Pay close attention to Jonah Hill’s arms in Don’t Look Up and you’ll notice there’s something constantly dangling from one of them: a Birkin bag. 

As Jason Orlean, chief of staff to US President (and his mom) Janie Orlean, Hill spends the entire movie lugging around a black version of the luxury tote bag. Created by Hermѐs as an homage to singer and actress Jane Birkin, it’s the ultimate show of status, a symbol of the kind of grasping, social-climbing poseur that has somehow found his way into the inner circle of the White House. Introduced in 1984, the Birkin bag ranges from $11,000 for a regular leather version to a record-breaking $380,000. But writer and director Adam McKay didn’t know any of that when Hill first came to him with the idea. 

“That was an idea Jonah had right from the jump,” McKay told us. “‘I wanna carry a Birkin bag.’ I’ll be honest, I wasn’t so sure about it. I thought, ‘Jonah, won’t it look like you’re carrying the nuclear codes?’ And he goes, ‘No, no, I’m gonna carry it constantly, and I’ll carry it in such a way that it’s clear that’s not what it is.’ I’ve known Jonah for years, he’s so great and talented, and his instincts are so good. He pushed on that one like three times, and I’m like, ‘You know what, Jonah? I’m gonna go with you on it.’ And I’m glad I did, because every time I see him carrying the bag in the movie, I laugh.”

According to McKay, that’s far from the only thing Hill improvises in the movie. “Jonah and I come from the same background,” he told Netflix. “We're both people that came up doing improv-heavy comedies, so we both speak the same language, and I knew if I had him, I'd have someone in there throwing fastballs and taking swings. And boy, did he not disappoint. So many brilliant, hilarious, and smart beats that he came up with. God bless Jonah Hill.”

Also a Hill original is the “Prayer for Stuff” that Jason earnestly spouts toward the end of Don’t Look Up. President Orlean and her staff are addressing the nation ahead of launching a billionaire-funded mission to extract precious minerals from a comet that might annihilate Earth when she asks her son to say a few inspiring words. 

“What up, what up world, Jason Orlean, chief of staff, United States,” he says. “I’ve been noticing a lot of prayers recently, for people during this time, and I commend that. But I also want to give a prayer for stuff. There’s dope stuff, like material stuff, like sick apartments and watches and cars, and clothes and shit that could all go away, and I don’t want to see that stuff go away, so I’m gonna say a prayer for that stuff. Amen.”

“It captures the world we’re living in perfectly, and is also laugh-out-loud funny,” McKay said. 

Amen.