Seth Rogen Knows the Secret to Marriage — and Being Rich in Hollywood

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From The New York Times, this is The Interview. I'm Lulu Garcia-Navarro.
At 44, Seth Rogen seems to be having the opposite of a midlife crisis. His series, The Studio, which he created, writes, stars in, directs and produces, just won 13 Emmys and is currently filming its second season. He also stars in and produces the very funny Apple TV+ show Platonic with Rose Byrne. His production company, Point Grey Pictures, has been banging out the hits like the dark superhero series, The Boys, and his new movie, The Invite, directed by Olivia Wilde, has been generating a lot of buzz. So I wanted to talk to Rogen about how he went from acting in the quickly canceled TV show Freaks and Geeks as a teenager, to writing slacker movies like Superbad, to having one of the most prolific, wide-ranging and successful careers in Hollywood. Here's my conversation with Seth Rogen.
Seth Rogen, thank you for being on The Interview. Thank you for having me. You were recently just in Cannes. Which you go too often. I've never been to Cannes. What? No, never, that was my first time. I just assumed, I actually didn't know one way or the other, but I was assuming, why? I don't generally make the kind of films that go to film festivals and have that type of attention or focus in any way. And so, no, I'd never made anything that was at Cannes before, yeah. Oh. It's funny because we, very luckily, have had very, like I say, me and my group, I guess, the Royal We, I'm Canadian, close enough. But we've had very long, lovely careers where up until very recently, we didn't really do any of this stuff, festivals, awards, things like that. And I think honestly in our heads, we really kind of assumed it, that that was not what our careers held, and we were really at peace with that. And so now that I am starting to get to go to festivals like Cannes and see it, it is funny that there's like this entire other side of the industry that has sort of just been withheld from me for the last 20 years.
And I never really, I never thought about it that much because I always just thought like, yeah, that's like, that's for those types of movies. And I don't really make those types of movies. But now it is amazing, like the level of industry and infrastructure and sort of pomp and circumstance that I had nothing to do with all these years. Just felt like a lot of parties I haven't, I was never invited to until now. So, yeah, it was really exciting, you know. I find it very comforting that there's a velvet rope that you were not allowed to go by. There's plenty more, trust me. Even now that I'm here, there's many more velvet ropes that I have not invited to be beyond. I have this theory that there's always another room that you just don't get into. I remember as a kid hearing, I can't remember who was saying it, it was Judd or Gary Stanley, one of these old comedians I was hanging out with, it was like, you work your way up through Hollywood and eventually you are led into a room alone with Jack Nicholson. And that's like, that's the end of the line. It's just you and him in a small room together, and that's when you're like, I did it.
So you do have another film, which is The Invite, and you play Joe.
Joe is an angry person whose long-term marriage to Angela played by Olivia Wilde who also directs the movie is not in a good place. I saw this recent interview where Olivia Wilde said you are both non-confrontational people, but in this role you access, and this is a quote, your deep rage. And I want to understand what Seth Rogen's deep rage is. Tell me what she meant.
I mean, I don't know if that, I'm glad she saw it that way, if that was helpful for the film. You know, I think, yeah, it was, you know, I think, you know, as we were rehearsing and working on the script leading up to shooting, it just seemed like the more palpably uncomfortable the couple was, the more uncomfortable the audience would be, the more uncomfortable this other couple would be entering this environment. I just been out with couples where you just see like they don't like each other, and it's really unpleasant to be around, and there is this like simmering undercurrent of anger, and in every moment where you would choose to forgive or excuse a person that you actually care deeply about, like these people choose not to forgive and excuse their partner, and they choose to make a big deal out of it or to use it as an opportunity to make a dig at their partner or say something hurtful or feel superior or something like that. And those are people I had been, I mean, and continue to be around in my life, and I've always found it incredibly unpleasant. And to me, that resentment was something that I thought would be very additive to the film and would create a tone and environment that served the film. It did make me wonder what causes you to feel deep rage, or are you this person that does not feel that? No, I get really angry sometimes. And it's mostly, I think it's evolved over the years, what makes me angry.