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Seth Rogen makes a porno, wears a mask
Rogen on getting ready for Green Hornet and more.
by
Oct 27, 2008
Oct 27, 2008
We've seen Seth Rogen a lot this year, but he's never looked quite like this before. He's slimmed down since even his Comic Con appearance a few months ago. If he looked like that in Zack and Miri Make a Porno, he might not have passed for a schlub. Of course he's got a lot of other big films in the works too so we covered it all.
Crave Online: You're so thin.
Seth Rogen: I know. Sellin' out, guys. It's for The Green Hornet. The only reason. There's no other reason.
Crave Online: How did you do it? How did you loose all the weight?
Seth Rogen: It’s the lamest answer ever. I eat well and I exercise.
Crave Online: Are you working with a trainer?
Seth Rogen: Yeah, I couldn’t do this on my own. He’s got a book. I haven’t read it. I lied to him about it. I go there. I go there real early in the morning. I’m barely awake and he tells me what to do and I go home and go to sleep and it’s like it never even happened.
Crave Online: What are you missing the most?
Seth Rogen: Just eating hamburgers all the time, I miss that.
Crave Online: Was there a weight you had to reach for the part? Was it contractual?
Seth Rogen: No, not at all. They didn’t give a shit. Honestly, they didn’t care at all. I mean, I actually see Amy Pascal, I run into her on the lot and she’s like, "You’re too thin! You’ve gone too far! Stop it!" But yeah, they don’t care at all.
Crave Online: How long will it take to go back to old Seth shape?
Seth Rogen: I think it will take three hours.
Crave Online: Is it all worth it?
Seth Rogen: Yeah, honestly I think it serves the movie, y’know? That’s the only reason I’m doing it.
Crave Online: How much have you lost?
Seth Rogen: I don't know. I don’t weight myself.
Crave Online: You’re filming Funny People now. Did you have to reach a certain place in weight where you had to stop?
Seth Rogen: Yeah, so, right now, I’m kind of at my Funny People weight and we don’t shooting Green Hornet until May. We finish Funny People in January so I’ll have four months to transition into Green Hornet. I’m thinner. I was cursed by a man in a Stephen King book. That’s what happened.
Crave Online: Did you talk about improv with Kevin before you came in?
Seth Rogen: Yeah, I made it clear.
Crave Online: He's known for sticking to every comma and colon.
Seth Rogen: I just told him if that was how it was, I just couldn't do the movie. To me, it's just not funny when you do that. It hurts the comedy. Although I love Kevin Smith movies and he's literally one of the reasons I first wanted to be a writer, I feel like things evolve and change and now people are used to a more naturalistic delivery style and more loose, improvisational feel. I just told him this is how we have to do it. It will seem outdated if we don't do it like this. I won't be as funny as I can be if we don't do it like this. The whole movie won't be as funny if you don't do it like this, especially other people. He hired Craig Robinson who's one of the best improvisers I've ever met in my life so I said to him, "You can't hire Craig and not have him improvise." He was totally cool with it. He went into the movie wanting to make a movie differently. It was very discussed. The first conversation we had about it was we need options, we need to improvise. If one joke doesn't work, it'd be helpful to have another.
Crave Online: So he wanted to make a Kevin Smith movie that wasn't a Kevin Smith movie?
Seth Rogen: But it is a Kevin Smith movie but we didn't want it to be limited by the Kevin Smithyness of it. We wanted that to be the jumping off point for which to build.
Crave Online: Do you think this'll be a comeback for him?
Seth Rogen: Yeah, I honestly haven't seen all the movies that he made recently. I never saw, what was that one, Jersey Girl? I've only seen parts of Clerks II, in the trailer.
Crave Online: Does he know this?
Seth Rogen: He definitely knows I haven't seen Jersey Girl. And yeah, I mean, none of his movies have made that much money and I hope, just for his sake, it'd be nice if he gets a big hit. That just makes you feel good knowing a lot of people wanted to pay to go see your movie. So yeah, ideally, it'll be as successful as our other movies have been and will be received by his fans the same way that his movies have been received.
Crave Online: What did you think about having your nude scene?
Seth Rogen: I was fine with it. Luckily or not, we didn’t have to go too far. I didn’t know what Kevin expected of us. I didn’t really care. I was ready for anything. I have no shame about it. It’s fine.
Crave Online: Is there anything you won’t do?
Seth Rogen: If it’s funny,I will probably do it. If I genuinely think it’s funny, there is a good chance I’ll do it. I won't do something that isn't funny. Don’t hold me to that.
Crave Online: Elizabeth used the phrase "Seth’s encyclopedia knowledge of porn." Is that an accurate statement?
Seth Rogen: I would never claim that, but if it’s bestowed on me I guess will take it.
Crave Online: It’s fair to say you didn’t need to do a lot of research?
Seth Rogen: Exactly, yeah, I didn’t need further research.
Crave Online: Did you ever have a favorite porn growing up?
Seth Rogen: That Pam Anderson sex tape was pretty rad when that came out. That was kind of like a dream come true when it happened. It was like, "Really? That happened? Wow! I get to see what?" That was pretty good. That was pretty rad when that happened. I was pretty psyched about that.
Crave Online: Surely, you have come across an actual Star Whores.
Seth Rogen: I don’t know if there is an actual Star Whores actually. I think if there was, we wouldn’t have been able to do it. They would have sued us.
Crave Online: Was that scene a lot of fun to do?
Seth Rogen: It was hilarious and I was surprised they were able to do it. I guess he got permission from George Lucas or otherwise we would have been sued promptly. Yeah, I thought it was hilarious and I know so many people will masturbate to that scene in the future. So many. There will be lots of freeze frames of Katie in that outfit.
Crave Online: You mentioned being a huge fan of Kevin’s before working with him. What was his influence?
Seth Rogen: He was really influential on me as a writer and he just really laid the groundwork for the type of movies we make now and it was always something I would have hoped to do was work with him. It’s like one of those things. It’s amazing to me that I get to work with the people who directly influenced me. Like I’m working with Adam Sandler now, I got to work with Kevin Smith, it’s crazy.
Crave Online: Are people going to be surprised by your next movie, Observe and Report?
Seth Rogen: Well, it’s the exact movie we wanted to make. It’s a super dark comedy. It’s really dark. It’s like Taxi Driver. It’s like a comedic Taxi Driver. That’s literally what we wanted to make. Jody [Hill] and I sat down and we were like, "We want to make a comedic Taxi Driver, if Martin Scorsese put me in a movie and wanted it to be kind of funny, but still very dark." And that’s exactly what it is and I love it. I think as a film fan I watch it and I think, "How in the hell did we get away with this?" It is f*ckin’ crazy. It is by far the most edgy movie I’ve been in. The most balls to the walls and most unabashed movie I’ve been in. But I love it. I could watch it over and over and over again. We really push it and it’s my pleasure. In comedy I think it’s always important to push the envelope in some ways and Jody I was always such a big fan of and I’m just glad he got to make that movie the way he wanted to make it and I’m glad I’m in it. I don’t think it’ll get neutered throughout the process of it being released. I feel like it’s so far in the direction that it is you’d have to take some major work to take it out of that direction. So, I feel good about it. And I’m excited for the world to see it.
Crave Online: For years, Stephen Chow has dismissed attempts to make movies in America. What did you say to him to get him to come stateside and make The Green Hornet?
Seth Rogen: We gave him the goods, man. I don’t know. We didn’t know that. We had no idea if he had been approached by anyone. We had just heard he was very hard to get in contact with. But, we sent him the script and heard he wanted to do it. It was as simple as that.
Crave Online: No personal phone call or anything like that?
Seth Rogen: Nope. Nothing like that. Literally sent him the script and then we heard he was coming. He’s in hotel right now somewhere.
Crave Online: I think you said you hope he doesn’t realize you’re not the Wachowski’s.
Seth Rogen: Yeah, he’s a big fan of them. He’s a great guy. He’s really funny. And we’re just thrilled. Every time we’re in a room with him we’re like, "How the f*ck did this happen? We got him! We actually got him!" It’s really exciting and it’s exciting because a lot of people want to work with him so as we hire our production designer and cinematographers were getting to choose from very good people because, and we didn’t know this, apparently it’s as exciting to everyone else as it was to us that Stephen is making a movie in America. So, it’s great. We’re amazed and thrilled that we ultimately might be the thing that brought him to America and his first American movie is also our movie.
Crave Online: Your name has unofficially been attached to ‘Ghostbusters 3.’ Has anyone talked to you formally about that?
Seth Rogen: No. Not at all.
Crave Online: Were would you fall on that?
Seth Rogen: It sounds like a terrible idea when you first hear it. At first hearing it sounds like the worst idea ever. I don't know. Maybe. I mean, that would have to be one motherf*cking good script I would say.
Crave Online: But you’ve worked with Ramis before. If he was involved would it be harder to say no?
Seth Rogen: It all depends on how bad the script was. There is a point where it’s so bad it’s really easy to say no. I have enough insulation around me now that I don’t have to say anything.
Crave Online: So with all your newfound popularity, how do you keep it real?
Seth Rogen: I keep it real. I drink with my homies every night. No, I don't know. I don’t do anything. I just do all the same sh*t I always did. Luckily, I think, I never really wanted to be famous, I just wanted to make movies. My lifestyle, I have always worked for a certain amount of hours a day and I came home and did the sh*t I liked doing. So, I still do that.
Crave Online: One more question on Stephen Chow, did you guys have a different opinion on the direction of the project when you brought him in?
Seth Rogen: When we do something, I don’t know if it’s the best idea ever and I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this to writers, but we send our scripts out to directors at a very early step in the process. To the point where it just scares some directors off all together and they go, "Blugh!" And some people get and say, "I get what they are going for and I have a lot o f ideas that can help build this." And Stephen had a lot of ideas and that’s exactly what we wanted and I feel like we want our directors to feel like it’s there movie too. We don’t want them to feel like they are just guys brought in to film what we wrote. We want them to feel like they can stand behind it also.
Crave Online: Any chance we’ll see IMAX on ‘Hornet’ or other upcoming films?
Seth Rogen: Yeah, actually, Evan has been doing a lot of research into that lately. As far as 3D goes and IMAX stuff and different ways of shooting stuff. He’s now the resident expert on that. You'll have to ask him if you see him, because he’s really been boning up on the exact price ramifications of shooting on that stuff versus how much it traditionally gains you in the box office versus just how cool the filmmakers think it is to have that. So, Evan is boning on that. We’re considering it.
Crave Online: Fanboys is finally coming out.
Seth Rogen: Is it? I bet you a million dollars it won’t. It’s been ridiculous. I play a lot of different characters. I had a good time doing it. I made that movie, you have no concept of how long [ago]. I made that movie before I made Knocked Up. I made that movie a really long time ago. I had a lot of fun making it. I pretty much did it because Jay Baruchel was in it and we’re really good friends. I didn’t know any of those other guys, but I went and I had a good time. They let me put on prosthetic make up and I got to play a Star Trek fan. I play a pimp in one scene. It was a lot of fun and then I don’t know what the f*ck happened after that. They bumbled that one. I think it’s a good lesson in not listening to people on the Internet. I think they got scared by Internet buzz and I’m of the thought that Internet buzz is literally something that is influenced by 500 people with laptops. And I think they let Internet buzz change it and then change it back and then make some other weird version of it. And I don’t know what the hell they are going to release.
Crave Online: How is Funny People going?
Seth Rogen: It’s a different movie. It’s tonally a little more dramatic at times. So, that actually makes it a lot easier, so we don’t have to think of jokes all day. We’re not constantly pressuring ourselves to make it hilarious in every scene.
The fact that Janusz is shooting it takes off a lot of pressure. The one problem people have with our movies sometimes is that they don’t look that good. So, it’s somehow a battle of how can we improvise a lot and keep it visually interesting, but Janusz is obviously such a genius he’s found a way of shooting with three cameras at once and it looks as beautiful as anything you’ve every seen. So, that has actually made it a lot easier and has taken just a lot of pressure of and it’s been a lot of fun. Working with Sandler is great. He creates a very relaxed environment. It’s actually been the most relaxed shooting experience I’ve ever had.
Crave Online: Where do you get the inspiration for your screenplays?
Seth Rogen: My friends and my life and just kind of things that happen. Day to day stuff.
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