Jonah Hill Apologizes for Homophobic Slur: 'It's Heartbreaking For Me'

Jonah Hill took to The Howard Stern Show Tuesday to apologize for a homophobic slur he was caught saying to a paparazzo on camera.

After a cameraman repeatedly hounded Hill and a friend while they were out and about in Los Angeles recently, the Wolf of Wall Street star snapped, saying, "Suck my d**k, you f****t."

"This is a heartbreaking situation for me," a clearly passionate Hill, 30, told Howard Stern Tuesday. "I'm upset because from the day I was born, and publicly, I've been a gay rights activist. Now, this person, you saw a 40-second video. This person had been following me around -- just to give it some context, not excusing what I said in any way -- this person had been following me around all day, had been saying hurtful things about my family, really hurtful things about me personally, and I played into exactly what he wanted and lost my cool."

Video: Jonah Hill Talks 'Wolf of Wall Street' Fight Scenes and Making Leo Puke

"In that moment I said a disgusting word that does not at all reflect how I feel about any group of people," he explained. "I grew up with gay family members. I'm leaving here to go spend the day with one of my closest co-workers and best friend who is gay, who's getting married, who I'm going to stand at his wedding. You know? I'm not at all defending my choice of words but I am happy to be the poster boy for thinking about what you say and how those words, even if you don't intend them and how they mean, they are rooted in hate, and that's bulls**t and I shouldn't have said that."

And though he admitted that he wasn't "good at being a famous person," Hill took full responsibility for his words.

"Now what I said in that moment was disgusting and a hurtful term," he said. "I should’ve said either nothing, or 'F**k you.' Instead I used a word that's not in my personal life, that's not part of my vernacular. I'm happy to take the heat for using this disgusting word. What I won't allow is for anyone -- it would break my heart for anyone to think, especially with all the work that I've done and all the loved ones that I have -- that I would be against anyone for their sexuality."

Related: Five Things You Don't Know About Jonah Hill

Hill has in fact showed his support for the LGBTQ community in the past. Last November, he tweeted a photo of himself wearing the Human Rights Campaign’s t-shirt reading “Love conquers hate” in Russian, which was meant to protest against Russia’s anti-gay laws heading into the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.

Listen to the interview below.