An emotional Jonah Hill used his appearance on Jimmy Fallon‘s Tonight Show to make a sincere apology to viewers for his homophobic rant against a paparazzo photographer over the weekend.
The Wolf of Wall Street star lost his cool after being followed by photographers while walking with a friend in Los Angeles’ Larchmont district. When one snapper tried to elicit a response by teasing him about his outfit, the actor yelled at him to “suck my d–k, you f—-t.”
As Us Weekly previously reported, the funnyman used his appearance on Tuesday, June 3’s Howard Stern Show to make a first apology, describing himself as a gay rights activist.
But later that day, acknowledging the gravity of his anti-gay language, Hill asked Tonight Show host Fallon if he could talk to the audience on his show too.
The actor looked mortified as he tried to explain his actions, saying he’d been hurt and upset by the paparazzo and wanted to use “the most hurtful word I could think of at that moment.”
“I didn’t mean this in the sense of the word, I didn’t mean it in a homophobic way,” he said as his voice cracked with emotion. “I think that doesn’t matter, how you mean things doesn’t matter—words have weight and meaning. The word I chose was grotesque and no one deserves to say or hear words like that.”
“My heart’s broken and I am genuinely and deeply sorry to anyone who has ever been affected by that term in their life,” the 30-year-old star continued.
Hill insists he’s not looking for forgiveness as he doesn’t think he deserves it, but does hope his actions can serve as a life lesson to his young fans. “Use me as an example of what not to do,” he urged, “and don’t respond with hatred or anger. Because you’re just adding more ugliness to the world.”
Click above to watch Hill’s apology in full.
