Jonah Hill and Russell Brand in Take Him to Greece Photo: Cinematic/Alamy Stock Photo
When everyone's favorite comedian Russell Brand sat down and read with lovable comic actor Jonah Hill during pre-production of the 2008 comedy. Forgetting about Sarah Marshall, the film's director Nicholas Stoller could tell they had instant chemistry.
Brand played vain rock star Aldous Snow, and Hill was an obsessive fan who worked at the Hawaiian resort where Snow was recovering. Neither was the protagonist of Stoller's gritty rom-com, but to varying degrees, each stole the show. This gave Stoller an idea: What if they teamed up to make their own movie? From this flash of inspiration, the film Get Him to the Greek was born in 2010.
Fourteen years later, it is fair to say that the Greeks did not inherit the land. The film, like Forgetting Sarah Marshall, produced by early 2000s comedy king Judd Apatow, has its problems, but at times it is completely resonant. However, rarely in history has a film “canceled” itself more decisively than this gritty buddy flick.
The fall of the brand is well documented. In September, Channel 4 documentary Dispatches accused the actor-turned-YouTube influencer of multiple counts of sexual assault. But he remained in the spotlight and was “baptized” in the Thames in early May in the company of his friend Bear Grylls – a ceremony Brand described as “an opportunity to die and be reborn; an opportunity to leave the past behind and be reborn.”
Hill isn't flying high either: Last year, his ex-girlfriend, surf instructor Sarah Brady, accused the actor of emotional abuse and called him a “misogynistic narcissist.” She publicly shared several correspondence between the couple, in which Hill stated that he could not continue the relationship if she continued to surf with other men, post photos of herself in a swimsuit, and hang out with friends he did not approve of.
Then there's Greece's third big star, a former altar boy and business student named Sean Combs – or as he's better known, Diddy . In 2010, Combs was one of the most influential figures in hip-hop, and he had no problem playing the film's villain, egotistical record executive Sergio Roma.
However, he has now joined Brand and – possibly Hill – in the cancellation corner following the leak of a 2016 video of him punching and kicking his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura in a Los Angeles hotel hallway. Combs apologized for the attack, calling his behavior “inexcusable.”
“I take full responsibility for my actions in this video,” he said. “I was disgusted. I was disgusted when I did it. I'm disgusted now.”
Of course, the footage is horrifying in any context. It's also reminiscent of the scene in “Get Him to the Greek” where Roma chases Brand and Hill's characters down a hotel hallway, eyes blazing with rage. Talk about how life imitates art in the most disturbing ways.
Sean Combs, aka P Diddy, in the movie Bring It On him to Greek source: Glen Wilson
But that's not all. The film features a problematic fourth wheel in comedian Aziz Ansari, whose career has stalled following allegations that he acted creepily toward a woman on a date. Ansari was not charged with any crimes and returned to comedy, but never recovered from the charges.
Get Him to the Greek, seen in 2024, shows Russell Brand at the height of his cultural influence. His role in Sarah Marshall was essentially an extended cameo. However, the sequel was built in its image. Snow is an incongruous amalgam of Robbie Williams, Mick Jagger and David Bowie, and his hit parade includes sanctimonious dirges with titles like “African Child” (“Trapped in Me”).
Clean for years, he falls off the wagon after breaking up with his vapid pop star girlfriend (Rose Byrne, the best thing in the film and also one of the few uncanceled actors). Pumped up with drugs and doping, his career is heading south. This is when Hill's executive Aaron Green (a new character unrelated to the obsessive fan Hill plays in Sarah Marshall) suggests to his boss (Diddy) Snow that they record a live album at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. Green's mission is to get the depraved star from London to Los Angeles in time for a concert.
Starting with this vague premise for a Brand-Hill buddy movie, Stoller dove into Brand's 2008 memoir My Bookie Uk, in which the actor and comedian “candidly” discusses his struggles with heroin and experiences sexual addiction. Subsequent revelations of Brand's behavior cast his thinking in a different light. However, in 2009, Stoller was focused on the case.
“Russell had been clean for a long time, I think almost 10 years, but when I read his book, I literally didn’t know the Russell I was reading about,” Stoller said at the time. “He just seemed like a completely different person.”
Life and art: Russell Brand played rock star Aldous Snow in the film ” Make him” Source: Glen Wilson
He wanted the actor to play the role of the “old” Russell Brand – a bad guy who became an agent of chaos in the lives of those around him.
“I have no experience with addiction, and I wanted to make sure it was real,” Stoller explained. “The film, although it is certainly a big comedy, still tries to explore some serious themes, and we hope we hit home with this lonely and drug-addicted character.
“I wanted to make sure it was true, so I interviewed Russell and asked him a lot of questions. There's nothing in the film about his life per se, but in terms of emotional truth and things like that, it really helped me a lot in understanding the character.”
Brand also suggested one of the most infamous scenes in the film, in which Hill's character is forced to smuggle the singer's heroin from his stash into his ass—or, as Combs says, “If he wants you to put candy in a jar, you put candy in a jar.” .
Combs is hilarious throughout. Stoller would wind up the mogul-turned-actor by interrupting him and then, just as Combs was about to lose his cool, turn on the cameras. The tactic worked. Diddy is perhaps the real star of Take Him to the Greek.
The film hasn't aged much – certainly not as much as the careers of its main actors. It's full of celebrity cameos playing themselves, including Christina Aguilera, Pink, Pharrell Williams and Metallica's Lars Ulrich, although an appearance by Brand's then-romantic partner Katy Perry was cut (on the grounds that it might break the fourth wall).
The only real flashpoint is a rape episode in which a fan attacks Aaron, which caused controversy even in 2010. , rape jokes never work?,” the LA Times wrote. “Send Him to Greece reinforces the cultural myths surrounding the acceptance of rape,” agrees Elevate Difference, a New York-based website dedicated to economic and social justice.
Take Him to the Greek provides few clues as to the behavior Brand is later accused of. Although Snow is a rock star living in the wild, in the party lifestyle he is a lost soul with massive daddy issues. However, while promoting the film, Brand showed a more sinister side. In one retrospectively disturbing interview, he chats with a Dutch journalist while taking her sunglasses and stuffing them down his trousers.
“How will you feel about this? I undid one zipper button,” he says. “Your glasses are going down. They are next to my penis. When you put on those glasses this morning, you didn't expect that they would end up next to a man's penis… Who expected that at the beginning of the day?
He grins like a wolf, his shamelessness on his face is a complete look, very similar at the chest hair falling out of his shirt (unbuttoned like his pants). A few years later, everything fell apart for Brand, and Take Him to the Greek remains a prime example of a film from recent history that would never be made today.
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