Before They Were Stars: Jonah Hill as “eBay Store Customer” in “The 40 Year Old Virgin”

After the Academy Award nominations are announced, I love to spend the week doing “Before They Were Stars” features on some of the nominees to show how far they’ve truly risen. One of the most controversial nominations this year is Jonah Hill’s “Best Supporting Actor” nod for Moneyball. While many people don’t believe that his work in that film is Oscar-worthy, he still did deliver a really good performance and it’s clear he could probably pursue a career as a serious actor if he wanted to. Anyway, one of Jonah’s earliest roles was a small bit part as a weird customer in the “We Sell it on eBay” store in The 40 Year Old Virgin. Thus began his relationship with Judd Apatow, who liked Jonah’s work so much that he allowed him improvise some of his own dialogue, and subsequently jump-started his career by casting him in much larger roles in future films.

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