While Judd Apatow's Funny People is mostly about the relationship between barely up and not quickly coming comic Ira Wright and comedy legend and shitty movie star George Simmons, other characters play pivotal roles in both the plots and themes (and yes, Funny People is the kind of movie with themes!). One of them is Leo, played by Jonah Hill. Jonah lives with Ira and their third roommate, Mark (Jason Schwartzman), who has found some success on a really terrible sitcom. The competition and backstabbing between the three roomies form a fundamental part of the story.

The world of Funny People is very specific, and sitting down with Jonah Hill for the second time in a couple of weeks (I had recently spoken to him on the set of a film), I wanted to really get into the nitty gritty of being a comedy nerd. So much of the film was obviously based on the real experiences of everyone involved that I wanted to explore what it was like being a comedian in LA trying to get ahead.

Be warned: there are some spoilers (mild, I think, but make up your own mind) for the end of Leo's storyline.

I was talking to some people yesterday who saw the film and we were being nerdy about it and we wondered if all the stuff that your characters have their in their apartment - the photos and albums from classic comedy acts - in your opinion as a guy in the comedy scene, how tuned in do you think younger comedy nerds are to that history?

When I first met Adam Sandler he told me 'You remind me of Judd Apatow because you and Judd have this encyclopedic knowledge of people way before your time.' This is right when I met Judd and didn't know him very well; I met Adam first, actually. I can only speak for me and my friends - and maybe that's why we all connected so well when we became friends - but Redd Foxx and Don Rickles and Pryor and Bill Hicks and Lenny Bruce... my idea is that if you're going to pursue something like comedy, you should know all the people who are legendary in that field. If you're aspiring to be a professional baseball player, you'd know who Jackie Robinson was and Willie Mays and Sandy Koufax.

As a film nerd there's always that film nerd thing - 'You haven't seen that movie?' - and I guess it's the same for comedy nerds.

Exactly. When we talk about film we always reference obscure films that inspired us, and that's why we become friends or work with the same people a lot, because the same things influence us. When we work with a new director or someone joins our circle of friends, Seth and I always talk about 'They like the same stuff as us. They like Lebowski and King of Comedy, they're obsessed with the same stuff we're obsessed with, like Defending Your Life.' It's easy to know you want to work with someone when their references and the things they worship are the same things that you worship.

In all of Judd's films the characters feel like real people, but maybe even moreso in Funny People, because these characters have real, serious flaws, not just funny flaws. Your character is really interesting to me because you might be the funniest of the group and you hate Yo Teach and in the end you're on it. Do you feel like he's selling out?

That's what's so interesting about the character - he just wants success. Early on I totally would have done that. I could see myself doing that in a heartbeat - hating some shitty sitcom but needing a job and getting on it and trying to convince other people it's the best thing since sliced bread. I think that's a lot of the movie; it's about these guys and all these people finding out what they would do for success. What part of you would you throw away? What part of your morals would you throw away? What part of your integrity would you throw away? That's the ultimate joke of Leo, my character, in that the guy could talk more shit than anybody but then the guy gets in. It's like the classic thing of when you try to be on a team - they don't want you as a member so you're like, 'Fuck them.' Then they want you and you think it's the best team in the universe.

Watching the dynamic of these three characters, the competitive aspect of that, it's such a huge part of Hollywood. The group that you're part of, the guys you keep working with, is there a competitive aspect to that?

We joked around a lot while making this movie that we're the least competitive people ever. I think about Seth and Schwartzman in particular, guys I've known for years and who had success far before I had any success. When I met Seth he had already shot Freaks and Geeks, and when I had met Schwartzman he had already shot Rushmore. I never looked at it like 'Fuck them! I wish I was on Freaks and Geeks and Rushmore!' I looked at it like it was good for them and I knew that if I worked hard enough something good would come my way. I didn't know what it would be, specifically, and I never imagined it would turn out as well as it did, but I thought if I worked hard and was interesting and funny something would come of it. There would be times when we would all be up for the same thing, and we would all want it for ourselves, but I couldn't be more happy for the success of a friend of mine. That's the difference between the characters and us.

But you must know people like that.

My character's based on real people we knew coming up. Not like it was way back in the old days or anything! But when we were starting. The main thing I brought to my character, which Seth and I talked about a lot and which Judd and I talked about a lot, is that I wanted Leo to be completely joyless when creating comedy. There are a couple of moments in the movie which are my favorites of my character, and one is where Leo is writing jokes and it looks more like he's solving a math problem then having any fun at all. Another is when he walks off stage, and this was one of the first things we shot and Seth and I laugh about it because it's really based on people we knew, he walks off stage and joylessly says, 'I killed.' It was all about advancement and figuring out the problem as opposed to joy. We have so much joy in a writing session, laughing and moving around, and then there are people you work with who just look like they're doing their taxes.

How does that work? It seems to me that if you're not laughing, how can you be creating something funny?

It's fascinating to me, but I'd say in our line of work most of the people are joyless about it.

You've hit a level of success, but do you find that with that level it becomes harder not to pull a Leo and sell out because the amounts of money being thrown at you are so ridiculous?

Fortunately I love the Duplass Brothers movie I did, which I did for no money and just did it for the passion and love of the movie, but the other sort of movies I love are commercial movies. So it's not really like I'm trying to do some arthouse heroin movie every time.

But there are good commercial movies are there are bad commercial movies.

You just have to work harder. The two guys who have helped me the most in my career as far as learning are Judd and Sacha Baron Cohen. They're two guys who have a large amount of success monetarily from making good movies that are appreciated by people. It's because they work hard. The bottom line is that if you work really hard on our kind of movie - the harder you work the better it is. There's a lazy way to do it, which is you take Jonah and another comedy person and then you just have them in a really big premise and see what happens and hopefully they'll riff and something will happen. But what I learned is that story and characters are everything, and the more time and energy you put into that and really sit down and do the work [the better it will be]. Judd and Sacha taught me it's all about sitting down and doing the work. If you sit down every day and focus on the work... there's a ton of semi-successful talented people. Everyone who has success doing what I do has some comedic talent, or else they wouldn't be there at all, but it's about how hard you choose to work once you're there. I just hope to keep getting opportunities to work really hard. I could have been in a dozen movies that wouldn't fit what I wanted to do, and they would be huge, but I'm really proud of the movies I have coming out and the movies I've done since I've been in a position to choose.

How was it doing the stand up?

I did not enjoy it at all. That was the hardest I worked to prepare for a movie, and I really saw what the people I worship went through to get where they are. We did it for six months prepping, a couple of times a week, and you just learn that is a separate skillset. It's remarkable when you watch a guy like Dave Chappelle or Chris Rock or Louis CK go up there and destroy, the years of work that went into that. I don't think people understand.

Why was it tough for you? As an outsider it seems like someone who is a good performer and a good writer should be a good standup.

We always talk about movies together, right? What I've always been interested in are scenes and movies. I come up with concepts that... I'll give you an example of a joke that I had that always bombed, every time, horrifically. The idea of the joke works, and maybe would work in a scene where it was two people talking about it. The idea of the joke is you know there's a stereotype amongst ignorant white people that Asian people are terrible drivers? Do you think there's a stereotype amongst ignorant Asian people that white people are like incredible drivers. Which is an idea that in itself is pretty funny, it's not a terrible idea, but this joke would for whatever reason have tumbleweeds go across the stage. Nothing. But maybe if I sat down with another writer and wrote that out and had it discussed in a scene in a movie it might have worked. It's just about my confidence as a standup comic; the timing is different and you're talking into a microphone. Even a talk show is great because you're basically doing standup but you have one of the funniest people ever if you're on Conan who you're riffing with. So I just have a tremendous amount of respect for the comics I worship. Seth and I once went on before Louis CK and thought we did pretty well, and then we watched Louis CK go on and the man just tore the house down. He's been doing standup every night for 20 years. You're dealing with a professional. You're dealing with Barry Bonds or Michael Jordan. And you realize you're in the farm team. But not every standup comedian has the skills to start a film career, and it's the same vice versa.