The feel of every movie set is a little bit different. Sometimes the cast gets on the same page very quickly and becomes almost like a family. Sometimes, the set is a professional and focused atmosphere throughout, or it devolves into a scary and miserable place of conflict. You just never know until you show up. Jonah Hill could tell you that better than everyone else. His experiences have been all over the board, including one that involved the most awkward car ride of his life with Morgan Freeman.
Back in 2006, Jonah Hill wasn’t super famous. He hadn’t received either of his Academy Award nominations or toplined any huge comedies. Instead, he was probably still best known as either the fat kid in Accepted or the awkward dude who couldn’t figure out how the eBay store worked in 40 Year Old Virgin.
During this time, he was hired to work on the film 10 Items Or Less opposite Morgan Freeman. The movie never got a very wide release and didn’t make a huge dent at the box office, but it’s a cute enough film. More importantly, it opens with an extended car ride scene featuring Hill and Freeman. Because of the amount of dialogue, it took 3 days to shoot, and according to Hill, it was the most awkward and uncomfortable 3 days of his life.
Appearing on The Graham Norton Show, Jonah Hill revealed Morgan Freeman didn’t speak to him between takes. They just sat in complete silence, right next to each other in the car. It was allegedly uncomfortable and excruciating, and it took a turn for the weird during the last day when, out of nowhere, Freeman started talking, or at least singing.
Jonah, Jonah. Ba-nana-nana-fa-fona. Mi My. Ma-Jonah.
In complete shock, Hill allegedly word vomited out a "thank you" and then Freeman topped it all off by asking him to then do the same rhyme with Morgan. God only knows what might have been going through the legend’s head when he got chatty, but something tells me he was having a better time than Hill who was still terrified and overwhelmed to be acting opposite someone like Freeman.
Obviously, none of us were inside that car and can confirm what happened, but in the grand scheme of things to lie about, this doesn’t send up any warning flags at all. If you feel like you need confirmation for some reason, however, feel free to bust out the rhyme next time you see Morgan Freeman out and about and see if he plays along.
