Seth Rogen
Appearances
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Yeah, things like that. But then I start to love it. I always think of like Jonah and Wolf of Wall Street is like so good and so funny. And I think it maybe took me a minute where I was just like, what is going on here? And then I was just like, oh no, it's one of the funniest performances ever. At times it takes me a minute to wrap my head around.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Lauren has acted in things where she's made out with people. And how do you feel when that happens? I get it because I also know when I'm doing it that I don't actually feel like I've kissed the people that I've kissed in movies. Not one? Not for real. No. I for sure have not. I maybe never had one real moment ever while acting. On or off screen.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
I'm going to drop back in character. Crosby hat on.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Dax asked. Oh, there's that rumor of her on the staircase. Absolutely not. Were they on a staircase? They were on the couch. Maybe I'm conflating.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
That was Thomas Crown Affair. Or maybe history of violence I'm thinking of.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Another very convincing sex scene. Perhaps on a staircase. I just have an encyclopedic knowledge of staircase fucking.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
I never expect anyone to think of anything I ever have said.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
No, I still am like that. I'm a prime target for serious robbery and embezzlement. I've decided everything.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
You send me a DocuSign, I will send it back. I hope they have because I still have enough. No scrutiny.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
What I guess I've seen over time, and I'm just so not like this, money is a thing people really hoard and have a lot of pride in the money itself and want to turn their money into more money and love how much money their money is making them and how profitable their money's money is. And that is just like not how I think. I have no desire for my money to itself be out there working for me.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
I don't view my money as lazy. I don't think of it like that at all. And I get how people do it. Are you like that? I am. You love your money to make more money. It's a thing people like. Mine's just a fear. What are you afraid of? That you're going to run out of money? Yes, yes. That's not a fear I have. I'm afraid I'm going to die with too much money. That is my fear.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
And I'm afraid I'm going to die and be like, I'm going to have a fucking place on the beach. I'm going to die. I don't want to die with $10 million in the bank that I could have spent doing fun, alive things.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
I actually remember as a young person being very concerned about the amount of money we had. And a lot of my friends had way more money. Yeah, you also went to a school where there was some hats. Yes, I went to a school that was way across town from where I live. So I essentially was surrounded by much richer people than me. And so it was something that I remember being worried about.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
But then I just, I mean, at a very young age, I started making pretty good money. Yeah, that's true. And I remember being like 18 and my dad being like, in the last two years, you made more money than I have in my entire life put together, basically. If he lived this long off that amount of money, I'm sure I can live.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
And I think not having kids, I would imagine people seem to want to leave their kids money, I guess, which is, I guess, a good thing to do.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Yeah. Had you just started like that? Yeah. You had like another little house on this property that was bad.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
I was in a Beastie Boys video many, many years ago, and one of the things I remember is they were showing me pictures or something on one of their phones. They had recently gone to Paris, and there was all these pictures of them in an incredibly expensive menswear shop, just in like ridiculous matching outfits. Uh-huh.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
And they were like, oh yeah, every time we go to a foreign country like this, we all go buy funny matching tuxedos and stuff like that. And I was like, that's a good thing to do with your money. You'll never regret buying matching tuxedos with your three friends with top hats and canes and tails and going out on the town.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
If you're rich, that's a thing that is good to spend your money doing.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
How much money your money's money should be making you. Yeah, mainly that.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
And not worried if you're fucking your kid up.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Oh, yeah. When I was young, we would do these press tours and I'd be on like a private jet going to do press with a nine year old. And I'd just be like, this child is going to have a hard time coming back to Earth from all this. Exactly.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Thank you. Being a good parent is nowhere on our list of reasons whether or not we would or would not have children. I assume we'd be good parents. I know people who are so much fucking stupider who are good parents. Seriously. I do think I would be a good parent, but I just don't think I want to be a parent. Yeah, yeah.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
It's comedians I like. Yeah. It's happened a few times. Like when we made the interview, we kind of became open season because we were like the news. To remind people, North Korea hacked Sony.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Biggest act of industrial espionage in history, I believe.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
You're like, I'm powerful. Well, that was another good lesson. You can hit the bullseye too effectively at times. There was comedians that I liked making jokes about us in the movie. Whenever they would make jokes that the movie sucked, that I just didn't like because that's all I care about. But again, you get over.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
and it's happened again you've been obviously invited to all these rows yes have you ever gone to one yeah nothing of those has ever really insulted me i have like a pretty thick skin about because i also make jokes about other people all the time especially in our movies we make a lot of jokes about people and i've had people come to me and been like that wasn't great being in a theater full of people having them laugh hysterically at a joke making fun of me like i've received direct text messages from
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
People being like, why would you do this? And I'm like, yeah, I get it. I'm sorry. And I've gotten better. I have been in some situations recently where I was going to make jokes about certain people and certain things and had the foresight to ask the people beforehand as to whether or not they felt as though this would be in poor taste.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
And when it was told to me in no uncertain terms that it would in fact be in poor taste, I was happy to not do the joke. And I know enough about myself now to know that I'm drawn to
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
in a bad way to the joke i shouldn't be making and i get a kick out of saying the thing that i know i probably shouldn't and it's not even always the funniest sometimes it's very personal something it's just something i know i shouldn't necessarily be saying i used to be much more inclined to do it and because i think i wanted to show i would do it or i didn't care or i thought it was just funny that i was treading into these waters that even if
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
The average person didn't think they were taboo. Like I knew in my head, I was like, oh, this is fucked up anyway.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
It's just a never-ending camera replenishment. They open a camera shop down the corner, sells the same 12 cameras. I'd be delighted to buy them off.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Yep, I actually thought it was funnier. It's not even always funnier.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Or sometimes you've just tread into an area where you are fodder for comedy, whether you like it or not. That's what it felt like with the interviewer. This is such a big story. You have to make a joke about it. And I just got that. People wouldn't be doing their job.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Like you feel as though you were ignoring a big thing that was happening if you didn't do it. And in those moments are the feelings of a few more important than like addressing the elephant that all sees in the room.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
I know. And all I'm thinking is how does Diddy feel?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
I know it'd be great. They're doing the last season.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Yes, but they're doing another show. We've slowly become the thing we are making fun of, which is the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So we are doing another show that's like a prequel about the formation of Vought set in World War II with Soldier Boy and those characters. But it's a funny thing with the boys where me and Evan, it's a very well-run show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
And the guy, Eric Kripke, who runs the show, does such a good job that it makes it that it does not occupy very much of my time or energy. We were very involved in the very beginning of the show. We like cast the show and kind of designed a lot of the uniforms.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Well, it was also Amazon. It was a good moment for us. We found ourselves at a place who was like looking for its identity in some ways. They didn't have like a flagship show. And so they kind of didn't know what it was. The people who are running it changed over in the midst of the time we were doing it. So I actually think we kind of just got lucky.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
No one had any reason to tell us no, basically. They actually really believed in it. And our pitch was very clear. People want the R-rated version of Superman. Well, but maybe the X-rated version. Very much so.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
In a world that was like so inundated with superheroes, people will get such catharsis to see what this would kind of be like in real life and how gruesome it would be and how gross it would be. And I remember that was the thing we would always say in the pitch is just your whole life you've seen Superman shoot lasers out of his eyes.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
You've never once seen how grotesque the effects of that would be on like an actual human's body. Six thousand degrees. Exactly. Exactly. That was like a thing. We were just like, that is what the show is. They really don't fight us very much on stuff on that show. From a content standpoint, I'm amazed at what they let us get away with.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Yeah, and that's like our favorite tone. And that's like a thing we've always chased. It's a thing I was actually just talking to my wife about. I actually think there's something about Barry was a defining moment. I could always speak personally, but I do think it was a moment.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
where i saw things in a movie where i was like i didn't think you could show putting calm in her hair i always think of the first thing where you see his nuts and dicks stuck in the zipper it's so funny because you're just like they don't show that and the joke is they're not showing it it was still one of the funniest scenes ever even though they aren't showing it and then They show it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
And it was one of those things where you're looking around in the theater at the people around you, strangers. And you're just like, are we fucking seeing this? Like, is this real? Are we actually in a theater where this is happening? We've seen throughout the years when our movies are functioning the best. That is a moment we've been able to elicit from a crowd.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
And that's like a thing me and Evan are always referencing. It's not like laughter and it's not cheering. It's disbelief. Thank you. Thank you.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Sometimes when I'm filming, I kind of lose track of time, but I also usually have my eye on the clock because there's an amount of time we have to do shit. But pottery sometimes, watching reality TV, sometimes I'll watch enough of that that I just kind of zone out.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
This room is small also. I've now done these types of things where I make people really stoned. And then I'll see them months later and be like, I was so fucked up that I apologize and everyone feels bad about it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
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Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
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Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
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Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
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Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
things we're making commercials content we're thinking of posters we're thinking of little ads these guys are just sitting in rooms fucking giving notes and shit like that i'm sitting in front of an editing machine the arbiters of good ideas and we are the creators of good and so that was like a really funny dynamic they have extreme ownership they're incredibly confident a lot of them
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
which is also like the dichotomy. A lot of the executives are sort of like me. They're kind of like Nebuchadnezzar Jewish people who are feigning confidence at best. But the marketing people come from sales.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
And every time I'm like, this guy smokes a lot.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
They actually are on the green light committee at some of the studios. That's true.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Well, they could have directly been overruled is what happens a lot. Often, they will have said, we should not make this movie.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
We cannot sell it. And then they're like, guess what? We did anyway. And if it fails, you're the one who's going to get fired. They got to polish a lot of turds. Yes, for sure. That was just a very funny dynamic to add into the show. And Catherine O'Hara is on the show. Catherine O'Hara, Canadian. Fellow Canadian. We love our Canadians. Icon.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Yeah. Tell people what a one-er is. It's a continuous shot. Like the most famous one probably is like the one in Goodfellas where they start outside the Copacabana and they go through the kitchen and they weave their way through and they drop the table and the comedian starts.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
No one notices how it's just for the filmmakers to get off on their own technique. Yes.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Snoop Dogg, I mean, there's no debating. I was on Howard Stern once with him and me and him smoked a bunch of weed. And then afterwards he invited me to like his little trailer, which was like a tiny little room. And we smoked so much weed. And it was one of the first times from just smoking weed, I had to like cancel my entire rest of the day stuff.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Well, in the whole show, every scene is a winner on the whole show. There's a few episodes where it's maybe only four or five shots throughout the whole thing.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Yeah, we directed the whole show. We wrote the show knowing it would be oners. It wasn't like a thing we just decided when we showed up. And for that episode especially, we had to really block basically the entire episode and the days leading up to it, but not with the actors.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
So like me and Evan, who I direct with, and the writers, we only had access to this house for like two days before we started shooting it. And so... As they were rigging the house, we just would walk through it and really try to block it. What we would do is we could only actually shoot for around an hour a day because of the light. So we could only shoot between 5 and 6 p.m. basically.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
So everyone would show up in the morning and we would rehearse whatever that day's chunk was. And they were eight or nine minute chunks. There's very little trickery in that episode.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
That's like a trick we would do a few times. That's what Kristen said. Well, it'd be on the hood. There's a lot of sleight of hand involved. This is a cinephiles fucking whack-off session. We were geeking out. It was so fun for us. It was just like the opposite of how we were always brought up making movies. It was always about two cameras, improv. We'll figure it out editorially later.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
We were like, what if we do the exact opposite? And we are painting ourselves into this corner that we cannot paint ourselves out of.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Oh, the Golden Globes one was the hardest because of the amount of people. That has a lot of long shots in it, but there's also 400 extras in every single one.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
And I was just like, I can't fucking do anything. And then I just sat in my parked car for like 90 minutes as I slowly regained my faculties.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
so many people and the choreography of it was unbelievably complicated. But it's funny because as we were doing it, we're like, I don't even know if the average person will be able to articulate what is happening here. The energy of it, I think, is what we were excited about.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Yeah, it's because you're never cutting. And I think it's also because it never settles into a rhythm of cutting back. There's no breathing between two people. We were always like the tone should be stress and panic. It is. And there's only a stories in the episode, which I think was also conducive to that type of storytelling is we're never cutting between.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
You set up my story and I'm doing this thing and you set up my story and he's doing this thing. The stories are all singular. And so that also helps with the singular camera and the singular style of being in the room with the characters.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
writing standpoint you know it's funny i did these table reads it's actually where i met katherine hahn for the netflix is a joke festival a few years ago we did a live reading of seinfeld scripts oh i remember this i was jerry and aziz azari was george and jack black was kramer and katherine hahn was oh my god And I feel like in reading them, it was like the Rosetta Stone or something like that.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
It's all the structure. Math. And it's not even the jokes. It's the order of the scenes and the raising of the stakes. That to me is what I would want to do with a show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
It's like never rhythmic. That's what we'd always tell the composer. We're just like, never have it settle into a rhythm. Whenever it feels rhythmic, it would get boring. Always make it a little off and uneasy.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
You don't have to wait for an editor to assemble it. Yeah, exactly. I was honestly really nervous about how we were shooting the show. And I would talk to my wife, Lauren, a lot about it. I talked to Evan a lot about it. The first few weeks, especially, I was just like, are we fucking up? Are we making a mistake? Are we so up our own fucking ass? with this that were just sacrificing comedy.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
That was my real fear. I was like, are we making it less funny in service of this style? And I kept being like, no, I really think we thought of this because it would be additive to the tone and the comedy. And then I saw it cut together and I was like... Thank fucking God. And I was so excited about it, so happy by it. And yeah, when we finished the Wonder episode, I was really happy.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Okay. I will say eating weed, though. Some of the most unpleasantly high times I've had in my whole life, and this is a life of doing many drugs, eating weed is the thing that can tweak me out where I'm just like, oh, I've gone too far. Yeah, it can go south on you. Yeah, because it's not pleasant. These other drugs have like a pleasant cushion.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
And Sarah Pauly is someone I've known a very long time. I was in a movie she directed 15 years ago or something like that. And she's such a funny person and such a funny actor. Go was one of mine and Evan's favorite movies. It was inspirational to us. It's wild and frenetic. Exactly. I think Pineapple Express is very inspired by Go and Dawn of the Dead. I was just always a huge fan of hers.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
And then I worked with her and I'm just like, she's one of the funniest fucking people I've ever been around.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
And she like nailed it. She couldn't have been funnier. Yeah, that was the thing with the show. We have a lot of non-actors on this show. Filmmakers, writers, directors. That was another fear I had where it's like we're taking these non-actors and essentially asking them to do like the hardest thing. Now you got to be a part of this seven minute scene. Yeah, a play.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
If you literally say one word wrong, we have to start over. And we got to have a 50 minute reset. Sometimes, yeah. Literally, we got to get back in the car.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
To what you were saying, it did become like a real team effort. And those are also my least favorite moments on sets often is just you're sitting on an Apple box. The crew guys are on their phone because it's just, OK, now it's this shot. Now it's this shot. One out of 200 people feel like they're working. And that's kind of the person who's on camera. Then I've been in some movies.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
I got to be in a Steven Spielberg movie. And he had these very elaborate shots sometimes where it was like, oh, no, it's all going to play in this one shot. And I would just see how the whole crew would come together and be so psyched about it. Yeah. Right.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
And in this, even if you had two lines in the scene, it was so fun. You didn't feel like you were just window dressing or just waiting for your part. You were a part of a huge scene. And that was another reason that it was partially procedurally alluring to us.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
I really, I think, have grown a better understanding of what is needed to accomplish these things and how much time it'll actually take and how much preparation it will actually take.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
And so we're very prepared and it would get very discouraging at times in the shooting style where we would joke often that until sometimes like the seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth take of these long sequences, it's just not even fucking close. And we would be looking at each other being like, is this the one that we can't do?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Sometimes it's just the camera has to like latch on to the car and the fucking magnet keeps fritzing out. We're relying on technology to do what we want that isn't as reliable as you would hope it is sometimes. And sometimes it's just an actor keeps like missing the thing or tripping over the thing.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
That's the point of them. It'll bolster itself with the pleasant effects of the drugs. But eating weed can just go down and there's no bolstering. It's like you're free falling without a parachute.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
No. I feel comfortable saying this because he's my dear friend, but David Krumholz is in a few episodes of the show, and there's a very complicated sequence of me entering the Golden Globes. It literally starts in the limo, and then I walk the whole red carpet, and then I walk through the lobby.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Exactly, and then I walk through the ballroom. I'm interacting with a bunch of people throughout it, Adam Scott's in it, and Ike, and O'Hara, and all these people, and the last moment is me and Krumholz, and it's like a three-line exchange.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
And there's 500 extras, cars, limos, all this shit.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
And I will say God bless him because I would tell the actors, look, If you genuinely think you've thought of something that is better than what we've written or additive and it comes to you in the moment, I want you to do it because I don't want it to be too rigid and I want it to feel alive. But just know, if it's not good, it's fucked up everything. Workshop it in the mega trailer.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
I'm trusting you to gauge in your own head whether or not you think I will think it's good enough to warrant this risk you're taking. And Dave several times was just improvising stuff. And even he would do it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
he is one of my favorites and he's spectacular in your show he's so good on the show he's one of the best and then he nailed it i think some of our moments are some of the best moments of the show and we would put him in it more after that because it is so alive and you do feel like i don't quite know what he's gonna do and at its worst the show in the earlier takes that was always to me the scary zone is we would start to get it but it would just feel sort of rigid because everyone was too focused on hitting the mark and the timing and the camera point they're
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
place and that's why it's good to have agents of chaos like dave in there yeah in some ways just can't say the lines in the same way twice and hon was like that too she would just say other stuff and you could see there's like a moment where everyone's like oh no is this gonna cause a major problem but then that becomes its own fun thing for you to play with right you're scared
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Like quite on edge that we're not going to get it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
That's what was also fun about it. It's like, it is how kids film things. You just point the camera at who's talking and you walk around and that's it. And so there is that energy. It did feel a lot like that.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Underwater. What are we going to do? You know what I heard is impossible is underwater. It's all in space.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Me and Evan, we kept saying as we were doing it, we're like, this is one of the most creatively invigorating things we'd done since we made Superbad. How long did it take you from start to finish writing it and then shooting it and finishing it? I was shooting The Fablemans when I first thought of it. So that was two and a half years ago or something like that.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
And then it maybe took six months for us to start writing it. And then I think it took like a year of writing because we wrote the whole show basically. And then we shot the whole show. So not that long, actually, like on the grand scale of things.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Yeah. I've done way too many shrooms. Even that's not that bad in comparison to way too much. Because there's at least like a catharsis. No catharsis comes from eating too much weed. I should never fucking eat weed again. Shrooms, you're like, I should do this differently. I should do that. This was a rough trip, but it got intense for a while.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Part of my whole thesis in general is to try to over-deliver. I don't take any success for granted. When we made this the end and all these things, we were just like, give people more than they're expecting. Don't tell them it's Hollywood and then have a few people and try to sell that as Hollywood.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
So that was something for us that was very important is we were like, if it's going to be about Hollywood, You have to believe that these are the people a studio head would be excited by, intimidated by, wanting to impress, wanting to befriend. The actual people who are in movies and we're not trying to tell you, yeah, this guy's in a movie.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Exactly. We really didn't want to do that. And Larry Sanders, again, was a thing that was hugely inspirational for that. Because as a kid, I remember Sean Penn's on it and Jim Carrey's on it and Tom Petty's on it and Elvis Costello's on it. And all these great comedians and actors are on it. And I was like, that's part of the fun of it. They got them.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
The whole time we were just like, I just hope this is easier the second season.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
She's built for a water. Also, we didn't want to only do people that we know and that we work with and they're kind of like associated with us. And it was kind of like a mix of people that we didn't even know that well. Do you have a relationship with Scorsese? I met him once for two seasons.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
seconds before this is a cold call we really tried to make the roles good honestly that was like a big part of it was even if you had one joke we wanted it to be like a great moment and to not feel like you're just kind of there and they're not just like extras in the scene everyone has to have a moment that they can really sink their teeth into but it was really hard and we spent a ton of time
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
rewriting the scripts for people they want it to be good and once they commit to it they're like okay what if i do this it was always very welcome everyone that came had some leverage everyone has leverage you want them to think it's funny and that's the other thing is we're always just like we want you to be excited about this like we don't want you to feel like you're doing us a favor we want you to feel like you're getting to do a thing that you think is cool it was by far
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
One of the biggest challenges of the show was to get all these people and to schedule it and to not let them down, honestly. Did you find it hard to direct these huge people? Were you like, oh, fuck, I gotta tell. The answer is yes.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
It was different. Talking to the actors is the thing I struggle with most as a director. And it's also because I'm an actor in the scenes and some actors just don't like to be directed by the other actors. Me and Olivia Wilde were talking about it. Me and Evan would kind of do like a good cop, bad cops thing. I would be in the scenes and be like, great, perfect.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
But at least I came out of it with some sort of insight.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
And then I'd go to Evan and be like, tell her to slow down. She's not hitting her mark. She's not saying the sign properly. And she actually was the only one that clued into it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
I would have a hard time doing it alone. Having a partner makes it much easier, I think, in a lot of ways. Because they got to be a little suspicious. Like, how the fuck does he know what happened? He's inside the scene with me. A thing that would happen is the people I was in the scenes with could tell when I just was dropped out of it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Because I was also very aware where the camera was and what it was capturing at all times. So there'd be times I would just see, like, oh, the camera guy.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
There's like a sense of accomplishment afterwards. There's no sense of accomplishment that comes with eating way too much weed food. You don't feel proud of yourself at all. So you'll never do it? No, I'll do it all the time.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
And that's something me and Evan talked a lot about. And that's something we actually learned a lot of improvisational comedy is it's a fine line between directing improv and just shutting people down. Sometimes we would let people go on these runs for 10 minutes where we're just like, this isn't going to be in the movie. But like they seem to really think it's funny.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
We'll get 10 other good things out of them today because we didn't tell them this. Yeah. So that was math that would happen in our heads. Sometimes it was a hard reset. I would stop early because I would just know like, oh, once this happens, it's going into a new zone. But that was something we were constantly navigating.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
I have a Karmann Ghia. That's perfect for you. Yes. Yeah. And I have a Studebaker Lark. Not the one in the show, but I have one like that one that we drive in the winter. Have you ever eyed an Avante? Yeah, those are amazing.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
What I do is I drink weed a lot now. There's weed beverages that are fantastic. And they have a much more moderate amount. Like a five milligram switch? Yeah, like three or five. That I get down with.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
It's what we made. This is the end. Honestly, we were designing the house for the movie to be set in. And at first the joke was like, it's a douchey over the top, overly stylish house. And by the end I was just like, oh no, I just made my dream house. Yes.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
It worked in both ways, though. To the average viewer, it was a douchey over the top house. And to me, it was my dream house. And so that philosophy carried through. We never joked about a lot. A lot of my memories in Hollywood are being in beautiful places with beautifully dressed people screaming at each other about the stupidest shit ever.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
ever and that was like an energy we wanted to capture is it's glamorous and it's institutional and it's been here for decades and great architects have built these homes that people live in and they're these beautiful homes and then you're in there just like screaming at each other about like how much of the guy's balls you can show in the movie amy pascal just like
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
gorgeous architectural house and the studios are very beautiful is this real no we built that completely okay i got really angry because we're watching it and you seem to be on warner brothers for lots of this yeah show and there's a frank lloyd wright building in the show the ideas that frank lloyd wright designed the main offices in the mayan period yeah exactly it's like mayan revival so i was like
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
The idea of making it seem like old and monumental. A lot of these studios are gorgeous. The Paramount offices are beautiful. The Columbia offices are these like art deco marvels. So much artistic thought went into the building and then inside they're making the dumbest decisions.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
of all time they're so bucking against any creative freedom as they're standing in these like cathedrals of cinema that people were given free reign to make beautiful but I'm just a huge architecture fan and I love Frank Lloyd Wright buildings in LA especially and they are all this Mayan revival but there's a great documentary about Frank Lloyd Wright and it talks about how all of his buildings in Los Angeles are essentially uninhabitable because he had suffered like a terrible family tragedy before he came to LA and they are all very tomb like this one right down the street the Black Dolly house yeah exactly constantly being run
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
They have like a sarcophagus-esque vibe to them. And to us, that was a funny work environment for a lot of reasons because it feels very old and it feels like we're trying to uphold this days that have gone by institution. We're like encased in this tomb, basically. A big cement blob, right? But it's also kind of beautiful.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
And all the houses in the show are John Lautner houses, who is a student of Frank Lloyd Wright. A lot of his houses are in movies. In Lethal Weapon 2, the Garcia house is a John Lautner house. So yeah, we also like this idea that it was an architect whose work is in film. And a lot of the music in the show is from other movies. Chinatown. Yeah, we use the Chinatown score.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
He got a nice budget. It was pretty good. This show is not it. Just keep buying those iPhones. Exactly.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Totally. I was like, is this starting to feel immoral for us to not include Evan? Whenever I'm on Howard Stern, he's also fascinated with Evan and he's always like, what is his deal? The fact that Evan has no desire to be in front of the camera, I think is an instrumental part of our dynamic and that he is not jealous.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
If anything, he's like, I'm so glad I don't have to do all the stuff that I have to do as the performer in the thing.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
They would drink. I could not believe it. I thought it was like a shtick. You hear like Frank Sinatra had apple juice in that glass. And it's one of those times where you're like, oh, a glass of wine holds almost a bottle of wine. They just give you like a full glass of wine at like 8.30 in the morning. They're pounding it. And I was like, wow, this is legit.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
I know so many partnerships that have broken up over the years and more than haven't actually.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Definitely. I feel very fortunate about it. And it's not lost on us. We recognize it. We are like, isn't it great that we still like each other and we still work together well? And his life is very different than mine in many ways. And we've found ways to navigate that. You know, he has kids and I, I act sometimes.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
We both have things that pull us away from just writing and directing together, but we've never really had any issue. I feel very lucky about it. It's very fortunate.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
It was sort of conscious. I think what's good is we are also able to keep making movies just in a different way than we did before.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
yeah but like making a 30 million dollar comedy that's gonna make 120 that's just off the table ninja turtles to us is a movie that we can write that's like a high school comedy that is really fun and we love it but in order to make that movie now it has to be teenage mutant ninja turtles yeah and it's a lot of ideas that we would put into any movie but it's just like oh or barbie for me that's a comedy that's a straight up comedy i
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
think we've always been realistic as to what the market wants and can bear we may knocked up in super bad but very quickly we were like we gotta add machine guns and car chases to this shit or it's gonna start to feel the same and after that we're like oh we gotta add like demons and
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
and monsters and meta celebrity in order for this to feel new and relevant i don't know if we've ever spent that much time lamenting the trends and instead have tried to really see what is working and work through that so with television that for sure was like a conscious thing we're like oh now you can do shit in television that used to be the stuff we did in movies and it's different
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
They are drunk on television every morning. What a hack. What a great way to live.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
I mean, we had so much fun with this show. I've always been able to really wrap my head around writing movies. And I think writing TV and movies are very different, as is evidenced by the fact that there are brilliant TV writers who write terrible movies and brilliant movie writers who make terrible TV shows. They are not the same skill set.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
And I actually did always find I struggled to be a meaningful contributor on a lot of our TV shows because I think
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
the thing that i had a hard time wrapping my head around was this seven hour movie idea and then with the studio one of the big revelations for me was like no it is not a serialized show it's very episodic oh i can actually really wrap my head around one 30 minute movie basically something with a beginning middle and a setup and a payoff that's the thing that is exciting about television is you can sort of create your own type of narrative and they're just much more open
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
I mean, in the 80s, maybe this would have been a movie in the 70s, but this was conceived of for TV, knowing this is not at all the type of thing that they would make into a movie, but this is exactly the kind of thing that they would make into a well-budgeted TV show. But we still have movie ideas. We are working on movies, and we would like to keep making movies, but we just try to be realistic.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
I saw one of them days with Kiki Palmar and SZA. Yeah. And it was fucking hilarious. And it did well. R-rated comedy. I saw it in the full theater and I was like, it works. It can still work. I just saw Judd give an interview where he was saying like, if The Hangover came out today, it would fucking annihilate. I think it's a trend. I do think it ebbs and flows.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
And then a movie comes out where you're like, oh no, like people are into this stuff.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
It's just too expensive. That's the thing you have to be smart about also. And that's the thing we've always tried to really consider is you have to be realistic about what your movie costs and what you're asking of people. You know, if I was making what was essentially a romantic comedy, I would not
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
spend 80 90 100 million dollars on it i try to spend like 20 30 million dollars on it that's always been part of our philosophy but we're never as existential about it i feel like as some people get because i think i've personally seen these trends ebb and flow just throughout the time i've been here you know and like sandler makes movies that are on netflix but they're great and people love them and if i was out to dinner with the z's and we just were talking about comedy and the waitress was there and she's like who's the best comedian alive right now adam sandler
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
without skipping a second. She said it or you guys?
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
She said it. We were like, we don't get an obligatory nod. We're right in front of you. Those things give me hope. People still like these things. People always will want a comedy movie. Just the system has crumbled a little bit. When I was younger, you could write a funny movie, they would buy it and then cast it. That doesn't happen very much anymore.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Now they want you to have everyone attached, but actors don't want to get attached. Kind of rightfully so, because you're exposing yourself. And if you attach yourself to a thing and no one buys it, then you could feel as though that's a knock on your career.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Exactly. But also, that shouldn't be the system. The studio should just buy a script if they like it. And trust me, Once that movie exists, it is going to be made. You will be able to cast it.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Actors who are great, who know it's a real thing, who aren't exposing themselves and their name instead of studios doing what they should do, which is buy and develop films and then decide which ones to make and then cast them and hire directors and make them. That system has gone away a little bit. And I think that's out of just pure terror and risk mitigation and panic and all the
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
And it's a special feeling to have the whole day ahead of you. Yes. Wine tasting. I'm glad I never ruined drinking as I was having a martini the other night. I was marveling at. I've kept this relatively under control. Yeah, that's how I feel. I'll have like two drinks and that's it. I'm not great at moderation, so I'm impressed with myself. As I'm doing it, I'm like, look at you, man.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
You're losing your life, literally, not even figuratively. At least drug addiction, there's moments where you're like, this is fucking great.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Yeah, I met him. I was on Jon Favreau had like a cooking show years ago. We were on it together.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
The right hit will make my brain chemistry know how to solve all these problems. Look, I get no pleasure from gambling.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
I'm always afraid I'm going to get yelled at and I'm not doing the right thing and that they're going to get mad at me at the table. That fear overpowers any pleasure I get from it. I'll stand around and watch my friends gamble.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
I've done that. I've gone with my friends who are like, I'll be very instructive. Protect them. Then I just feel like a fucking. Yeah, exactly. My friend whispering in my fucking ear what to do. I feel like a child. He's gambling by proxy. It's not fun either being puppeted by your friend at the blackjack table.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
No, exactly. That's crazy. The best time I ever had a casino was Danny McBride got married many years ago in Pop Springs, and we all went to a casino afterwards. I was with Adam McKay and Chris Henschey, who's a comedy writer. And the best storyteller alive, probably. Yes, and he's so funny.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
And they did a thing at the blackjack table that was the funniest thing I've ever seen, where they sat down separately pretending not to know one another. What McKay kept doing would be he would hand Chris objects, and Chris said he was a magician and a sleight of hand magician, and he would keep pretending to steal things from Adam McKay. Oh!
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
And it was only for the benefit of the dealer and the three other people who happened to be sitting at the table. And McKay would be like, I bet you're not that good. And then he'd be like, then how did I get your shoe? And everyone would be like, that's incredible. And I'd be like, that was lucky. Well, then how did I get your wristwatch? And it went on a very long time.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
It was actually one of the funniest things I've ever seen. And it's so pure.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
I mean, I started it when it started. I'm a huge fan of Ben Stiller. And I've known him since I was 16 years old. And a lot of people I worked with when I was first starting had worked on the Ben Stiller show. And Ben was on Freaks and Geeks. And the DP who shot Freaks and Geeks had shot Freaks.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
the movie that ben was the star of he was someone i just looked up to immensely and he was a writer and director and he did all the things that i wanted to do and he acted he was so funny i've always just been a fan of his and so when i heard he was directing a new show i watched it right away i know adam scott for a long time he's the best and it's incredible and every time i see ben i gush over it because i really think and it's sort of the complete opposite of what we have tried to do with our show but
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Precision and comedy are hard things to marry. And I'd say almost like a sterile level of precision. Stanley Kubrick did it very well in Dr. Strangelove, but very few people have actually done it effectively since that, I would argue. And there are things that are pretty funny with that style. But I think Severn's a very funny show.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Yeah. And the story's amazing. I love the mystery. I watched Lost.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
which was a real bummer ultimately because i don't feel like it added up to the experience and this feels like it's giving me the lost energy and i have faith that it does add up i'm optimistic as well i also loved watching lost and i do often in my head think was it worth it it's a good philosophical question is it worth a great journey if the ending sucks yeah it's like a new riddle there is no destination yes exactly it's a journey worth taking without a destination and i am
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
glad i did it ultimately because all our friends we get together we watch it it was so fun but it was a real bummer we did not love the ending very much and so i am getting a similar vibe with severance where it does feel like a mystery everyone's trying to unpack reveal everyone's excited to see what comes next a lot of people i know watch it so it's nice to talk about it but the style of it is unbelievable most things that are like frame fucked within
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
When you're acting for the camera only. So precise, you could tell they're pouring over every millisecond of the show. And usually, again, those things suck the comedy out of things. And this does not do that at all.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
I've never watched any Righteous Gemstones. I'm waiting for it to end and then I'm going to watch all of it. So you can plow through. It's like a treat I left. I actually watched the first episode. I was like, I love this so much that I don't want to have a staggered viewing experience.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
this fucking tracking casino style shots with the money yeah those guys are great and those guys are some of the first guys i worked with that really wanted their comedies to look a certain way well they were film school people exactly and judd with the people that i was making movies with were not like that it was very much performance capture oriented since then everyone's styles evolved but at the time it was cross coverage that's it if it doesn't look great it
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
No, no, no, no. And that's what people liked. And it was working. And it was very alive. Then I remember seeing Foot for Sway and I made Observed Report with Jody Hill. All of a sudden, I was like, oh, there's shots in this movie. I was like, whoa, this is fucking crazy. A whole other way to work. And then I watch a lot of reality TV. That's your anxiety release. Exactly. White Lotus.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Exactly. I watched your wife's show. I thought that was great. Okay, great.
Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard
Seth Rogen Returns Again
Yeah. It depends. I sometimes have a hard time watching people I know in things. Sometimes it takes me a few viewings to desensitize myself, especially if it's someone I know and they're doing a real character. Sometimes that throws me for a loop. Of course.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
And yeah, we shot a lot of old homes from the 50s and 60s and 70s. That house is a John Lautner house. It's a very beautiful, beautiful house. And in the show, it's as though we kind of
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
have a storyline as though Frank Lloyd Wright designed the studio that we are in because he was in California making, you know, Mayan revival buildings, like at the time that these studios were made and, and that it sort of has this like grandeur to it, you know, and this like kind of thing that you're trying to live up to. And, you know, I remember, uh, It's a name drop.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
I was at 30 Rock Ones with Lorne Michaels. And I was saying what an amazing building it was. And he was like in his way like, well, you know, when any industry is new, they build cathedrals for it. And I always remembered that. And it was so true. And like the studios feel that way a lot of them. Like there are these beautiful places.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
And they were built at a time when they were kind of like unabashedly beautiful. like, lauding and trying to, like, bolster the importance of the industry, you know? And so that to us was something very important. And we got really lucky with that shot because we shot the show where basically every scene is one take, which was very hard to do.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
But what it allowed us to do is a scene like that, for example, it's all one shot, and we shot it –
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
maybe 15 times, and the first, like, 10 times, it was, like, rainy and gray and cloudy, and we kept having to go inside because it was raining on us, and it just looked miserable, but we had, like, a very specific shot we wanted to do, and so we literally just sat inside and waited for it to stop raining as the sun was going down, and then it's like this magical thing happened.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
We're like, right as the sun was going down, the rain stopped, and rainbows appeared.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
You could see the whole city, and we were just like, let's go shoot now. And... Like, it just all happened in one take. And that was the take we ended up using, which was great. And to me, it was like a real magical Hollywood moment, kind of.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
Definitely. And I think that it always was a love letter to Los Angeles. And I think if anything, it is like – I love living in Los Angeles. And I've lived here for a very long time. And I love the architecture. I love – the landscape. Like I love that there's Franklin Wright buildings and John Lautner houses.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
And, and I think that's one of the things that Hollywood kind of has afforded me over the years. It's just like access to like these very beautiful spaces, you know? And so, and, and as we were pitching the show, that was always something that we would say the pitch is like a lot of our experience in Hollywood is like, being in very beautiful places, having very stupid arguments with one another.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
And like, that was something that we really, it was a funny juxtaposition as well. It's like, we would be at a movie premiere at the Ace Theater that was the United Artists Theater that Charlie Chaplin opened in some back room theater
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
That was like literally the dressing room that Charlie Chaplin would use before coming out the theater and just like screaming at each other over like the cut of the movie and like the dumbest, like a fart joke or something like that. And to us, that was always just very funny.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
Me? Yeah. That could not be further from the truth. I am as bottom line oriented as anyone in this town.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
I mean, that episode is probably threading a needle more than any of them as far as rooting for my character or at least even understanding where my character is coming from in any way, shape, or form. That to me is actually, I think, like in many ways, I personally find it to be the funniest episode because it's sort of based on...
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
It's kind of based on me because – and I understand – obviously I understand it's comedic and ridiculous. But I would – I have a charity with my wife, Hilarity for Charity, and it's an Alzheimer's charity. And so we find ourselves at a lot of medical galas. And I find myself at a lot of tables with – who save lives.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
And what's funny is often they have like a blatant disrespect for the film industry. As maybe as they should, but I don't think so necessarily. And they... So there's no deference for you. No, and they think it's funny. And I think they think it's funny... I think – and they're obviously smart enough to know that I exist in a world where there is deference and they're showing no deference.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
And they seem to revel in being in a position where they could like sort of maybe subtly at times diminish the career of another person who clearly views what they do as important even though maybe it isn't.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
Well, I personally understand that it's not a thing I should be upset about, but I comedically understand the feeling that you wish you could fight back against that and assert that what you do is as important. And it's not something I would ever do in real life, but it's something that I –
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
It's obviously an instinct I had somewhere in my brain because that's where the idea for the episode came from. But I know it's ridiculous and I know my character is wrong generally. But I think that I – the inspiration for that episode was definitely based on like feelings that I've had sitting at tables with doctors.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
For sure. I'd say that episode has more actual conversations that we've had to sit in rooms and watch than most of the episodes. And what's funny about it is it's like all people care about is the perception. They themselves have no ideological... like thing that they are trying to get across and they don't care at all. They just don't want to look bad.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
And that is the thing that we would notice the most when these types of things came up was that like, oh, no, none of these people care. They just don't want to look bad.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
It's not a thing we got made, but it was like we were making a comic book and there was an alien character. The alien had been traditionally voiced by someone of a certain race. And so all of a sudden that became a big topic of conversation. It was like, what race is this alien? And we kept being like, well, it's an alien.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
But it didn't matter because in people's heads there was a certain race ascribed to the alien due to the voice. That people associated with the alien. And then we were like, well, is that racist? And so that was something in the last few years where, again, I found just a lot of people having at the end of the day, no one involved cared. No one could be like, you know what?
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
I strongly believe that it should be this. It was just like, what maybe will people yell at?
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
Yes, that happens a lot. I've been there as well. I've had people call me and ask me Jewish things before. It's happened to me. I've been that person. Or like in a writer's room, like I worked on the show and declared a long time ago, and there was two female writers who were a team, Jenny Conner and Allie Rushfield, who I'm still both good friends with and are both still very successful writers.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
But as the only women writers, that was like always, and they would always hate it. It would be like, don't do this. This is so annoying. They'd be like, well, as a woman, what do you think of the woman's story? And they'd be like, I don't know. Like, I'm just a writer on the show. I have to be like the spokesperson for all women every time there's a question about this stuff.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
And that idea is for sure something that we like wove into the episode as well.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
Um, different people have different degrees of difficulty. I would say, um, uh, Scorsese. Yeah. Like insanely, like we sent his manager the script and we heard this is funny. I'll send it to him. And then we heard he loves it. He'll do it. If you can shoot it this day, he'll be there. And we were like, okay. And, and that was it. Like, he didn't want to have a conversation about it.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
I didn't, I didn't talk to him before he showed up on the set.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
No, he really seemed to like it and think it was funny. Like he totally just did it like, and he nailed it. Like he's so funny in the scenes and he just instantly was able to tell exactly what it was that we were trying to do and seamlessly just like locked into it right away, basically, which was very impressive to watch. And he's a great actor.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
Yeah, I think he understood. I don't know. I think we would have had to really be blowing it for him to step in, I guess. But mostly it was just like it was a very validating experience who was willing to do it. And honestly, one of the reasons I think I was so nervous –
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
leading up to the show premiering and, you know, seeing how it was going to be received is that I talked to all these people, people I idolize, people I'm huge fans of, people I've always wanted to work with into doing this thing. And I don't want to let them down. I don't want to, I don't want them to be mad at me.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
I don't want to feel like they wasted their time or I made them look stupid or they were a part of a thing that they're not proud of, you know? And so, It's I mean, again, it's meta in many, many ways. But that is a real thing that I relate to my character on is that like I get to work with these people that I've idolized my whole life or people that I've recently become huge fans of.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
And I see are like the next wave of talent. And and if I get the chance to work with them, I don't I don't want them to hate me.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
Yeah. And it's really, it's honestly not something I've done for a while. Like I haven't been front and center in a thing in a while. And I still just like, I've been in things. So like, and just like as a recognizable person living their life, you fall under scrutiny. But, um, I...
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
Honestly, don't think I've like had the stomach to put myself like this front and center and something in a long time because it's just, it's just scary. And, and, uh, and I know that I wear it. Like I, I really like if, if no one likes the things I do, then I really don't.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
makes me unhappy and so i i know i'm like setting myself up for like a real emotional crossroads potentially where i'll and i know it's not and that's one of the things in the show is like i wish i wasn't so emotionally affected by it but i think as again somebody just puts a lot into their work and does enjoy making it so like it's not like i've regretted making something but there are times where i've made things where i'm like oh i really wish people liked that more you know
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
She's great, yeah. How do you not go with O'Hara? Yeah.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
I was shocked by the honesty. Honestly, like I really could tell that he was in a position in that point in his career. And that person still works in Hollywood as one of the heads of one of the major studios in Hollywood. So he stuck around. And it was an ancient Roman teen sex comedy. Yeah. Oh, really? Okay. So this wasn't super bad or something.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
I mean, I start from recognizing that I'm just very lucky. And from the time I've been like 22 or 23, I've consistently been able to work, basically, and pretty much work on the things that I want to work on. So as... Much as I would like to pity myself at times and really lick my wounds, like, one of the things that is helpful is that I have just kept working.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
So often, like, if I've made something that is poorly received, I've already made another thing. And I'm like, well, maybe that thing will be better received, and they can't take that away. Like, it's already happened, you know? And so I think...
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
The fact that I have kind of kept my foot on the gas this whole time, be it something I'm writing or producing or have a smaller role in, I've just always kept going. And so I view myself as very lucky. And so it's hard to, again, get too brought down by that stuff. And I think part of it's based on like if I think it could have been better.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
Like I think if I agree with the criticism, it's much more painful and it's much harder. And if I see that I missed something or I made some glaring mistake in – You know, there's a discrepancy between what I hope to put out there and what I did put out there.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
And I think that to me is something that I have a harder time dealing with as opposed to I put out there exactly what I wanted to put out there and people – and just like a very – usually like maybe just like a smaller group of people really liked it than I was hoping. But usually a small group – at least a small group of people will like it, you know.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
But at times I've made things where – and not a lot of things, thank God, but where I'm just like – Like they didn't like it. And now that I look at it, I don't know if I like it either. And I don't know if I I could have pushed it harder and I could have maybe been more critical of it or worked harder to bring it to a better level. You know what I mean?
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
Oh, yeah. Many, many, many times. We've got notes just like this scene isn't funny, which is insulting. You know, I think – I actually understand notes about likeability because like I think that's like an easy note for an executive to give. It's like often there will be a character based on me and they'll be like, this character is not likeable.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
Yeah, that was a thing. Yeah, that Sony – well, it was Sony, like corporate Sony. Sony made the movie. You know, Sony owns Columbia Pictures. And so Sony made Superbad. And there's a scene in Superbad where it was supposed to be Michael Cera and Jonah's character, Seth and Evan, based on us playing PlayStation together.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
What's funny is we had written super bad and no one was making it. And that's how we got the job for this movie. And, and honestly, we were like, let's just put all of like our ideals from super bad into the movie basically. And so that's how desperate we were to make something. And so we sort of became like an ancient Roman version of super bad, which as I say, it is insane.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
And then we got a note from Sony corporate, yeah, that Jonah's character couldn't interact with a Sony product basically. Yeah. It was even worse on Pineapple Express where they wouldn't even let us put a PlayStation in the movie altogether. And we had a scene where it was like a video game and we had to like invent a console that didn't exist. Oh, my God.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
Yeah, like Sony on that one was like, we don't even want to be in this movie.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
It is based on me. And they were like, yes, this character is too reprehensible to be touching a PlayStation. And I was like, that hurts.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
I mean, truthfully, like – I think I just realized at one point that because you're a comedian, every time you do a photo shoot, they try to make you look like a buffoon.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
And I feel like there was a moment where I was like, what if instead of, like, me looking sort of good but also kind of dumb, I just actually, like, put on nice clothes and you took my picture like you do every other person who is in these magazines, you know?
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
And you don't try to subvert it in some way and you don't, like, try to make me look good but then also, like, throw a pie in my face or something like that. Like, what if I actually just got, like, the photo shoot treatment as you put me on the cover of your magazine? And that was really it. And I remember...
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
It's funny because afterwards I remember another comedian coming up to me who's very famous and being like, what did you do? And I was like, I just told them I didn't want to look stupid. And he was like, whoa, I'm going to do that. I'm going to stop looking stupid. And they did. And they started to look incredibly fashionable. Yes.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
Not really. I didn't get offered like a Louis Vuitton campaign all of a sudden or anything like that. I probably get lent nicer clothes for movie premieres and stuff like that. But not really, no. It's better the alternative. I feel like I used to be called schlubby all the time. And now that doesn't happen as much.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
So it is like – I think it just is nice to feel as though I'm representing myself better. And I'm someone who in real life – my wife always talks about like when we first started dating – I owned like diesel jeans. Like I'm someone who, I'm someone who like in my own way have always tried to take pride in their appearance and tried to wear things that reflect my taste.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
You know, I just never, I couldn't always afford to do it. So that was also something that was nice. But no, if anything, again, I'm just happy I don't have to look stupid all the time.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
But, um, and it was very dirty. It was very dirty. Um, And what I recall, I think at the point in this process, yeah, we had handed in a draft that he really thought was funny and we thought was funny and was ridiculous and crazy. And he was telling us in this notes meeting that, like, it couldn't be so dirty. And it was clearly the notes he had been given from on high.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
And so in a very honest moment, he said that. And I don't know if the execs I've worked with over the years would agree, but I've always had a sympathy for it. I think because of that, I've always felt like it really humanized the job in a lot of ways.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
And made me understand, you know, from a pretty young age, yeah, that like a lot of these, not all of them, but a lot of them are people who love movies but who are constantly put in positions where they have to – either maybe be fired or do something kind of risky. And I think more of them should do something risky, and that will actually lead to better things. But I understand why they don't.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
I don't agree with it necessarily, but I understand it. And it's a very comedic situation to be in. Right.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
Yeah, it's a very tragic job. And I think tragedy is comedy in a lot of ways, you know? And a lot of them, yeah, like, because they love movies and they grow up Now I'm at the age even where like some of the people I work with grew up watching our movies and stuff like that. You know what I mean?
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
And for the first time in my life, like I'm older than the execs I'm working with at some of these companies. And so they, I'm one of the people they probably grew up watching and they are constantly put in a position where they have to say things that make me really mad at them. And I would imagine that's a huge bummer. And I've seen it over and over.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
I remember an exec like hiding from a movie star, like literally in his office because he was avoiding, because the movie wasn't tracking well and he was avoiding seeing you on the lot. And he knew he was mad. He knew the movie star was there for a meeting and was mad. And he didn't want to get yelled at basically.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
And he's like, I remember him being like, I love that this guy's one of my favorite actors of all time. And he wants to scream at me. And like that to us was, again, It was just funny. It just always struck us as very funny.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
Yeah, we interviewed a lot of them, whether they knew it or not. Some of them, it was just like us milking information from them without them. And some were very formal interviews where they came in. But a lot of the stuff from those interviews... worked their way directly into episodes of the show.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
I think we're actually – and like if anything, I think we paint like a pretty sympathetic picture of the situation that, you know, I think – To a lot of people's experiences is probably, you know, an optimistic view of what Hollywood is.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
As an ambitious young executive, will do.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
Um, I would describe my character as someone who grew up loving movies and who worked very hard to be someone who got to make movies. And I think he's someone who wishes he was very creative, but is not. And he kind of views himself as creative, but simply isn't. And so his avenue to filmmaking, quote unquote, I guess, became being a studio executive. And he's very ambitious and creative.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
very self-preservational and someone who will do the thing that allows him to keep going rather than to perhaps lose it all. And he's someone who's constantly put in a position to really disappoint both himself and the people that he idolizes and the medium that he idolizes. Yeah.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
Yes, he's very panicked and stressed out and wears it on his sleeve and does not. And that's based on some specific people I know is that they wear their panic like clearly like they have a bad poker face. And that is very much something my character has as someone who is never trying to calm a situation and always subscribing to like the worst case scenario basically, you know.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
He really does. Yeah. and it's really making fun of me in a lot of ways, you know, and, and, and I don't have like the delusions of grandeur. I think my character in the show has, but I think it's inspired by the same belief that like one movie can change the entire course of Hollywood. And I don't think I'm going to be the person to make that movie necessarily, but you want to at one time. Yeah.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
And, and for sure. And I think if you're a, an ambitious executive, uh, who's obsessed with Robert Evans, then you really think you could do that, you know? And so I think it's a silly goal to have, and my character has specifically that goal, I think. He wants to be viewed as like the savior of this town, you know?
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
And that is not an ambition I specifically have, but it's something that I understand where that idea comes from.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
Yeah, Robert Evans was an independent producer in Hollywood in the 70s who eventually became the head of Paramount. And essentially, like, championed some of the biggest... films of the 70s, like Chinatown and The Godfather. And he was known for being one of the few people who was beloved by the talent, quote unquote, who made incredibly successful movies and who made incredibly good movies.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
And he also has the distinction of being... If not the only one of the few studio heads who negotiated in their deal that their name was actually on the movie, which is a big plot line in the show, that your name isn't on the movie. And he actually had his name on the movie, even though he was running the studio, because he understood the importance of his legacy.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
Well, um... I've worked at Continental for 22 years. I bought the original spec script for MKUltra, which, as I'm sure you know, spawned a franchise that's made us over $3 billion for the... Hey, Rene! Where the f*** is my green juice?
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
Yeah. I've been a part of films that won awards and seen some executives in the wake of that who did not get thanked and they were literally in tears. And as we interviewed a lot of the execs in Hollywood, that was like a very common theme where they admitted like, you want to be thanked by first and last name.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
And that distinction was brought up by more than one of them, where if it's not first and last name, no one knows.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
One of the most surreal moments of my life was, I'll never forget it, like... My good friend Jay Baruchel was in Million Dollar Baby. And it was like literally me and him alone in my apartment because he was staying with me. He lived in Montreal. We were like smoking weed, watching the Oscars, and Million Dollar Baby wins Best Picture.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
And Clint Eastwood gets up there and he starts thanking, I want to thank Hillary and Anthony and Jay. And Jay literally like... leapt off the couch. It was just like, ah! And, like, and it was truly, like, an unbelievable moment. Because, like, here we are in my, like, terrible apartment, disgusting, smoking weed, eating, like, Chinese takeout.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
And, like, the guy sitting on the couch was thanked by Clint Eastwood as he won Best Picture in real time. And the recognition, he literally jumped 10 feet up in the air. And so I've seen it. And what's funny is Like, I was at the Golden Globes this year, and a lot of people in that episode were there. And people kept coming up to me being like, it's just like the episode.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
It's exactly like the episode. It's so weird. So meta. Right. Yeah.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
You know, I've worked, obviously, a long time to get here. My parents are very thrilled, very proud. I think Griffin is, you know, optimistic with the plan.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
Yeah, I feel miserable, honestly. I'm anxious, I'm stressed out, panicking pretty much all the time. I was so much happier two weeks ago when I was just angry and resentful that I didn't have this job. I would give anything to be angry and resentful compared to how I feel right now.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
You know, I walk past the tour guide every morning, and they say that the office was built as a temple to cinema, but it feels much more like a tomb.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
Yeah, I'm honored, obviously, to be one of the people that gets to choose, you know, which movies get made and which ones don't. That's huge. And I got into all this because, you know, I love movies. But now I have this fear that my job is to ruin them.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
Like the characters, especially mine, like longs for days of yore. And that was sort of a big part of the idea was to like also anchor the show in like a real feeling history for this studio and sort of like a real culture that the studio and like an identity that the studio has kind of. Yeah. And so, yeah, we really used color palettes that were very 70s inspired.
Fresh Air
Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head
And the idea was that that's sort of the culture at the studio. And it also just subconsciously makes it – you can tell that the characters kind of long for – like there's a nostalgia for a time that isn't there anymore. They're not – trying to be on the cutting edge of things. They're actually trying to kind of go back to how things used to be, you know?
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
It's a name drop. I was at 30 Rock Ones with Lorne Michaels. And I was saying what an amazing building it was. And he was like in his way like, well, you know, when any industry is new, they build cathedrals for it. And I always remembered that. And it was so true. And like the studios feel that way a lot of them. Like there are these beautiful places.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
And they were built at a time when they were kind of like unabashedly like lauding and trying to like bolster the importance of the industry, you know. And so that to us was something. very important.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
And we got really lucky with that shot, because we shot the show where basically every scene is one take, which was very hard to do, but what it allowed us to do is a scene like that, for example, it's all one shot, and we shot it... maybe 15 times. And, and the first like 10 times it was like rainy and gray and cloudy.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
And we kept having to go inside cause it was raining on us and it just looked miserable, but we had a very specific shot we wanted to do. And so we literally just sat inside and waited for it to stop raining as the sun was going down. And then it's like this magical thing happened. We're like, right. As the sun was going down, the rain stopped and Rainbows appeared.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
Yeah, I'm like, is that a rainbow over there? You could see the whole city, and we were just like, let's go shoot now. And to me, it was like a real magical Hollywood moment, kind of.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
Definitely. And I think that it always was a love letter to Los Angeles. And I think if anything, it is like, I love living in Los Angeles and I've lived here for a very long time and I love the architecture. I love the landscape. Like I love that there's Franklin Wright buildings and John Launder houses. And I think that's one of the things that Hollywood kind of,
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
has afforded me over the years is just like access to like these very beautiful spaces, you know? And so, and, and as we were pitching the show, that was always something that we would say the pitch is like a lot of our experience in Hollywood is like being in very beautiful places, having very stupid arguments with one another.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
And like that was something that we really was a funny juxtaposition as well.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
It's like we would be at a movie premiere at the Ace Theater that was the United Artists Theater that Charlie Chaplin opened in some back room that was like literally the dressing room that Charlie Chaplin would use before coming out the theater and just like screaming at each other over like the dumbest like like a fart joke or something like that. And to us, that was always just very funny.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
Yeah, like a medical – like a cancer gala. Yeah, gala.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
But we make life worth living. You all save lives, but we make life worth living.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
I mean, that episode is probably threading a needle more than any of them as far as rooting for my character or at least even understanding where my character is coming from in any way, shape, or form. That to me is actually, I think, like in many ways, I personally find it to be the funniest episode because it's sort of based on...
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
It's kind of based on me because – and I understand – obviously I understand it's comedic and ridiculous. But I would – I have a charity with my wife, Hilarity for Charity, and it's an Alzheimer's charity. And so we find ourselves at a lot of medical galas. And I find myself at a lot of tables with – who save lives. And what's funny is often they have a blatant disrespect for the film industry.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
Maybe as they should, but I don't think so necessarily. So there's no deference for you. No, and they think it's funny. And I think they think it's funny... I think – and they're obviously smart enough to know that I exist in a world where there is deference and they're showing no deference.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
And they seem to revel in being in a position where they can like sort of maybe subtly at times diminish the career of another person who clearly views what they do as important even though maybe it isn't.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
Well, I personally understand that it's not a thing I should be upset about, but I comedically understand the feeling that you wish you could fight back against that and assert that what you do is as important.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
And it's not something I would ever do in real life, but it's something that I – it's obviously an instinct I had somewhere in my brain because that's where the idea for the episode came from. But I know it's ridiculous and I know my character is wrong generally. But I think that the inspiration for that episode was definitely based on like feelings that I've had sitting at tables with doctors.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
For sure. I'd say that episode has more actual conversations that we've had to sit in rooms and watch than most of the episodes. And what's funny about it is it's like all people care about is the perception. They themselves have no ideological... like thing that they are trying to get across and they don't care at all. They just don't want to look bad.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
And that is the thing that we would notice the most when these types of things came up was that like, oh no, none of these people care. They just don't want to look bad.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
It's not a thing we got made, but it was like we were making a comic book and there was an alien character. The alien had been traditionally voiced by someone of a certain race. And so all of a sudden that became a big topic of conversation. It was like, what race is this alien? And we kept being like, well, it's an alien.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
But it didn't matter because in people's heads there was a certain race ascribed to the alien due to the voice. That people associated with the alien. And then we were like, well, is that racist? And so that was something in the last few years where, again, I found just a lot of people having, at the end of the day, no one involved cared. No one could be like, you know what?
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
I strongly believe that it should be this. It was just like, what maybe will people yell at?
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
Yes, that happens a lot. I've been there as well. I've had people call me and ask me Jewish things before. It's happened to me. I've been that person.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
Oh, yeah. Many, many, many times. We've got notes just like this scene isn't funny, which is insulting. You know, I think – I actually understand notes about likeability because like I think that's like an easy note for an executive to give. It's like often there will be a character based on me and they'll be like, this character is not likable.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
Yeah, that was a thing. Yeah, that Sony – well, it was Sony, like corporate Sony. Sony made the movie. You know, Sony owns Columbia Pictures. And so Sony made Superbad. And there's a scene in Superbad where it was supposed to be Michael Cera and Jonah's character, Seth and Evan, based on us playing PlayStation together.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
And then we got a note from Sony corporate, yeah, that Jonah's character couldn't interact with a Sony product basically. Yeah. It was even worse on Pineapple Express where they wouldn't even let us put a PlayStation in the movie altogether. And we had a scene where Kim was playing a video game and we had to like invent a console that didn't exist. Oh my God.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
Yeah, like Sony on that one was like, we don't even want to be in this movie.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
It is based on me. And they were like, yes, this character is too reprehensible to be touching a PlayStation. And I was like, that hurts. Yeah.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
patty's time has come and gone and i'm seriously considering you to replace her oh my god yes yes i'm the guy i'm the guy for the job why are you tell me that why are you the guy well um I've worked at Continental for 22 years. I bought the original spec script for MKUltra, which, as I'm sure you know, spawned a franchise that's made us over $3 billion for the- Hey, Rene!
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
Film is my life. Ever since I came to the studio as a kid and went on the tour, Being the head of Continental is the only job I've ever wanted. That is adorable.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
Me? Yeah. That could not be further from the truth. I am as bottom line oriented as anyone in this town.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
I was shocked by the honesty. Honestly, like I really could tell that he was in a position in that point in his career. And that person still works in Hollywood as one of the heads of one of the major studios in Hollywood. So he stuck around. And it was an ancient Roman teen sex comedy. Yeah.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
Okay, so this wasn't Superbad or something. What's funny is we had written Superbad, and no one was making it, and that's how we got the job for this movie. And honestly, we were like, let's just put all of our ideas from Superbad into the movie, basically. And so that's how desperate we were to make something.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
And so we sort of became like an ancient Roman version of Superbad, which, as I say, is insane. And it was very dirty. It was very dirty. Yeah. And what I recall, I think at the point in this process, yeah, we had handed in a draft that he really thought was funny and we thought was funny and was ridiculous and crazy. And he was telling us in this notes meeting that, like, it couldn't be so dirty.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
And it was clearly the notes he had been given from on high. And so in a very honest moment, he said that. And I don't know if the execs I've worked with over the years would agree, but I've always had a sympathy for it. I think because of that, I've always felt like it really humanized the job in a lot of ways.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
And made me understand, you know, from a pretty young age, yeah, that like a lot of these – not all of them, but a lot of them are people who love movies but who are constantly put in positions where they have to – either maybe be fired or do something kind of risky. And I think more of them should do something risky, and that will actually lead to better things. But I understand why they don't.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
Yeah, it's a very tragic job. And I think tragedy is comedy in a lot of ways.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
I don't agree with it necessarily, but I understand it. And it's a very comedic situation to be in. Right.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
Yeah, it's a very tragic job. And I think tragedy is comedy in a lot of ways, you know. And a lot of them, yeah, like, because they love movies and they grow up... Now I'm at the age even where like some of the people I work with grew up watching our movies and stuff like that. You know what I mean?
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
And for the first time in my life, like I'm older than the execs I'm working with at some of these companies. And so they, I'm one of the people they probably grew up watching and they are constantly put in a position where they have to say things that make me really mad at them. And I would imagine that's a huge bummer. And I've seen it over and over.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
I remember an exec like hiding from a movie star like literally in his office because he was avoiding – because the movie wasn't tracking well and he was avoiding – He didn't want to be the one to tell it. He knew he was mad. He knew the movie star was there for a meeting and was mad and he didn't want to get yelled at basically.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
And he's like – I remember him being like, I love that this guy is one of my favorite actors of all time and he wants to scream at me. And like that to us was – It was just funny. It just always struck us as very funny.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
Yeah, we interviewed a lot of them, whether they knew it or not. Some of them, it was just like us milking information from them without them. And some were very formal interviews where they came in. But a lot of the stuff from those interviews... worked their way directly into episodes of the show.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
I think we're actually – and like if anything, I think we paint like a pretty sympathetic picture of the situation that, you know, I think – To a lot of people's experiences is probably, you know, an optimistic view of what Hollywood is.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
As an ambitious young executive, will do.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
I would describe my character as someone who grew up loving movies and who worked very hard to be someone who got to make movies. And I think he's someone who wishes he was very creative but is not and who kind of views himself as creative but simply isn't. And so his avenue to filmmaking, quote unquote, I guess, became being a studio executive. And he's very ambitious and creative.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
Very self-preservational and someone who will do the thing that allows him to keep going rather than to perhaps lose it all. And he's someone who's constantly put in a position to really disappoint both himself and the people that he idolizes and the medium that he idolizes, you know?
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
Yes, he's very panicked and stressed out and wears it on his sleeve and does not. And that's based on some specific people I know is that they wear their panic like clearly like they have a bad poker face. And that is very much something my character has, you know.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
He really does. He wants to make film. Yeah. And it's really making fun of me in a lot of ways, you know? And I don't have, like, delusions of grandeur, I think my character in the show has. But I think it's inspired by the same belief that, like, one movie can change the entire course of Hollywood. And I don't think I'm going to be the person to make that movie necessarily.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
Yeah, and for sure. And I think if you're an ambitious executive – who's obsessed with Robert Evans, then you really think you could do that, you know? And so I think it's a silly goal to have. And my character has specifically that goal, I think. He wants to be viewed as like the savior of this town, you know?
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
And that is not an ambition I specifically have, but it's something that I understand where that idea comes from.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
You know, I've worked, obviously, a long time to get here. My You know, my parents are very thrilled, very proud. I think Griffin is, you know, optimistic with the plan.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
Yeah, I feel miserable, honestly. I'm anxious, I'm stressed out, panicking pretty much all the time. I was so much happier two weeks ago when I was just angry and resentful that I didn't have this job. I would give anything to be angry and resentful compared to how I feel right now.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
You know, I walk past the tour guide every morning, and they say that the office was built as a temple to cinema, but it feels much more like a tomb.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
Yeah, and I'm honored, obviously, to be one of the people that gets to choose, you know, which movies get made and which ones don't. That's huge. And I got into all this because, you know, I love movies, but now I have this fear that
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
Yeah, exactly. Like the characters, especially mine, like longs for days of yore. And that was sort of a big part of the idea was to like also anchor the show in like a real feeling history for this studio and sort of like a real culture that the studio and like an identity that the studio has kind of. And so, yeah, we really used color palettes that were very 70s inspired.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
And you can tell that the characters kind of long for, like, there's a nostalgia for a time that isn't there anymore. They're not trying to be on the cutting edge of things. They're actually trying to kind of go back to how things used to be, you know. And, yeah, we shot a lot of old homes from the 50s and 60s and 70s. That house is a John Lautner house. It's a very beautiful, beautiful house.
Fresh Air
Best Of: Seth Rogen / Can The Dems Win Back The Bros?
And in the show, it's as though we kind of, have a storyline as though Frank Lloyd Wright designed the studio that we are in because he was in California making, you know, Mayan revival buildings, like at the time that these studios were made and, and that it sort of has this like grandeur to it, you know, and this like kind of thing that you're trying to live up to. And, you know, I remember, uh,