With his new movie Superbad raking in big bucks across the pond, Jonah Hill is thanking his lucky stars that producer Judd Apatow cast him as an 18-year-old despite the fact he’s five years older.

“They were having trouble finding the lead in the movie,” explains Jonah.

“I was always thought to be too old to play the character of Seth, as Seth Rogen was considered to be too old to play him and I’m only a year and a half younger than he is.

“Judd was looking at me one day, while I was doing the movie Knocked Up, and he said, ‘how young do you think you could look? I said ‘probably, 18, 17, or 19.’ So I went and shaved and made a tape of me and Seth Rogen improvising. And that day I was in Superbad.”

And Jonah is getting more and more recognition.

“More people are noticing me and coming up to me,” he says.

“Knocked Up and Evan Almighty all came out this summer so I almost feel recognition everywhere I go which is cool. Everyone who comes up to me is really nice.

“But I don’t care about being famous and stuff like that. I just care about getting the opportunities to make the movies I want to make.”

Superbad opens in the UK on September 14.