The “All My Children” actress explained she originally turned down the project because it arrived at a “raw” time in her life.

How Jonah Hill convinced Susan Lucci to star in his new movie after she initially said no: ‘Just not good for me’

The "All My Children" actress explained she originally turned down the project because it arrived at a "raw" time in her life.

By Emlyn Travis

Emlyn Travis is a news writer at **. She has been working at EW since 2022. Her work has previously appeared on MTV News, Teen Vogue, and *NME*.

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January 29, 2026 2:34 p.m. ET

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Susan Lucci in 2025; Jonah Hill in 2021. Credit:

Sean Zanni/Patrick McMullan via Getty; Taylor Hill/FilmMagic

Susan Lucci is revealing how Jonah Hill changed her mind about joining the cast of his upcoming film after she initially turned the project down.**

The *All My Children *actress revealed on a recent episode of the *Soapy* podcast that she was offered an undisclosed role in the film *Outcome*, which was written and directed by Hill. However, she originally declined the opportunity because it arrived at a particularly "raw" period in her life. **

"I was told I was receiving this script from Jonah Hill for his movie, and it's for Apple [TV], and my name, 'Susan Lucci,' was watermarked,” she said. “It was an offer. And I read this script, and it's not a big part, but it's pretty sizable, the scene, and very powerful. I remember thinking, 'This is really something. And this is challenging.’”

Jonah Hill at the press conference for the film 'MID90s' in 2019.

Christoph Soeder/picture alliance via Getty

Which is when the doubt started to creep in for Lucci. “It was gonna require me to go to a place I thought I was still too raw to go to,” she explained. “Not that it's literally the same rawness — or same place that caused the rawness — but I was just coming out of being that raw.”**

So Lucci went with her gut and decided to pass on the opportunity. “I thought, 'This is probably just not good for me to do,’” she continued. “‘I don't know... It's good for my career to do, but I don’t know. As a human being, it's probably not good.’”

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So she rang her publicist and explained why she wouldn’t be turning down the project. But, as the day progressed, Lucci found herself unable to stop thinking about the role. **

"I couldn't help myself. I started working on this character,” she said. “And I thought, 'Maybe I should read this again in the light of day. Maybe I should give it another go around because, God, I would hate to watch this and see some other actress take the challenge, and I didn't take the challenge.’”

It was then that Hill, who Lucci noted is an* All My Children* fan, personally rang her up to ask if she’d reconsider. “He really did have me in mind for this part,” she said of the writer-director. “And he was so lovely and wonderful to talk to, and I could tell he was really invested in this. By the time we finished talking, I was like, 'Okay, we're gonna talk in the morning.’”

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When she hung up the phone, Lucci said that she experienced a wave of “enormous cathartic gratitude” that a project like *Outcome* had come her way.

“I was going to accept that challenge,” she noted. “And I was going to do it the best I could. I love that feeling, so I did take it and I was so thrilled. I had a wonderful experience.”

*Outcome* tells the story of Reef (Keanu Reeves), a Hollywood star who is forced to confront his past after he’s threatened with video footage from his younger years. The film also stars Hill, Cameron Diaz, Matt Bomer, Kaia Gerber, David Spade, Laverne Cox, Roy Wood Jr., and more. A release date has yet to be set.

While speaking on the *Soapy* podcast, Lucci noted that Reeves was “spectacular to work with” on the film.

"A real actor,” she added. “I mean, we did about four passes at it, just between ourselves. And he said, 'God, I wish we were doing this on Broadway.' And I said, 'So do I,' because you keep finding things.”

Listen to Lucci talk about the outcome of *Outcome* in the clip above.

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW Drama”