There is relief from the true crime and serial killer documentaries on Netflix! Since September, the OTT platform has been doling out series and documentaries about people who went violent due to their compromised mental health situation. But, with a new documentary, Stutz directed by Jonah Hill is taking center stage and putting mental health in a positive light.
Often, the actors chronicle their journey of how they overcame their mental illnesses and broke those shackles of self-doubts and came out positive. This documentary approaches it differently. ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ artist is shifting the spotlight from the survivor to the one who guides them through their healing process. In the documentary, he bares his soul with the psychiatrist, Phil Stutz, who is helping him to heal from anxiety and body image issues. So, why did he choose to tell this story from his life?
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Jonah Hill Was Desperate To “Get Happier”
When the actor started in Hollywood, he was obese. His first major motion picture role was with Brad Pitt in the movie ‘Moneyball’. But, as we know the Hollywood tradition of typecasting, he was the first choice for a fat supporting actor.
But, he wanted to be referred to as a serious actor who can strike any emotion. He once said, “I love doing funny movies, but I want to mature, literally, in how I treat myself. I’m not living in a frat house with a bong plastered to the table.”
Despite being on the anvil of stardom, the actor was not happy. But, for him, “it didn’t cure any of that stuff”. He confessed, “It made me beyond depressed. At the same time, the media kept being really brutal about my weight. It was just kind of free game for anyone to sort of hit my sore spot. I’d be so angry. It kept me from feeling any sense of being able to grow past negative feelings about myself.” But, he found refuge in Phil Stutz, his psychiatrist.
So, when he started to sketch this idea out, Jonah said, “I just keep asking myself, ‘Was this a f***ing terrible idea for a patient to make a movie about his therapist?'” Stutz tells him that it “is either the greatest documentary ever made or the worst. It’s probably both.” Hill started seeking help because he was desperate to be happier.
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Success And Fame Did Not Help The Star’s Situation
The documentary puts light on how Mr. Stutz approaches mental health and the ’21 Jump Street’ actor gets vulnerable about why he chose to seek help. Stutz helped him to recognize his self-loathing pattern which has been functional for many years through the concept of ‘shadow’. The actor said, “I had no healthy self-esteem. Having grown up overweight was something — that sounds like not a big deal, or like, ‘Poor you’ or whatever — but for me, personally, it intensely f***ed me up.” The ‘shadow’ is the personality that you want to hide from the world.
He recounted an episode when Phil told him to envision his shadow. Jonah thought of himself when he was 14 years old and overweight. Hill met Phil when he was successful. But, he says, “inherently, at my core, I’m still this unlovable person. The work is inching towards not only accepting [that] it’s great to be this person, but that’s still very hard.”
The documentary is an ode to the career of Phil Stutz and helps other people to heal by sharing the tools that Phil provided him with. He said, “I’m making this movie because I want to give therapy and the tools I’ve learned in therapy to as many people as possible through a film. I made this movie because I love Phil, because I love the life these tools allowed for me to have. And it doesn’t matter what people think about the movie. It just matters that we finished it together.”
‘Stutz’ is streaming on Netflix.
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