‘I’m no partier’: Jonah Hill’s sister Beanie Feldstein opens up ahead of Booksmart movie release
Beanie Feldstein has been around the celebrity business for as long as she can remember and now the US actor is stepping out of her famous brother Jonah Hill’s shadow with the release of a new movie.
Beanie Feldstein knew she was on to a good thing when her dad gave her film, Booksmart, a thumbs up.
Her father, Guns N’ Roses tour accountant Richard Feldstein, is a tough critic.
“I have been in things that he has not liked at all and he has told me that,” Feldstein tells Insider, on the phone from Los Angeles.
“When he watched the screening of this film, first of all I heard him laughing the whole time
and I was blown that he was laughing so loud because he is a very quiet man, and then when we left, he was like, ‘Bean, Booksmart is one of my favourite films I’ve ever seen’. I was so moved by that. I think it really is a film for anybody, no matter what age you are, what gender you are or sexuality, no matter where you come from, it is just a fun heartwarming time and everyone can relate to that.”
Feldstein, 26, is the younger sister of Hollywood star Jonah Hill. Her mother, Sharon Lyn, also works in the business as a costume designer and stylist, while her brother Jordan was a music manager.
“I think Jonah is one of the most talented human beings on this earth and the fact that I am his sister is just like the greatest privilege of my life,” she says.
“We have the honour of being our parents’ kids and we are very lucky to have parents that fostered creativity.”
Booksmart first appeared on Feldstein’s radar about three years ago when she read an early iteration of the script.
She originally auditioned for a different role and was shocked when she got the call to meet with director Olivia Wilde, who offered her one of two main parts, playing Molly.
“Olivia is everything that the film should be and ended up being,” says Feldstein, who was starring alongside Bette Midler in the Broadway production of Hello Dolly when Wilde called.
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“She is as smart as she is funny and she is warm and just cool. There is no other human being that could have directed this film and have it sing the way that it does. It just has such a unique vision and she had that, she was just so clear and visual and dynamic in the way she described the film to me.”
Booksmart is a coming-of-age comedy drama about two bookish teenagers — Molly and Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) — who vow to make the most of their last few days of high school after realising they spent most of their school years studying.
It is an exploration of identity, sexuality and self belief.
“It doesn’t hit you over the head with it,” Feldstein says.
“The film is really an example of what message it is preaching or asking the audience to think about … it celebrates the complexity and multi dimensionality of people and it includes the vast array of human beings, different looks and sexualities, but it doesn’t make that the reason that they are in the film.
“In so many TV shows, films, books, songs, if a smart intellectual girl is depicted by themselves without any friends and they are also not seen as silly, kooky, sexy girls. They are just seen by the fact that they love school. What I love about Booksmart is not only is Molly brilliant and dedicated and passionate, she is also someone that has friends but she is also goofy, gross, silly and wild. Just because you are interested in academia and are fiercely passionate doesn’t mean you can’t be silly.”
Growing up in Los Angeles, Feldstein was “the theatre kid” at school. She has never been much of a partier, although her acting credits include a brief spot on hit TV series Orange Is The New Black as a character titled Party Girl.
“It is just not who I am,” she says. “I am like a cosy pyjamas and snacks and fun kind of girl. I am not a partier.”
Feldstein’s other film credits include spots on Will & Grace and What We Do In The Shadows on television and on the big screen in Lady Bird and The Female Brain.
“I feel grateful every day to say that I am a working actor,” she says. “That is kind of all you could ask for.”
Theatre is one of Feldstein’s great passions.
“The future looks like hopefully Laurie Metcalfe’s career,” she says. “I think about her once a day. She is a woman that no matter what she does, she always comes back to theatre and has an intense love and dedication to the theatre in addition to her beautiful film and television work. And I have fallen in love with making movies so I hope to be doing that for a long time but my heart belongs to theatre so I think being able to move between those two worlds is something I would really love to continue.”
Booksmart opens on Thursday, July 11
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