Former stand-up comedian and Ali G staff writer Seth Rogen walks a delicate tightrope between the obnoxious and the endearing. A late addition to the Vaughn-Wilson-Ferrell axis of American comedy, he has tended to star in and write the more critically accepted movies of this particularly panned, though unerringly popular, ilk (see Superbad, Pineapple Express, and the 40 Year Old Virgin). When not starring in goofball comedies, Rogen’s voice can be heard emanating from animated characters. So far his unnervingly deep voice has appeared in Shrek the Third and Kung-Fu Panda. The next notch on his voice-acting bedpost is the highly-anticipated Dreamworks 3D animation Monsters vs. Aliens, working alongside such luminaries as Hugh Laurie, Stephen Colbert and Reese Witherspoon in what is the studio’s response to Pixar’s Bolt.
Just take us through how you see your character because that is more important than how the director sees him.
I mean I see the character as a brainless mess really which is a lot of fun you know. When you make these movies it is really just you in a room with a microphone, the directors and the writer. They really give you a lot of freedom and let you have a lot of fun with it. That was my simple motivation for most of the brainless mess. It was fun, I had a lot of fun doing it. I know this is kind of a lame thing to say, but I had so much fun with the character. It was just constantly exciting, you know, as a fan of these types of movies.
The thing that directors told me they were impressed by is how you guys instantly hit the right voice. It is not necessarily your own voice, you went and looked at Sci-Fi B movies and stuff like that to get an idea of the sort of fun resources with these movies and then employed them in your act.
Oh I have seen The Blob. Obviously I have always liked these types of movies but voice-wise I can’t do much. I saw the character as kind of a very naive enthusiastic type. The only cue I took was to kind of sound maybe a little younger
How long was the process?
It has been spanning the last few years actually I have been going in periodically over the last few years.
Are we talking about two years?
Yeah, maybe around two years. Hard for me to say, I am bad with time. It has been quite a while, I would say like 10 or 15 sessions.
As an actor have you seen that cinematic potential is absolute?
It is very interesting you know I guess it is one of those things people will say you it is like when colour was introduced to film. Everyone thought “Oh it’s a gimmick,” and now every movie is made in colour. Who’s to say? I mean it is definitely neat for a movie like this. Whether or not every movie will be made in 3-D I don’t know.
Apart from the money was it part of the gig? You know you could turn up and be unshaven and be laid back about the whole thing.
It was mostly just to be involved with the movie. Everyone says “I like to be in movies that I like to go see,” you know. I knew if I saw this movie I would be like “Man, that would be awesome if I was in that.” That is really where it came from. I wore a three-piece suit every time I went in there. I was nude every time we recorded. Everything you hear was recorded naked. I only work naked.
It seems that you are quite excited about being part of this brave new world that Jeffrey Katzenberg is describing.
Yeah, it is interesting to me just as a fan of movies again. He’s making some pretty bold declarative statements, but I just think it’s cool. I admire the man’s gusto. You know I just think it’s cool and it’s fun to be involved in anything that could be considered revolutionary in terms of filmmaking. So I just think it is neat to be around.
What are you up to now?
I’m shooting Funny People, a movie that Judd Apatow is directing and wrote with me and Adam Sandler, who is great. Leslie Mann and Jonah Hill, Jason Schwartzman, Eric Bana, The Rza from the Wu-Tang Clan and multiple people from the world of comedy are involved too. It’s about stand-up comedy and comics in relationships. It is about a lot of things. It is a very complicated movie, kind of many movies in one, but I’ve been having a great time. It has been amazing, I think it is a real leap forward.
Monsters Vs. Aliens is released nationwide on April 3rd
