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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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From the New York Times, this is The Interview. I'm Lulu Garcia Navarro. At 44, Seth Rogen seems to be having the opposite of a midlife crisis. His series, The Studio, which he created, writes, stars in, directs, and produces, just won 13 Emmys and is currently filming its second season. He also stars in and produces the very funny Apple TV Plus show, Platonic, with Rose Byrne.
His production company, Point Grey Pictures, has been banging out the hits like the dark superhero series, The Boys. And his new movie, The Invite, directed by Olivia Wilde, has been generating a lot of buzz.
So I wanted to talk to Rogan about how he went from acting in the quickly canceled TV show Freaks and Geeks as a teenager to writing slacker movies like Superbad to having one of the most prolific, wide-ranging, and successful careers in Hollywood. Here's my conversation with Seth Rogan. Seth Rogen, thank you for being on the interview.
Thank you for having me.
You were recently just in Cannes, which you go to often.
I've never been to Cannes. What? No, never. That was my first time.
I just assumed. I actually didn't know one way or the other, but I was assuming.
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Chapter 2: What insights does Seth Rogen share about his career journey?
And so now that I am starting to get to go to festivals like can and, and see it, it is funny that there's like this entire other side of the industry that has sort of just been withheld from, from me for the last 20 years. And and and I never really I never thought about it that much because I always just thought like, oh, that's like that's for those types of movies.
And I don't really make those types of movies. But now it is amazing, like the level of industry and infrastructure and sort of pomp and circumstance that I had nothing to do with all these years just felt like a lot of parties I have. I was never invited to until now. So, yeah, it was really exciting, you know.
I find it very comforting that there's a velvet rope that you were not
There's plenty more. Trust me. Even now that I'm here, there's many more velvet robes that I have not invited beyond.
I have this theory that there's always another room that you just don't get into.
I remember as a kid hearing like, I can't remember who was saying it. It was Judd or Gary Shanley, one of these old comedians I was hanging out with. It was like, you work your way up through Hollywood and eventually you are led into a room alone with Jack Nicholson. And that's like, That's the end of the line. It's just you and him in a small room together, and that's when you're like, I did it.
So you do have another film, which is The Invite, and you play Joe. Joe is an angry person whose long-term marriage to Angela, played by Olivia Wilde, who also directs the movie, is not in a good place. I saw this recent interview where Olivia Wilde said you are both non-confrontational people, but in this role you access, and this is a quote, your deep rage.
Yeah.
And I want to understand what Seth Rogen's deep rage is. Tell me what she meant.
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Chapter 3: How does Seth Rogen view the impact of Hollywood's volatility?
No, I get really angry sometimes. And it's mostly... I think it's evolved over the years. What makes me angry? Like, you know, I used to really get angry about... I mean, like, for lack of a better expression, when I would say, like, people fucking with my shit.
Like, when I was doing, like, a creative endeavor, and I felt like the powers that be were just messing it up for no good reason and were obstructing me from... expressing what I wanted to express and what I felt would create a great product ultimately. And they were interrupting that process or, again, just complicating it or making it needlessly painful.
And that was the thing that used to really enrage me. More privately, you know, but at times, you know, I bet people I've worked with over the years would say that I am not always 100% pleasant 100% of the time when it comes to those types of situations, you know?
But honestly, over the years, I've seen that we very rarely lose those arguments, and we almost always get to do what we want creatively, and there's a number of instances I could probably count on one hand where we've actually, like... been forced to do a thing that we really don't want to do creatively.
And I think over time, I realized it's like not worth getting that angry about that stuff anymore because it just, it rarely manifests into a thing that I actually don't like. It's more the fear of it would enrage me, you know? But now I think as I've gotten older, it's more like... It's much more directed inwards.
It's much more I get mad at myself and I get disappointed in myself, or I will do a thing that I don't feel like I did as well as I could, or I will feel like I'm spinning out over something or ruminating on something or fixating on a thing, and then I'll get mad at myself for removing myself from the day-to-day environment.
present experience i should be having because i'm somewhere else fixated on some dumb thing you know what i mean that that is usually my own doing something that i felt like i didn't do well enough something that i'd said that i wish i hadn't said or something like that um that is much more where my anger lies these days is like at my own at my own behavior and at my own uh
Yeah, at myself, which is probably not healthy, but that's, you know, I'm doing my best over here. I go to therapy.
Can you give me an example of a moment where something got intervened in that you felt did a disservice to your vision?
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Chapter 4: What does Seth Rogen say about the normalization of cannabis use?
I am amazed that good work comes from any singular person, you know? I need sounding boards, you know? And... You know, I'm filming the studio right now, so I'm very, like, in it. But, like, I just see that, like, the team we have on set, our cinematographer, our editor, our writers, the production designer, the costume people, the camera operator, like, these people make the show better.
I think at the end of the day, and I say this all the time, the hardest part about being a director for me is when... is when you are the only one who thinks a certain thing. And when everyone's looking at you like you're crazy and you have to be like, no, this is what we're doing. Because ultimately, like, I'm the one who has to live with this at the end of the day.
And if I don't do the thing that I really think is right, even though everyone's looking at me like, I don't think this is right. And 99% of the time, the committee's in league. And then 1% of the time, me and my partner are standing there and everyone's looking at us like we're crazy. And we're like... This is what we have to do.
And to me, like the thing I hate the most is when I make a thing and it isn't quite what everyone hoped and someone who was there is like, you know, I kind of maybe thought that maybe this wasn't going to work. And that's when I'm like, say something like you were right. Say something not like, I wish you had said that because you would have made me see something that I wasn't seeing.
And, and, and if you had said that, then this would actually more reflect what I want to be putting out in the world, not less reflect that, you know what I mean? And so that is something I like just recognize over the years, like is really valuable, like to me personally, you know? Yeah.
You know what fills me with rage? Someone coming and saying, I told you so.
Yeah. I don't like that either.
Funnily enough. Just to return to the movie briefly, the movie's funny, tender, very dramatic. As a long-term married person, it brought up a lot of familiar themes. I was saying to my producer, also called Seth, by the way, that the opening— I have to fight him now. Yeah, you do. We were saying there has to be a cage match.
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Chapter 5: How does Seth Rogen define successful relationships?
It's a Highlander, yeah. Every time I meet one.
That opening scene where you and Olivia are fighting bitterly over the dinner party. She is throwing for the neighbors. She'd forgotten to tell your character about it. I'd had that very same argument that week with my husband. There you go. Yeah. Were there things in the movie that hit home for you? Obviously, you've been with your partner, Lorne Miller, for a long time.
What did it bring up for you and also your fellow actors as you were portraying this very complicated emotional dynamic?
I mean, we rehearsed the movie for a little while going into it, and the movie was completely rewritten, I would say, in like the weeks leading up to shooting. Huge ideas that are in the movie were not there at all when we started the rehearsal. And so the movie actually changed a lot as we were leading into filming. I mean, that's not uncommon, right?
And what's funny with a movie like this, and you're rehearsing, and the actors are there, and the writers are there, and you're talking about relationships. And at some point, you kind of have to define what
according to this film at least is a good relationship and what is a bad relationship you know and people really bring their own personal stuff into those definitions you know what i mean and what you very quickly see is that oh like what i view as a bad relationship is not what
These people necessarily view as a bad relationship, or maybe she agrees with me, but maybe they have a very... This person does not agree with me, and they view what I would view as completely unacceptable to be normal in a relationship and things like that. So, as we were rehearsing and writing, like, I remember feeling like I could...
really confidently speak about what a very good relationship was like and one that had been good for a very long time. What is that? I mean, I think it's a couple who is nice to each other and who loves each other and who goes out of their way to excuse the other person rather than to find things that they hate about the other person, not blaming it. But to me, it comes down to like...
like a caring, you know, like, and like a tenderness and a niceness that is born out of a desire to do that for the other person, which I think is also very important. It's like, you have to want to love your partner and you have to want them to love you back, you know? And I think you have to be intimate with your partner and sexually attracted to your partner.
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Chapter 6: What are Seth Rogen's thoughts on the role of AI in creative industries?
And that frustration is often sort of comedic and played for comedic effect. Could you give me your theory of what makes desire funny?
I mean, to me, it's more just like when a character is getting in their own way of what they want is the funniest thing for a character to do. And when a character fundamentally has a personality that does not allow them to easily achieve what it is that they want and they are their own worst enemy and they are doing things that are making their own situation harder and worse...
That, to me, is the funniest thing. And I think it does come from something I relate to deeply, which is, like, the thing that makes you the happiest also is the most painful thing in your life at times, you know? And I think, like, Larry Sanders shows the thing that me and Evan, my partner, like, reference a lot, you know? And I think that is, like...
fundamentally incredibly great comedic character in that, like, he's constantly trying to be someone he isn't. He's constantly trying to be cool to the employees that he works for or works with, but he just is too wound up and to allow it to happen. And he wants to think he can... He can date a woman who's more famous than he is, but he just can't.
And he wants to think he can allow his sidekick to be funny, but he just, his ego won't allow it. And so it's sort of this like conflict between like what the worst parts of your ego make you do versus what your purest desires like want you to do, you know?
Okay, this is kind of a little bit of a silly question, but it is something that I've always been curious about. In a lot of your films, there isn't some big pretty woman moment, though, for the dude. When you get a makeover and you're suddenly, like, pumped up. You always end up getting the girl, but you don't get the glow up.
There isn't, like, this big moment where all of a sudden, you know, you're kind of rip off your shirt and there you are. And... You know, I was thinking, like, Longshot with Charlize Theron and all these things. Is being funnier sexier than being hot?
I hope so. But no. The answer is no. Being hot is better. It can help. I have to think about the characters. I'm not personalizing this.
Yeah.
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Chapter 7: How does Seth Rogen describe his collaboration with friends in the industry?
Yeah, it's... I think because I'm in a very good relationship and have been in for a long time, it's, like, not that creatively interesting to me to, like, show two people falling in love with one another. Like, it's not where my brain goes, you know?
And I think also, when we were first coming up especially, it was like every movie had a romantic storyline or, like, conflict between the main couple that had to be resolved in some way. And I think that also just... And I remember we were making Pineapple Express, like, we sort of have, like, a really silly, ridiculous storyline with me and, like, the woman, you know, character.
And it's, like, not even remotely a romantic storyline. It's sort of like this disastrous thing, you know? And I remember at the time, everyone's like, it has to be romantic. Like, that's what a movie has. And we were like, no, like, that's not... We don't care that much about that. And Knocked Up, like, I think it was, like, all about that.
And Longshot was, like, it was, like, a romantic comedy, you know? But I think, yeah, to me, it was either more interesting to, like, fully explore this dynamic or not explore it at all and not have it be, like, an obligatory part of our things. And it's why, honestly, guys, we're making the studio now. It's, like, there's, like, no romantic storylines on the show. There isn't. Not really.
Oh, really?
A little, a little.
A little, kind of, but, like, not really.
I mean, your dating life is a part of the comedic stuff.
Yes, it's in one episode and it's, like, and the whole joke is that I can't date, you know what I mean? And so, other than that, it's not, like, a thing we're tracking is, like, Matt's dating life. Like, it's sort of, like, a non... There's sort of like an asexuality to the show in a weird way, which to me is fine. Yeah, it's interesting.
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Chapter 8: What challenges does Seth Rogen see in Hollywood today?
And Beetlejuice was one of my favorite movies ever growing up. So to us, she was just, like, as funny as a person could be, you know? And then, I mean, getting to work with her on the first season, like, it really, like... pushed us to want to do right by her and to want to make the show live up to her standards and what we felt she deserved.
And she plays your sort of mentor in this.
Yeah, and she plays my mentor and kind of a maternal figure to me, which she sort of was at times as we were making the show and would send us notes on the scenes, would completely rewrite the scenes. I would say in like the most Canadian way ever, she would send me an email being like, here's some thoughts. And then... Would it be a completely rewritten version of the scene?
And it would be like, take it or leave it. And it was like such a funny Canadian way of being like, this is better. You should do this. But never said with those words, you know? And then it was just incredibly sad. We just start to hear she was sick and we'd see her and we heard she wasn't doing well. And.
as we were nearing the second season you know it was we would just talk to her and it was she would clear her health was not great but she really wanted to come back and intended to come back and and i think it was a real like goal for her to come back and keep doing the show and i think she was really looking forward to coming back and doing the show um
And honestly, in the back of our heads, we were like, we hope she can, but we don't know if she will be able to. And so it is this kind of very sad thing where creatively you're kind of making in the back of your head these contingency plans, but you kind of don't want to think about it, but your brain is kind of telling you one thing and you're trying not to believe it in some ways, you know?
Yeah. Yeah. And then we heard she passed away one morning and it was the first week of shooting the show and it was really, really sad.
And when we were all together, the whole crew and everyone loved her very much and the cast, and we kind of didn't know what to do and, and we just kept shooting and they were like, I think the idea of like making each other laugh and being together felt preferable to anything else we could have done that day, you know?
Yeah. I'm sorry. So I want to go back a little bit to your upbringing. You grew up in Vancouver. I sure did. You started in comedy really young. You started playing stand-up in clubs at 13. Yeah. And your mom was really encouraging. Uh-huh. She would let you stay out. stay up all night working on your routines. And I think that's pretty unusual for a parent.
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