Interview: Seth Rogen, Will Reiser Bet on Cancer Comedy ‘50/50’

Submitted by BrianTT on September 28, 2011 - 3:48pm

HollywoodChicago.com: So clearly Seth’s part was written for him — was it written for anyone else? Did you write with Joe in mind or Anna or anybody? Or Anjelica?

REISER: Nope, no., but when I saw “Up In The Air” I knew that Anna Kendrick was the perfect person.

HollywoodChicago.com: Why?

REISER: She just, I mean, I think that, she’s just an incredible actress and she — even though they’re completely different roles, she just has this ability to be incredibly serious in a moment, like she’s so sincere, and yet she’s able to find the humor in that moment, you know what I mean? Her characters are always so grounded and so real and she finds the humor and seriousness all in the same moment. I think she’s a remarkable actress.

50/50
Photo credit: Summit

HollywoodChicago.com: And how does Joe make the film different than it would have been without him?

ROGEN: It’d be totally different if it was someone else, he’s largely responsible for developing the character and then the whole tone of the movie is kind of taking a cue off of Joe’s performance. So, if he was any bigger, it would have made everyone be bigger, and if he was…I think everyone around Joe took their cues from what he was doing. And he just could not have been more grounded and subtle. It’s such a non-showy performance, which is my favorite thing about it. I mean it’s the type of thing that if you were stupid you would assume that it almost wasn’t a great performance because of how un-emotive it is at times, but I think that in and of itself is a very calculated and intelligent choice that Joe made.

REISER: I can’t imagine the movie without Joe. He carries the movie.

ROGEN: And he showed amazing skill and restraint. I think, more than anything, that’s what I see when I watch it is restraint. There’s so many scenes where it would be so much easier to go for it and do this big thing and he always makes the small choice.

REISER: Even the scenes with you guys where you’re bantering, he just always stays in character and keeps it grounded and it’s very subtle and just lets you do your thing and he lets you drive the scenes in a lot of ways but meanwhile he’s carrying the actual emotional wave.

ROGEN: He’s always in it

HollywoodChicago.com: And building it and it creates this realism so by the end there…

REISER: …you understand.

HollywoodChicago.com: And he’s completely 3 dimensional.

ROGEN: Seth: Yeah, you get it — you get that even when he’s laughing he’s a little annoyed by me, and it made it really easy to do. Honestly, it was one of the easiest movies I’ve ever made.

HollywoodChicago.com: Did you know him before?

ROGEN: I’d met him a few times in passing. We have some mutual friends in common. I’d probably met him and probably talked to him for a total of five minutes, spread out over five interactions.

50/50
Photo credit: Summit

HollywoodChicago.com: Were you worried at all, or did you work on that friendship chemistry?

REISER: It was pretty instant.

ROGEN: It was. I think it’s funny…you know people tell me I have good chemistry with people, and sometimes it’s people I’m good friends with and sometimes it’s people that I would really never ever have a conversation with at all but in the context of making the movie. Yeah, and it really has no bearing. I think me and Joe did get along very well, but I don’t think that’s why our chemistry’s good in the movie, I think our chemistry’s good in the movie because we really understood each other’s performances and we really got what the other guy was doing and got each other’s timing and comedically and tonally we understood what the other person was doing and so it really made it easy for us to work with each other and around each other and it made it easy. We never felt like we were working against each other.

Redbox.com: And it works well because there’s a danger with these two characters, someone could be like, ‘Well these two people would never be friends in real life’.

ROGEN: That was the only real balance we knew we had to walk and that’s the only thing I had to be conscious of. I was never thinking ‘Is this joke too offensive? Is this too much? Is this too obnoxious?’ The only line I had to walk — I can’t push things so far that you don’t believe this guy would be friends with him. But when you’re real friends you can kinda do anything.

REISER: No matter what they say to each other, that character Kyle is always gonna be there, even when…

ROGEN: But you’re just not mean to each other. That’s what — you always had to be joking. You’re not aggressively mean to your friends.

REISER: And you see the that the moment you catch Rachel, like you see that, how protective you are of Adam.

ROGEN: That’s somewhat self-serving

HollywoodChicago.com: You’re talking about how they’ve been friends forever and we buy that from scene one of this movie so I know you’re saying that chemistry’s not that important but we’ve all seen…

ROGEN: I think it’s important but I don’t think us actually getting along is important.

HollywoodChicago.com: I think the writing is key too.

ROGEN: I think it’s very reflective of how our dynamic is [as friends], especially at that time.

REISER: We’re talking about like not having sex with a girlfriend and like…

ROGEN: It’s funny because even when Will was sick he would complain about not getting laid so much more than the fact that he could f**king die in two months.

REISER: And I wanted to show what you’re talking about. You’re not talking about cancer. You’re talking about sex and my way of talking about sex was in this very kind of subdued way.

ROGEN: And my way was very explicit

REISER: You’re very explicit. You’re like…yeah my conversations with you and Dave, you guys…

ROGEN: Dave was the grossest.

REISER: I wanted to just kind of, and also it’s a good way of just showing the difference between the two.

ROGEN: My character’s comfortable and his character’s uncomfortable. My character was confident and his character was self-conscious about it.

REISER: But it all derives from our friendship.

50/50
Photo credit: Summit

Redbox.com: There was a sort of order-and-chaos thing going on with the two of them. I wondered if the roles had been reversed what would that movie be like?

ROGEN: It would probably be the exact opposite movie.

Redbox.com: “Animal House”?

ROGEN: It’d be about a guy who needs to learn how to live more conservatively rather than about someone who needs to learn how to live less conservatively. That would probably be my arc, I can imagine, at least cinematically. Who knows about real life?

REISER: I’m not even gonna, I’m not even gonna…

ROGEN: Yeah, you’re not allowed to even hypothesize about it.

HollywoodChicago.com: Now that you’ve done something so personal do you know what you’re going to do next?

REISER: Well, we’re working on another movie together.

ROGEN: Yah, he’s writing another movie that me and Evan are producing. Jon Levine’s gonna direct.

REISER: It’s based on a vacation I took when I was fourteen with my grandma and we went to Jamaica, just she and I, and the travel agent accidentally booked us at a couple’s resort so it was just my grandma and I and she was in the very early stages of Alzheimer’s and I lost her…in Kingston. So the movie’s about them and their relationship.

ROGEN: I play the grandma, I’m gonna play both characters actually.

Redbox.com: You’ve done “Funny People,” and now this. [To Seth] Are you interested in moving toward more dramatic parts?

ROGEN: I just kind of take it as it comes. I was never afraid to do movies like this, as an actor. I think, as a producer, it took a few years of experience to tactfully see something like this into a successful state of fruition. But, as an actor I’ve always, I think I take acting much less seriously than most people so I’ll try anything.

50/50
Photo credit: Summit

HollywoodChicago.com: Do you look at anybody and say ‘that’s the career I want”?

ROGEN: As an actor? I honestly don’t think of my career in terms of an actor. I generally think more in terms of a writer and as a producer and I’ll just kind of act in whatever roles become available in most projects or if other people want me to be in their movies I’m more than happy to, but I don’t really. Yeah, I’m not the type of guy who will say ‘oh, I’d love to play that kind of role, or this type of role.’ It’s more ‘I’d like to make this type of movie’ and then I’ll put myself in it in some capacity.

HollywoodChicago.com: And then you try to get that movie made.

ROGEN: Yeah, and then I use myself as an actor to get that movie made.

Redbox.com: Is that more of a trend for younger actors nowadays, to be writing and producing?

ROGEN: I think a lot of actors always have. I think there’s a big difference between what I do as a producer and what a lot of actors do that are producers, so I can’t speak for what Taylor Lautner does as a producer, but I’m guessing it’s different from what I do.

HollywoodChicago.com: You work so hard, you do multiple movies a year, do you consider slowing down at all? I talked to Jonah [Hill] last week about having multiple movies going at the same time who suggested it might come in part from being mentored by Judd [Apatow]. You have a close relationship with both of them — do you think you got that work ethic (from Judd) or have you always had it?

ROGEN: I’ve always worked very hard. I think from a very young age I knew that I wanted to have a job that essentially millions of people want and very few get to have and that I should probably work harder than all those other people in order to up my chances of achieving it. I mean it’s very competitive, and I’m not a competitive person. So, my only recourse is to work really hard. And also you just don’t know which movies are gonna go. That’s why I have a lot of things going at once. These are kind of risky movies, generally speaking, and any one can take years to get going. So, I just always have to have a few things that I’m trying to get off the ground because I never know which one might actually get off the ground, you know?

Redbox.com: [To Will] What about you? Do you want to stick with writing or do you have eyes on directing, producing or things like that?

REISER: Well, I’ve always been into producing, but as far as directing, I think I need to make a few more movies before I could really consider whether or not I’d be good at directing. But really right now making movies with my friends is really the ideal situation.

Don’t miss “50/50” when it opens in theaters nationwide on Friday, September 30th, 2011.