Just as Sony was stepping up its promotion for 22 Jump Street - one of its big hitters for this summer - Jonah Hill has dropped a homophobic sized bombshell on proceedings. The 30-year-old has a pretty clean reputation in Hollywood and is generally considered one of the nice guys of comedy, though, under pressure from a persistent paparazzo, the actor used a homophobic slur in a video obtained by TMZ.com.

22 Jump Street Jonah HillWill Jonah Hill's gay slur affect the performance of '22 Jump Street'? 

In the clip, Hill and a friend is tailed by the snapper in the Larchmont area of Los Angeles. One man mocks his floral board shorts, saying, "I like the shorts though bro. They are pretty sexy."

Clearly perturbed by the paparazzi, Hill picks up the pace but after one snapper continues hounding him, the actor tells him: "Suck my d***, you f****t!"

More: Watch the '22 Jump Street' trailer

Hill - who scored an Oscar nomination for The Wolf of Wall Street - has been a supporter of LGBT rights issues and addressed Russia's anti-gay laws ahead of the Sochi Winter Olympics by wearing a 'Love Conquers Hate' t-shirt. 

He told E! News at the Governor's Awards: "I have tons of gay friends, gay family members. It's like saying, 'Why do you think people should breathe?'

"I support anybody doing whatever they want to do to be who they are."

Hill apologized for the slur early on Tuesday (June 2, 2014), telling Howard Stern, "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."

Jonah HillJonah Hill [R] in '22 Jump Street'

"In that moment I said a disgusting word that does not at all reflect how I feel about any group of people. 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," he said, "I shouldn't have said that."

"Look, I think I'm pretty good at being in movies. I am not good at being a famous person. I'm just not!" the Oscar nominee added. "I think there are some people who are meant for it. If you call me ugly, if you call family members of mine drug addicts and maniacs, I am eventually going to lose my cool."

More: Jonah Hill was paid only $60k for 'The Wolf of Wall Street'