For someone that seemingly has stayed away from blockbuster filmmaking, for the most part making his own brand of raunchy comedy films, Seth Rogen has had some pretty interesting run-ins with powerful Hollywood folks. And in a new profile over at GQ, the actor-writer-producer-director talks about a few of his most famous incidents with Hollywood royalty, including a bonkers Nicolas Cage audition and an awkward incident on the set of “This is the End” involving Emma Watson.
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Before we get to the Emma Watson incident, one of the interesting stories he clears up involved himself and Nicolas Cage, where the latter actor was approached about possibly playing a villain in Rogen’s “Green Hornet” superhero film. According to Rogen, Cage would play the Russian villain, only if he could be bald (with hair tattooed on), prosthetic lips, and a voice that sounded like Edward G. Robinson. That might be crazy enough, but when the meeting with Cage actually took place, the actor had other thoughts in mind for the character.
Apparently, Cage thought the best approach would be to play the villain as a “white Bahamian,” complete with a thick Caribbean accent, that would dump pig blood on Rogen’s Green Hornet character while performing a voodoo ritual. Needless to say, that didn’t happen. But wow, that would have been something.
As for Emma Watson, the actress appeared in the comedy film, “This is the End.” But according to rumors, the actress stormed off set one day when a scene involving Channing Tatum’s gimp character was set to be filmed. Rogen confirmed the actress did leave the set, but he doesn’t necessarily blame her at all.
“I mean, I don’t look back on that and think, ‘How dare she do that?’ You know?” Rogen said. “I think sometimes when you read something, when it comes to life it doesn’t seem to be what you thought it was. But it was not some terrible ending to our relationship. She came back the next day to say goodbye. She helped promote the film. No hard feelings and I couldn’t be happier with how the film turned out in the end.”
He added, “She was probably right. It was probably funnier the way we ended up doing it.”
So, why are all these stories coming out? Well, you see, Rogen has found the time between acting, writing, and producing a million projects to actually write a memoir of sorts, titled “Yearbook.” And if these are stories that he’s going to tell, you better believe it’ll be worth reading.
For those curious, this is the “This is the End” scene in question: