Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum Talk ’22 Jump Street’By Max Evry
June 12, 2014
Coming out this week is the action comedy ’22 Jump Street,’ starring Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, and Ice Cube.
“21 Jump Street” shocked Hollywood in 2012 by becoming one of the most surprising sleeper hits of the year, being that it was a Rated-R parody of a decades-cancelled series from the ’80s. It proved to be a hilarious pairing of Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum as mismatched partners enjoying their life as undercover high school narcs.
Now for “22 Jump Street” the boys are back doing what they do best, only now they’re graduated to college. Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller also return in what turns about to be that rarest of things: a sequel that doesn’t suck. How did they accomplish such a feat? By parodying the very IDEA of sequels, from repeating the same formulas to outrageous wastes of money, “22 Jump Street” tops the original in laughs and action.
We sat down with Channing and Jonah in New York to discuss their onscreen partnership, the possibilities of a “23 Jump Street,” and the perils of inside jokes.
Chemistry is such a big part of this movie. At what point did you realize that you guys clicked? During the casting process on the first one?
CHANNING TATUM: I dunno. Jonah called me up on the first one.
JONAH HILL: The casting process was a phone call saying, “Will you please do this movie?” and him saying, “Sure.” That was the process. (laughs)
TATUM: “Oh, ’21 Jump Street’? You mean like that show from the ’80s?” He’s like, “Yeah, I know, it’s a terrible idea.” “Alright, I’m in!” After that Jonah came over, we just hung out. He’s very much like the kids I grew up with and that are my friends to date. I think we’re just fast friends from the start.
Can you talk about your scenes with Jillian Bell?
HILL: Jillian makes me want to quit show business and realize I’m a complete fraud. She’s the funniest person I’ve ever met in my life! When I improvise with her, I’ve never had that feeling of, “You’re thinking of what I’m gonna think to say but you’re saying it quicker and better and phrased better than I would.” We were all blown away by her. I think she’s an absolute star. Part of the joy of producing a movie is people walk in for auditions and you get to say, “Oh wow, we get to put a spotlight on this person that maybe hasn’t had the spotlight before, and I think that’s what
this movie is for her. I think she’s gonna get tons of other movies from this.
And your love interest is incandescent on the screen.
HILL: Yeah, Amber Stevens! Great actress.
TATUM: I thought you were talking about me.
HILL: (laughs) Both true, both true!
TATUM: Incandescent, I’ve never been described as that.
The movie probably has the most overt homoerotic partnership of two cops onscreen ever, including “Lethal Weapon.” The directors said the key to that was your characters don’t know you’re in love. How do you maintain that romantic tension?
TATUM: I have no idea how to answer this question. (laughs) I definitely don’t look at it that way at all. I think I’m way more in love with Zook’s character than I am with Jonah’s. You just keep playing with all the tropes of… I don’t know if you’ve ever been in a football locker room, you’re always slapping each other on the ass and you’re just like, “Why are we doing that? I don’t understand why I’m doing that so much.” And then you’re headbutting each other, so it’s just really confusing. As far as this movie I just love Schmidt. All the guys that are my real friends in life, I don’t have a problem saying “I love you”, I really don’t. Most dudes can’t physically say, “I love you” without throwing a “man” in it or having to bail out of it. I’m just comfortable saying, “I love you, its awesome.”
Or the triple pat when you hug each other.
TATUM: Yeah, or the lean-out. You keep far apart from each other.
Where do you go from here? What could you possibly do for “23 Jump Street”?
HILL: I think we made fun of the idea of turning a TV show into a movie, then we made fun of the idea of doing a sequel. There is no natural progression from college to anything else. There’s a natural progression from high school to college but anything else would kind of feel like, “Aww man, these guys are stretching it a little bit.”
The progression would be living in your parents’ basement.
HILL: Exactly, yeah. You know what’s interesting? I grew up in California and in Los Angeles we don’t have basements. I always understood what a basement was from “Wayne’s World” and everything, but I feel like I missed out on a high school experience because I never spent time in a basement. That’s like the coolest place ever! It’s like a teenage cave.
I was lucky enough to be on set when you guys were shooting the “meat-cute” sequence, and everyone was a little unsure of whether that was going to be too “inside” a joke to make it into the cut. Luckily it did, but what was the threshold of jokes that might be too over the audience’s head?
HILL: That’s a good question. The red herring thing no one understands but it makes me laugh really hard. There’s a joke I don’t think people necessarily pick up on where we’re in a car chase and the whole time we’re talking about how much money is wasted, and we hit an ATM machine and money flies everywhere. That to me is, like, what the movie is, you know? (laughs) Look how stupid sequels are, they’re just wasting money. That’s why Phil and Chris are so good at setting that tone and making that able to happen in the movie. I don’t think it’s something any of the audiences I’ve been with really laugh at or pick up on. The Cate Blanchett/carte blanche joke, those things are really funny but I don’t know who they appeal to.
TATUM: I don’t know who’s gonna know the “Annie Hall” joke but the bit still works as an actual scene that proves something storywise. That works on two different levels, that’s a reason why Woody Allen put it in the movie because it actually works, but only cinephiles will know what that scene is with the lobster and everything. It’s great.
HILL: My sense of humor within this film is just based on character. Who these people are, why they do the things they do psychologically. In all their movies Phil and Chris always have three different layers to every joke. That level I usually bring to stuff, like base human behavior, and they do like what the smartest most meta comedian would find funny, and then what a four-year-old would find funny. All within three layers of the same bit. That’s why their movies are so interesting. I don’t know how many people are gonna pick up on the “Benjamin Hill School of Cinema Studies”, that’s a really intricate joke. (laughs) That’s why they’re so great, ’cause they got that sign made! That actually took work to get that for a joke that no one’s gonna understand, pretty much!
“22 Jump Street” is in theaters everywhere this Friday, July 13.
