What happens when you give Murray Hill a flamethrower? He sets the screen on fire. Almost literally!
The New York City queer nightlife staple is finally bringing some of his “showbiz” razzle-dazzle to the movies in Jackpot!, the new action-comedy from Bridesmaids and Spy director Paul Feig.
Set in a dystopian not-so-distant future, the film (which co-stars Awkwafina and John Cena) imagines a The Purge-like world where a lottery winner’s earning are up for grabs—if you can catch and kill them before the day’s up.
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As the mustachioed face of the lotto, Hill’s character Johnny Grand doesn’t really get involved in much of the movie’s madcap action (leaving that to Cena, a former WWE wrestler), but the performer does reveal exclusively to Queerty that, when it came to stunt work, he had his hands full. Literally.
“The first day I got to set—the first scene I did was with a flamethrower!,” Hill shares incredulously.
Yes, a real, working flamethrower. Hill’s been known to light up the stage and the screen—in shows like Somebody, Somewhere and Drag Me To Dinner—but while filming Jackpot! there was a very real chance he was going to set the screen on fire.
As Hill recalls, he was assured the staging of the flamethrower shot had been previously tested with a professional—albeit with a stunt guy two times his size. So, when it was Hill’s turn to hold up the fire-spewing contraption with one hand, as had been planned, he quickly realized he didn’t quite have the upper-body strength to hoist it the same way. “It was like a Looney Tunes cartoon: I tried to lift it up, and my arm just went *pffft* Immediate emasculation!”
Hill says the production crew were quick on their feet, devising some tricks to help him hold up the heavy device—with both hands of course. But he still couldn’t believe he was being entrusted with a flamethrower his first day on a major feature film set… and he couldn’t believe he survived, either!
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“The gun was like blowing out gasoline while I was holding it—I could hear it, I could smell it,” Hill shares. “And nobody was around me—the safety guys were in hazmat suits and I was like, ‘holy sh*t!’ It was like 7am and I had no idea I was going to be doing that. The thing was live, and I really blew it out—[the flames] went 21 feet away! So, not only did I do my own stunts, but I also had to say my lines during all that. So I’m trying to remember my lines and stay alive at the same time. And I think that tension is captured in the movie. [Laughs.] Anything for showbiz!”
All of that in a sharp, three-piece, highly flammable suit, no less!
Speaking of suits, a mutual appreciation for menswear is what brought Hill into director Paul Feig’s orbit in the first place. Both are known for always dressing to impress, so it was kismet when the pair initially met at the New York City premiere party for Feig’s film A Simple Favor a few years back.
“Of course I had a gorgeous suit on,” Hill recalls of that fateful night. “And who else had a gorgeous suit on? Mr. Paul Feig! So everyone’s drinking at the party and having a great time, and we’re admiring each other’s threads, you know? Checking out lapels, the whole thing. So we ended up hanging out all night because we just hit it off—it was like two unicorns meeting!”
Hill shares he’s kept in touch with the director ever since, and couldn’t say no when he was offered a role in Jackpot! And while he’s always admired Feig’s projects—citing the TV series Freaks And Geeks as a particular favorite—Hill found himself blown away by how the filmmaker works on set (he also appeared in an episode of the Fox sitcom Welcome To Flatch, which Feig Executive Produced):
“He carries himself with such authority and leadership, but in a way that is not your typical Hollywood stereotype director,” Hill says of Paul Feig. “And I really think that goes back to [the fact that] he wants to champion women’s stories and marginalized voices—that’s really important to him and the way that he conducts himself!”
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“I was like, ‘A guy like this actually exists?!’ They direct you, they nurture you, they want you to give the best performance possible. And I’m not trashing anybody else, but it’s the first time I’ve worked with a big Hollywood, A-list director that didn’t have an outsized ego. And I’ve never done an action film—obviously, because I’m not in the greatest shape!—so I got to work with the best on my first time.”
Despite being spoiled by the delightful experience, that hasn’t stopped Hill from pushing full steam ahead on more on-camera work. As previously reported, he’s currently developing a campy, Palm Springs-set detective series called Shorty Big Time, which he calls his “dream” project, a spoof tonally somewhere in between “Claws and Love Boat.”
“Palm Springs is its own little magical, gay universe, but it does have a dark side, so we get into that, too,” Hill shares with Queerty. But don’t worry: It’s not too dark. “It’s not serious though—there’s no murder. You know, he gets called into one of the retirement home where he learns somebody stole Nancy’s dentures.”
“Not high stakes—low stakes,” Hill adds with a laugh.
Though, we suppose once you’ve handled a live flamethrower in while wearing a flammable suit, everything feels low stakes!
Murray Hill can be seen in Jackpot!, streaming exclusively on Amazon Prime Video beginning August 15. Stay tuned for more updates on Shorty Big Time, his upcoming memoir Showbiz! My Unexpected Life As A Middle-Aged Man, and of course Season 3 of Somebody, Somewhere.
