“Yo bro, you going to see Neighbors this weekend? Oh, bro, you totally know it, bro.” I want to believe that phrase will be muttered somewhere on planet Earth today. I’m looking forward to seeing the frat flick, despite the reviews not being as positive as Seth Rogen’s previous movies. I’ve enjoyed Seth Rogen’s comedy ever since Freaks And Geeks, and his follow-up with Undeclared during my freshman year of college.
It seems this year more than ever Rogen has been all over the interwebs. Between waging war with Justin Bieber and being the focus of James Franco’s nude paintings, Seth Rogen is moving toward Patrick Stewart internet hero level. For example…
1. Proclaiming his dislike of Justin Bieber for all the world to hear.
“Dislike” is a nice way of putting it. It all started the same way pretty much everything on the internet these days does, with a tweet earlier this year calling Bieber a piece of sh*t, and culminating with Rogen clarifying that point on The Today Show. For the standout moment of bite in this saga (?) Rogen’s recent Howard Stern appearance says it best.
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2. Taking time off from making movies to advocate for a worthy cause.
When it comes to celebrities giving back their time to support a cause, more often than not, it seems like that means attending a gala of some sort where they throw down a few thousand to drink champagne and talk about how “a change really needs to happen.” Then you’ve got Seth Rogen, who went straight to the people who wield the power to really make a difference, giving a heartfelt testimony before Senate and asking for more effort in fighting Alzheimer’s Disease.
Yes, it’s sh*tty that the majority of them left during his moving and hilarious testimony, but the message remains — f*ck Alzheimer’s.
3. Unleashing a video so uncomfortably sexy that it nearly caused the internet to collapse.
It truly says something about a music video parody’s power if Kanye asks for a personal performance of it.
4. Being a pop culture sponge in nearly every role.
The folks at Vulture noticed something while watching 50/50, Seth Rogen loves to spit out pop culture references in nearly every part he plays. It doesn’t matter if he’s playing a stoner in a cancer movie, a stoner in a rom-com or a stoner in a teen dramedy, he will make a reference to a character from movies or TV.
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5. Discussing his writing process and baby bone cutlery on Reddit’s AMA.
Last year Rogen and his writing partner, Evan Goldberg, gave a pretty good Reddit AMA where they discussed their writing process and what projects they’d like to do in the future. Oh, and weed. There were lots of questions about weed. If you haven’t read it and don’t want to sift through all the fanboy praise — which is nothing at all like this post — I’ve picked out a few of my favorite answers.
Seth, I’ve been following you on twitter and you still seem to be pretty down to Earth, have you noticed any changes in yourself since you’ve become famous?
I only eat off diamond plates and my cutlery is made from the bones of christian babies. But other than that I’m same ol’ Seth.
I know you guys are both writing partners but how does the process work? You obviously discuss it but who writes what and how do you organize your ideas or settle differences?
We both do everything together. We sit in front of one computer at one desk and we make huge lists of ideas that slowly evolve into the movie. We outline the emotional stories and the structure for a long time and then we write the dialogue. All sitting six inches from each other. the whole time.
Was there anyone in particular that you wanted to kill during filming because of any reason?
The answer to any question – “who could you not believe was there?” “Rihanna.”
“Who did you most want to kill?” “Rihanna.”
If we were killing someone or just thrilled to have someone on set, it was Rihanna. She is more famous than everyone else on the film combined.
Was the house in the movie actually James Franco’s home?
No. The inside was built in a warehouse that was used to store coffee beans. The outside was largely computer generated. I don’t think Franco actually has a house. He lives in a library like the bum in With Honors.
Seth, you were a writer for Sacha Baron Cohen on the Ali G Show…what was that like?
It was great. It was mine and Evan’s first actual job together. We would think of people he could interview and then write the questions that he would ask the people, while trying to predict what the people we are interviewing might say. We went on the road to Texas and then to spring break in Florida where we exposed frat boys as being much more homo-erotic than they would have liked.
I’ll leave you with Rogen’s stunning Frida Kahlo Twitter profile photo.