion sense, same kind of thing.

"And then I'm just like: Wait, how many times do I have to tell myself I can't do something? I've done all these things that I was told that I couldn't do. Just keep going, just go on the journey of being into the s*** you're into.

" And so by that point, you stopped caring what the reaction is, you're just in the process of enjoying it."

When Jonah was making and promoting 'Mid90s', he largely stuck to wearing a "director's uniform" of black but explained it was because he was just too busy with the project to worry about making a fashion statement.

He told America's GQ magazine: "It makes me laugh that people call it a director's uniform, it's so funny. It was just because I had to do press every day and I didn't have the real estate in my brain. I would be doing interviews and then screenings and then all those things. And so it was just a way to look nice and good.

"I don't even think I would be able to get the job done if I had to pull off a crazy fit every time. It just looked good and clean—and it just took the focus off of that, maybe, and put it more on the film."


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