Against all odds, Seth Rogen has turned into one of the most profitable producers in Hollywood. His brand of comedy has been embraced by fans worldwide, and the actor/writer/director/producer has a string of hits to show for it. Many of those projects have featured his buddy, James Franco. However, in light of recent allegations surrounding Franco, Rogen (as well as friends like Judd Apatow) have remained silent on the issue.
READ MORE: Seth Rogen Acknowledges There Were Jokes In ‘Superbad’ That Were “Blatantly Homophobic”
In an interview with Vulture, Rogen explains why he’s keeping mum on the issue and it’s probably not why you’re thinking. “The truth is that my perspective on this is the least relevant perspective. I’m friends with these people and I’m a dude. All that combined makes me the last person who should be talking about this,” explained Rogen. “There are so many people with real things to contribute to the #MeToo discussion that anything I say is not going to add anything useful.”
So, according to the actor, it’s not because he’s trying to protect Franco. Instead, as a white guy, who is close to the controversy, he knows that no one really should take what he says to heart about the issue. However, that hasn’t stopped Rogen from using his own political ideologies and social awareness in his films.
“We’re hyperaware of trying to be as representative as possible in the directors and writers and actors we work with. I’m sure we could definitely be doing more to be ahead of the curve in that way, but, again, I couldn’t be more aware that my perspective is not one people are clamoring for,” said the actor.
Franco business aside, the interview also illuminated on something that was rumored for years. Apparently, back when “The Green Hornet” was in pre-production, Sony had asked Rogen and the filmmakers involved in the project to meet with Nicolas Cage about the villain role. As we now know, there’s a good reason that they passed on Cage, and instead went with actor Christoph Waltz.
“So the studio was like, ‘You gotta make the villain a star. We want you to cast Nicolas Cage.’ So we thought, let’s talk to him. And we do, and he tells us that he wants to do the movie, but he wants to play the character as, like, a white Bahamian or Jamaican. Which to us was a little worrisome,” Rogen said.
Of course, Rogen admits that maybe they should have gone with Cage anyway, considering that the actor could have done something really weird with the role in the film that would go on to become a bomb anyway.
The interview is really interesting and goes into a variety of topics including the new R-rated romantic comedy with Charlize Theron, his “Invincible” superhero project, and why he prefers to have the lowest-budgeted movie at a studio.