Highlights
- The Interview caused a shake-up in Hollywood business practices and distribution methods.
- Rogen didn’t expect friendship with Franco to deepen; their movies have faced criticism.
- Movie sparked global controversy, delayed release, changed for international viewers, and deeply affected Rogen.
In 2014, Seth Rogen made headlines alongside his long-term friend James Franco when they starred in the political satire film The Interview. The movie not only touched a raw nerve within political circles, but also caused a lot of chaos and a seismic shift within Hollywood, at least according to Rogen himself.
The actor has enjoyed a successful career in the film industry, both in front of and behind the camera, with a particular knack for comedy. Still in 2014, his movie Neighbors emerged as his biggest box-office hit within the genre.
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Rogen himself admitted that back in his days on Freaks and Geeks, never would he have expected that Franco and himself would become so close.
Rogen’s notable works also include roles in Knocked Up and Pineapple Express, the latter marking another collaboration with Franco. Over time, however, he has acknowledged that some of his earlier movies have not aged particularly well. This is attributable to the filmmaker’s tendency to make pictures with the potential to offend various people. The Interview was definitely one of such films, leading to significant upheaval in Hollywood and beyond.
The Interview Changed How Business Is Done In Hollywood
The Interview brought about significant changes in Hollywood’s business practices, resulting in a seismic shift within the industry. Discussing the impact of the film, Seth Rogen highlighted how it revolutionized film distribution, as well as the perception of controversy in the world of filmmaking. “It really caused seismic shifts in Hollywood at the time, and I think how business was done in some ways,” he said.
“It actually kind of showed the success a movie can have in some ways if it has a full theatrical campaign, and then goes directly to streaming, because it streamed on Google,” continued Rogen. “I think it’s still the biggest movie that ever streamed on Google, which is crazy! Students come up to me and they’re like, ‘they’re teaching me about [The Interview] in my university class.’”
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Rogen’s experience with The Interview also led him to reassess what constitutes a real controversy, particularly in comedy. He observed, “It [also] really recalibrated what I consider to be controversial, which I think is good. Now I know… unless the President’s giving news conferences about it, it’s not controversy!’”
Seth Rogen’s The Interview Sparked International Controversy
The Interview was directed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, marking their second directorial effort together. The pair had previously helmed the apocalyptic comedy horror This Is the End in 2013. In The Interview, Rogen and James Franco play journalists who plan to interview North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, portrayed by Randall Park. Their mission takes a dramatic turn, though, when the CIA recruits them to assassinate him. The premise alone was enough to spark international controversy.
As a result of the uproar, Sony decided to delay the film’s release from October 10 to December 25, 2014. Additionally, the studio made changes to the film in post-production to alter its depiction of certain elements of North Korea. Originally, the company had planned to expand The Interview‘s reach with a wider release, beginning in the United Kingdom and Ireland on February 6, 2015. However, the global fallout prompted Sony to cancel the theatrical release altogether.
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In a move that highlighted the digital age’s flexibility, Sony released The Interview for rental or purchase in the United States through streaming services such as Google Play, Xbox Video, and YouTube on December 24, 2014. For a limited period, it was also accessible on a website called SeeTheInterview.com.
Seth Rogen Was “Devastated” By Critics’ Response To The Interview
In a conversation with Steven Bartlett on the Diary of a CEO podcast, Seth Rogen shared how negative reactions to films, particularly from critics, are usually devastating. According to him, the criticism can get so bad that some people never fully recover.
What Critics Said About Seth Rogen’s The Interview
- “The suffocating level of redundancy on display kneecaps any legitimate chance the film had at embracing social satire.” – Scott Marks, San Diego Reader
- “The final third of the film, which is directed by Rogen and Evan Goldberg, degenerates into a humourless and violent Rambo pastiche.” – Stephen Romei, The Australian
- “Strangely misconceived, tasteless and only very intermittently funny.” – Geoffrey Macnab, The Independent (UK)
“I think if most critics knew how much it hurts the people that made the things that they are writing about, they would second guess the way they write these things,” Rogen told Bartlett, per the Guardian. “It’s devastating. I know people who have never recovered from it honestly – a year, decades of being hurt by [film reviews]. It’s very personal … that’s something that people carry with them, literally, their entire lives and I get why. It f***ing sucks.”
The backlash to The Interview in 2014 struck a particularly deep chord with Rogen, because the critics also appeared to relish giving negative reviews. “People [were] taking joy in talking sh*t about it, and really questioning the types of people that would want to make a movie like that,” he said. “That felt far more personal… People treated us like we creatively failed, which sucked much worse.”
Source: NewsFinale
