Why UK director Rupert Goold cast Jonah Hill?

“We had James [Franco] first up, and I found it difficult to cast the other role I actually have to admit...I just needed someone who was inherently sympathetic and who would deliver a kind of soulfulness and vulnerability and I think, for all his kind of high velocity kind of comedy, I think there is something in Jonah that is quite...he’s very good at playing a damaged quality... I’m really interested in shame in men and how that manifests itself in both of these characters. I thought Jonah would bring a nuance to that.”

— UK theatre director Rupert Goold at Sundance on casting Jonah Hill as a fallen journalist in his feature debut True Story.