Whilst he may be best known for his acting roles in Superbad and The Wolf of Wallstreet, it turns out that Jonah Hill is also into Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Starting the gentle art at age 35, he has been training for over a year now and has even earned a few stripes on his white belt.
In an Instagram post he gave his thoughts on practising BJJ. He wrote “In High school the dudes who did Jiu Jitsu used to beat the shit out of us at parties so it turned me off to it as an idea, growing up. But quietly I always thought it was a beautiful art form”
He later added, “At 35 I try and get over the stuff that made me feel weak and insecure as a teenager…trying to let go of that. Nothing more humbling than getting your ass kicked by a 12 year old your first week”.
Interestingly, most people join BJJ as teens to combat bullying, however it seems that Hill was on the receiving end of bullying from BJJ practitioners. Perhaps bullying is the wrong term, but at very least he got beaten up by them. This goes against the cliche that most practitioners are humble and self-controlled as well.
Regardless, it’s good to see someone who seems genuinely happy and interested in BJJ. In the Hollywood world, it must be quite a reality check to get humbled by a kid in your first lesson but like all good students, Hill has only used this to inspire him to keep training.
