Seth Rogen
Believe it or not, the origin of Seth Rogen\u2019s incredible acting, writing, and producing career traces all the way back to Bar Mitzvah class in Vancouver. That\u2019s where twelve-year-old Seth met Evan Goldberg, a fellow movie enthusiast who loved writing just as much as Seth did. A creative partnership between the two began instantaneously, and they started writing what would become\xa0Superbad, inspired by their own high school escapades, by the time they were thirteen. \u201cWe always wondered if our very specific high school experience would be relatable to other people, because we were just writing what happened to us as Jewish Canadian boys in Vancouver. It seemed pretty niche.\u201d Of course, it became one of the most successful movies about high school of all time.As his writing career post-Superbad\xa0took off, so did his acting career. Within the span of a few years, he became the face of American comedy, working on hit films like\xa0The Pineapple Express,\xa0The\xa040-Year-Old Virgin, and\xa0Knocked Up. In fact, he had so much success over that span of time, he just assumed that was how the business worked: \u201cI didn\u2019t appreciate how miraculous that streak was. At the time, I was like, \u2018Oh, great. You make a movie. It turns out great. Everyone loves it, and you make tons of money. Perfect.\u2019\u201dEventually, he learned that wasn\u2019t always the case\u2014and as the movie budgets got bigger, so did the stakes, with more creative pressure and input from studio executives. It took one bad experience as a studio\u2019s most expensive movie for Seth to realize that it was more important for Evan and him to maintain their artistic freedom than make the highest profile movie. To this day, he holds onto that philosophy and it\u2019s why he still loves making movies, including his newest film\xa0Long Shot, a political romantic comedy starring Charlize Theron and himself. \u201cWhen Evan and I make a movie like\xa0Long Shot, and we\u2019re able to sit in a theater and watch the audience laugh at and feel what we hoped\u2014it\u2019s really gratifying. It means they\u2019re invested in the same things we are.\u201dSeth joins\xa0Off Camera\xa0to talk about why moving to Los Angeles for a role in\xa0Freaks and Geeks\xa0was his version of going off to college, how he and Evan turn an idea into a full-fledged movie, and why saying no to a role on a CW\xa0sitcom early in his career wasn\u2019t a hard choice at all.