Imagine a world wherein Jonah Hill played a notable role in Michael Bay’s 2009 critically-panned ‘Transformers’ sequel, “Revenge of the Fallen.” Not quite on my bingo card either. However, that reality wasn’t too far off – if it wasn’t for the astute, almost clairvoyant advice of Seth Rogen.
At the time, in 2008, both Hill and Rogen were enjoying the breakthrough success of their comedy blockbuster “Superbad,” a film Rogen co-wrote and co-produced with Evan Goldberg, becoming one of the first of many collaborations between the two. Hot off the success of the film, Jonah Hill was reportedly approached by “Transformers” director Michael Bay to join Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox in the sequel. Now, over ten years later, Rogen finally shares the career advice he gave his friend at the time.
In a recent interview with Jonah Weiner from The New York Times, Rogen recalls telling Hill, “You want to make a movie about fightin’ robots? Make your own movie about fightin’ robots. You can do that. That’s on the table now.” It’s important to point out that Rogen’s advice isn’t necessarily postured against movies about “fightin’ robots.” Rather, Rogen seems to be touching on the importance of professional autonomy and recognizing what you’re capable of.
In his profile, Weiner compliments this aspect of Rogen’s character: “Rogen’s self-assurance might be the most enviable thing about him: The fact that, with rare exceptions, he has only ever seemed to work on exactly what he wants to work on.” Later in the piece, Rogen provides a recent anecdote involving Alfonso Cuarón that supports his worldview and said “self-assurance.”
During quarantine last year, Rogen’s and Goldberg’s Point Grey production company ran an in-house, virtual movie club, in which they fielded conversations from various filmmakers. When Cuarón came by to talk “Y Tu Mamá También,” he reflected on how he intentionally took the creative approach and genesis back into his possession. Per Rogen’s paraphrase, Cuarón explained, “Any idea we had, we would do it, even if it seemed crazy or stupid or pretentious or whatever. We wouldn’t think about, Oh, it’s been done, or people will hate that, or that’s too weird.” Meditating on that idea, Rogen told the Times, “It was so cool to hear him talk about that because — speaking to experimentation — he’d been locked into this thing where he was making big, expensive movies very early in his career, and then he kind of went back and said, No, this is what I want to do: Reset what I’m known for and take insane swings.”
Rogen’s admirable aspiration for professional, narrative, and artistic autonomy is (and was, to Hill in 2008) clearly apparent. He is currently writing two movies with Goldberg, one of them for Luca Guadagnino’s biopic about Hollywood icon Scotty Bowers, as well as producing a new “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” animated feature. Rogen casually explained his current efforts mid-joint-puff: “On a given day I work on seven different things, probably, in little chunks… But I don’t have kids!”
Jonah Hill is starring alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, and Timothée Chalamet in Adam McKay’s “Don’t Look Up,” which is expected to release later this year courtesy of Netflix.