Jonah Hill Nearly Drowned On An Australian Beach

June 12, 2013

The lessons Jonah learned: be careful of riptides and don't let Channing Tatum get you blackout drunk.

TranscriptJONAH HILL: the coolest part of your job is you get to go to other countries and show movies and stuff. One of my favorite things that happened is we were promoting get him to the Greek and we were in Dublin, Ireland and I'm always so excited when someone knows the movies from a different country. I don't know why it just seems so weird that our movies come in different countries. They had a big premier in Dublin. I didn't realize there was a premiere. I was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt and some dirty van sneakers. It was super embarrassing. I was so happy because there were a group of teeny boppers and they had this sign that said "we love Jonah." And I was so moved by that. I ran over and gave them a hug. And the girl was like freaking out. And I was so like -- I was like oh, hey, gave her a hug. She didn't know what to say, I guess. And she was like -- screamed out "Jonah, your trainers are gorgeous." She knew I wasn't wearing nice shoes and she had messed up that I was like thanks. I say that all the time. CONAN: You say that all the time? JONAH HILL: I say your trainers are gorgeous. CONAN: I never get any down time. Do you ever get down time when you're promoting a movie internationally? JONAH HILL: Yeah, well, the most fun tour -- one of the best dressed -- pressed toured is "21 jump street." We got go to Australia. It was crazy. When Channing and I get together like really bad stuff happens. Like, it's not OK, you know? And he was basically like pouring drinks down my throat from the second we got on the plane. CONAN: It's all his fault. JONAH HILL: It's all him. I was like no, I want to sleep. No, I was wrong too. CONAN: Yeah. [Laughter] JONAH HILL: We get there and we get off the plane and immediately we're like let's go swimming. So we go -- CONAN: What state are you when you get off the plane? JONAH HILL: Blackout drunk. CONAN: OK. JONAH HILL: We go and we're like let's go. What's the coolest beech. They go Bonn say beech. We didn't know that there's a reality show called "bondai rescue" because there's such a bad rip tide that tourists get rescued. I start swimming. And a second later, I look back and Chan is about a mile away from me. He's this big and he's a big guy. CONAN: Is he the one that's drifting out far? JONAH HILL: No. CONAN: You are! JONAH HILL: He's by the beach taking pictures and I'm literally like head bopping out. Where am I? I start to swim as hard as I can and I'm not going anywhere. CONAN: Yeah. JONAH HILL: And I'm like this is how I die. I am a guy who died in the ocean in Australia and that drunk, wasted. JONAH HILL: So finally a guy comes out in a jet ski. It was like hey, mate, you're going to die out here. He pulls me out. Terrible Australian accent. I was swimming in place. And what's crazy is there was paparazzi on the beach and rarely in life you tell a story that sounds ridiculous. And there's a picture that's even more ridiculous than the actual story. CONAN: This is a picture of you struggling in the water. The paparazzi -- [Laughter] [APPLAUSE] You really look like you're ready to meet God. JONAH HILL: I saw my life flash before my eyes. There's another picture of me traumatized on the beach. CONAN: Yeah, they get you back to the beach. [Laughter] JONAH HILL: Literally like a scared child who had been through a trauma. ANDY: The best part, still drunk. JONAH HILL: Blackout. The worst part of it we were there for a week doing press. And I opened the newspaper on the front page of the Sydney newspaper was, Jonah hill, actor almost drowns and that picture is on the cover of the newspaper for all of Australia to see. And every interview we did started off, heard you went for a swim yesterday, huh? [Laughter] Yeah. It's like -- err. Somebody needs to get some floaties, huh? It was like, yeah, man.

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