SET VISIT: KNOCKED UP

After about the third go-around of jokes about the package on one of the artists, I became too cocky about stifling my laughs. And when Seth Rogen said "Nice Cock!" (as we were informed later, the package in question was not all that impressive; the attention was paid as the victim of their penile flattery was a grip standing as an extra in the background), Rogen’s timing on the word "cock" caught me by surprise. I snorted the sort of laugh where you’re trying to hide the fact that you made a sound but a bubble of noise pops out of your mouth (I learned quickly the only thing to do is hold your face open like a mouth breather and just try and laugh as quietly as possible). I was filled with abject terror that I might have ruined a take. Killed a great a laugh. I immediately looked over at Judd Apatow, who I’ve grown to love and respect through his work on Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared, and The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and was worried that I might have fucked up big time.

Judd Apatow looked over in my direction. I think I felt sweat beading (though that might have been the Santa Monica weather or the lighting). I mean, it’s not like I do this every day. He looked over (though not directly at me), and smiled, and turned back to his bay. My worst fear became (hopefully) a validation of the promise of this material.

It turns out I wasn’t the only one laughing. During their runs, one of the grips in front of me would often audibly laugh, and at one point the camera operator had to get off his rig because he was shaking the camera. The grip whose package was flattered was told to stop smiling in the background as well (though no one could blame him). When you’re dealing with people who can riff as well as Rudd and Rogen, well, I guess shit happens. I talked briefly to the cinematographer Eric Edwards and he told me that it was one of the funniest shoots he’d ever been on. In fact, for the fact that the movie was set to wrap in a couple of days, no one looked stressed, and it might have been possible (without knowing the gossip) that everyone was actually having a good time on the shoot. At some points Apatow would be directing with one of his daughters on his lap, as he’d try and get the guys to do a bit they’d thrown out earlier, or riff on Steely Dan, or make sure that they hit their marks.

The premise of the film is that Seth Rogen’s character Ben has casual sex with Alison (Katherine Heigl) and gets her pregnant (hence the title). She works for the E Channel, and lives with her sister Debbie (Leslie Mann) and Debbie’s husband Pete (Rudd), and their two children. And it seems one of Apatow’s secrets is to let his actors just go (in some ways, from his descriptions, Apatow’s process is like the comic version of a Mike Leigh film). I was informed that they had shot over a million feet of film by that point, in fact nearer to 1.3 mil (a reel, a thousand feet, runs approximately ten minutes. If you do the math, that comes up as a fucking shit load of footage, or – to be more precise – about ten days worth), but in the eight rolls we saw them go through, every single one had quite a bit of gold. That may be why Apatow told us later (as has been mentioned previously) that they’re thinking about doing a Randomizer version on DVD that will supply different takes for just about every scene.

But this spirit of playfulness crossed over as between takes almost everyone near us would flip through the records nearby, realizing the inherent comic value of the fashion senses and bravado of stars who have since faded into obscurity. The crew of journalists (though, admittedly, some of these guys were friends) would flip through the records, looking for the most outrageous of offenders.

Paul Rudd stopped by first, and his character Pete is married to Debbie, who’s played by Leslie Mann, who also happens to be Apatow’s wife (Mann may be best remembered for breaking it down to Missy Elliot in Virgin), and his character’s kids and played by Mann’s and Apatow’s children. When Rudd came over (we were told he had only a couple of minutes though he made his way back to us), we all began showing each other albums. I grabbed a Mac Davis album, It’s Hard to be Humble, which he said he owned, it or Stop and Smell the Roses (Ironically, the Humble cover has roses on it, while the Roses cover has Davis smoking). It turned out to be Roses that he used to own.

Paul Rudd: I had this record as a kid I loved it. "Lucas was a Redneck."

(I should note that I’m not going to include such comments as (laughs) from either the journalists or the interviewees. Frankly, that’s half of the interview)

Is it weird playing married to the director’s wife?

Rudd: I’ve done that before, the girlfriend of the director, that kind of thing. So not really, we all know each other pretty well. We have two kids in the movie, and those are also Judd’s kids, so that’s kinda weird. We have a very… it’s the worst relationship in the movie, so we’ll talk about situations, but also because we go off book a lot it can become a little uncomfortable because all of sudden you’re thinking "wow, this might be a real sore subject in real life." So hopefully it’s not too damaging.

How much of what we saw was in the script?

Rudd: Almost nothing. Well, no, he says he bought a crib – that was in the script, and some other things, but Pure Prairie League, that came this morning when we found out that one of our guys was in the band, and we just put it in the scene, and it became "let’s just start this way and put it in the scene." And all the stuff with the records, that’s all, that’s all…

Has the whole shoot been like that?

Rudd: Yeah. (A baby cries). Awww. (back to us) They tend to be the most fun to work on. You know, every day is different, it’s fun to watch everyone work, it’s really creative, it’s a real team effort and when it works, it’s really exciting. And a lot of times it doesn’t, so we just burn through a lot of film, and hope to catch the right moment. But we’ve also worked together before so that makes it, in a way, a little easier, cause Seth and I know each other’s rhythms, and we both have a weird fascination for random references. And hopefully it doesn’t come across "Oh look, these guys are pulling out some obscure references!" but we know that if we say some the other guy will know what we’re talking about.

On the commentary for Virgin, Judd mentioned he wasn’t sure people would get "Yah Mo b There." Have you had any moments like that?

Rudd: Probably. Sometimes he won’t say it, but I know he won’t use that. But I just made a reference to Nicolette Larson and I didn’t know that she died, so I don’t think that’s going to make the movie. And I wouldn’t have said that had I known. But that’s a random one. But I know that there are a lot of people who might see the film and have no idea who that was. Which I don’t think hurts it, but that 10% who does will really get a kick out of it.

What about the pure Prairie League guy, how’d that come about?

Rudd: He was just like "Check it out." And then we put it in the scene, so they put him in the background, and we just started insulting him so much, with like "Nice Camel Toe" and "Hey man, what a sweet dick on that guy." And he’s behind us trying not to laugh.

And was his member that impressive on the cover?

Rudd: Not really. He looked completely normal. Some of the other guys were in questionable sitting positions, but he was pretty normal.

Is hard to keep it within character?

Rudd: I don’t know. I have a feeling that the people we play in these movies are so like us that whatever we say can be in the realm of possibility, but sometimes it’s way too harsh, or it doesn’t seem like what we’re going for, but then we don’t use those takes. He (Judd) doesn’t often say stop. This is what he does.

(At this point Judd wanders over and shows Paul a Jack Benny record and joins the interview)

Rudd: And he’ll say "I learned a lot from Jack Benny" and then he’ll come over and say "I’ve made you a cassette of this, I want you to go home and listen to this."

Judd Apatow: "Fred Allen. Listen to the rhythms."

Rudd: "Check out this Lanie Kazan record while you’re at it. Because, see, she’s free, and that’s the way I want you to be while you’re performing."

Apatow: My grandfather produced this album.

Rudd: Really?

Apatow: Patty Page. "How much is that Doggie in the Window?"

What the editing process like with all this extra footage?

Apatow: Well, we always have the DVD in mind, so even when we know a scene should be thirty seconds we often let it go eight minutes. You never which one will play out, so it never hurts to get more stuff. Now that people like seeing all the extra stuff, and want to see the extended cut, we know people want to see the five hour version of the movie, there’s no doubt about that.

Rudd: It’s like SHOAH. With Laughs.

Apatow: Like BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ.

Do you ever feel the bits grow stale?

Apatow: Sometimes it does lose its snap pretty fast, but I still laugh anyway.

Rudd: And we change them around a lot. I should have referenced Melissa Manchester, or Maria Muldaur. But we’ll change it enough.

Apatow: We don’t get bored if that’s what you’re asking, we might get bored if we were doing a scripted scene, but that doesn’t happen often. There are certain scenes where we know exactly what’s going to happen and we’ll veer off by about five percent. That’s true for a lot of the movie. But there’s certain scenes, where there’s two guys hanging out in a record store, and we shoot all the jokes that two guys might make here.

Does that change the way you write the screenplay?

Apatow: It does. I try to write the screenplay with a lot of these options in mind, so although they’re not in the script I’ll have these notes about what else I’ll do in the scene, so it’s not always spur of the moment. I’ll go "This scene is a vicious fight, maybe we’ll do one where they’re angry and they’ll cry instead of yell" Cause I’ve edited a lot, I’m usually just scared of winding up in an editing room and hating my footage, so it’s really just a fear of being stuck that makes me want to get that extra stuff. And as a fan of comedy I wish I could see an hour of outtakes from one of the great Bill Murray comedies, so I think of it as a fun thing to have and put out there.

Have you thought of giving Paul a vehicle?

Apatow: I thought this was the vehicle. Of course we have "the wheel," we call it "the wheel," and we turn the wheel to find out "whose turn is it on the wheel?"

Rudd: It’s like rotating in a volleyball game.

Apatow: You know you’re going to get your shot to serve at some point.

Do you know your spot in the rotation?

Rudd: Right now, I don’t know, Judd’s the coach. I think I set up the ball to get it over the net, that’s all I do. I’m just happy to be on the team.

(Rudd then is called away by the second unit, and Martin Starr walks by, and we’re all a bit starstruck by such a god.)

I noticed you’ve done some takes without swearing, is this film an R?

Apatow: Oh yes. It’s no question "will it be R?" There’s just a cumulative effect of cursing that it becomes unfunny if you do it too much and not at the right moment. And then that’s the curse, and they will add curses when there aren’t any, and they’ll go so far, so I’m constantly saying "can you please say that without this or that word." This is really as dirty as it gets in certain scenes – it may be unquotable even for the internet. But that’s what I find funny about it, half the movie is a sophisticated romantic comedy, but then Seth Rogen lives with Jason Segal and Jay Baruschell and Martin Star and Jonah Hill and his life is so immature and so stupid. And so dirty, so it’s almost a different movie. But that’s the world he’s growing up and out of. He can’t be that guy anymore.

Do you feel you’re ahead of your time, now that these actors from Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared are becoming so popular?

Apatow: I don’t know if it’s so much being ahead of my time, as much as it’s that I refuse to admit that they shouldn’t be popular. I feel a responsibility for having pulled them out of high school, and that they don’t end up on E TRUE HOLLYWOOD STORIES. So I would give them work to assuage my guilt of having screwed of their lives.

The DVD’s of those shows are incredible.

Apatow: Those commentaries are incredible, there’s one of me and Jay Baruschel (on UNDECLARED) that’s pretty funny… the one with Fred Willard.

Are we going to see anyone perform an Alligator Fuckhouse in the movie?

Apatow: There are certainly scenes with language as far as that, and certainly much farther, so there’s a lot of that. But we didn’t get to that.

Did Gerry (Bednob) ever explain what that was?

Apatow: Seth might know… Gerry just repeated the list that Seth gave me.

So if they didn’t have a definition before, they do now.

Apatow: Gerry is now known "that guy." He’s got to live with that.

"Hey Alligator Fuckhouse!"

Apatow: Exactly.

Is there any nudity in the flick?

Apatow: There’s a little bit of nudity, I mean, we’ll see if it survives… It’s always nice to sprinkle it in a little bit, and it’s an adult move and some times it becomes silly that there wouldn’t be. You know when you show it to an audience if they like it or they’re disgusted. I was really surprised when we were doing screening of 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN when we showed a scene where he was watching a porno, and they were really disgusted quickly, they didn’t want to see any of it, and I thought it was a funny idea that he kept fast forwarding past the sex to when they would have conversation, and the audience was like "we get this in two seconds" so you never know what the tolerance is.

But the "Hello" music cue…

Apatow: Exactly! That was always a big debate when we were about to start shooting, does he masturbate? People were like "you have to address this, people will want to know!" I don’t know why they’d want to know, and it was a big logic debate: "Is he sexual at all?" Not much.

Is Seth’s role as humane as the 40-Year-Old Virgin was for Steve Carrell?

Apatow: I think even more so, having a baby, and the story goes all the way through that, I think it could be just as funny, but even more realistic and touching, and hopefully it earns the emotional reaction from people. Because it is about some powerful and important and having a baby is so important, and I don’t really make light of those issues, it’s more about the struggle to adjust to the fact that you have to grow and deal with something you didn’t plan.

You’re entire family is in the movie, how much do feel this comes from you?

Apatow: What I like to do is cast early and have everyone involved in the process. We rehearsed this movie in December, and it’s almost August now, and that – how early everyone’s involved in kicking around ideas, I think that the closer it gets for all the actors, not just me, the more alive the scenes are. So Paul tells me about what his marriage is like, and Seth tells me what his relationships are like, or what he’d do if he got a girl pregnant. And I just thought it would be interesting to have my kids play the kids in the movie. Because in most movies kids are scripted, and you can tell they sat there until they got that one sentence right, and it always feels like the Olsen twins on FULL HOUSE, so I had this idea that if it was my wife, Leslie Mann, played Paul’s wife, and the children were played by my children, I could just put them in the scene, and they’d just talk to my wife the way they normally do, and just behave the way they normally do, and that would be something you haven’t seen on screen very often, actual honest behavior from small children. And it really did come out well, and they actually got a kick out of it. It’s not that they want to be actors, it’s just if I had to do a breakfast scene, and we’ve got a couple cameras, and Paul and Leslie will be talking and they’ll just start chiming in, which is what happens.

So they have good timing?

Apatow: I have to say there’s something in the genes. They were better than one would expect, it’s almost depressing how good they were at it. Cause you see the way we work, I’ll just throw out alternate lines, and I was able to do that with my three year old. I’d say "He looks like Winnie the Pooh" and she’d say "He looks like Winnie the Pooh" and it was perfect, it was kinda crazy.

Are you surprised at the length you can run on these?

Apatow: It’s hard to tell what length these movies should. It’s funny, I had a meeting with David Dobkin (the director of THE WEDDING CRASHERS) while I was editing the movie. And we would talk about how long the movie should be. And he told me he had done a lot of research that romantic comedies are anywhere from an hour and fifteen minutes to two hours and five minutes. And he had a list of some great romantic comedies, and how long they were. And so I thought "I guess I don’t have to be ninety minutes, I can be an hour and fifty three minutes." And then when it came to the DVD, I thought if I should add five minutes or everything I liked, and I said to Seth "What do you think" and he said "Well my dad says no one’s unhappy that they get more free shit" so I said "let’s just chuck it in." But then you quickly find out that nobody buys the theatrical version, everyone buys the extended version, so it can’t be some sloppy indulgent version of the movie. And there’s an argument to be made that a two hour and ten minute version of VIRGIN is self indulgent, but I haven’t heard any complaints, and I think some people watch these films over two days, and it doesn’t matter. I just want to make sure the theatrical’s out there, and the theatrical’s on HBO every five seconds, so it’s not like people don’t see it.

But if you care about the characters, then you’ll go with them as long as it goes.

Apatow: That’s what I hope. I hope that people would think they don’t want the characters to go away, and I would think we would earn the time. This movie’s will be a challenge to decide how long it should be, it’s certainly not going to be short, it’s clearly a two hour movie.

The pain of seeing Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared when they finish, it’s like (pained sigh), and then with these movies I’m so grateful for the extra time

Apatow: Well, we’re excited about this thing we’re going to do with the DVD they call the Randomizer, where we can create literally hundreds of variations of the movie by adding a computer program that will randomly put in deleted moments or different lines, and they say no one’s ever bothered to do it, cause why would anyone bother to do it – it’s so much work, but we’re just crazy enough to spent the next eight months cutting a hundred version of the movie. We just think it’s a funny idea that every time you turn it on you get a completely different movie, so we’re working on that as we speak.

When 40-Year-Old Virgin came out on DVD, it was only a widescreen version of the unrated version, and then a couple months later they put out the theatrical, were you insistent on that?

Apatow: Yeah, I didn’t realize they didn’t put it out, I got upset, I said "You can’t not have the movie out in it’s best possible format, even if we only sell one percent of that version, it has to exist and be available." They were fine about it, it actually just slipped through the cracks. I thought they were doing it.

How do you feel about the director’s cuts?

Apatow: I haven’t watched a lot of them, I haven’t watched a lot of other people’s directors cuts to have an opinion whether or not APOCALYPSE NOW REDUX is better, but I think it’s great directors are allowed to do it, because sometimes the process of testing or the pace of your post forces you to make certain concessions, and if someone says "now you can have the time to finesse it some more, or put more things in" it’s interesting to see what that would be.

Do you have a preferred version of Virgin?

Apatow: I don’t think I’ve watched the long version all the way through. I’ve thought about it intellectually, what the changes were, but I never sat and watched it, which may something about me.

Any role for Jane Lynch?

Apatow: No but she’s in TALADEGA NIGHTS, she has a great part in that.

Is Knocked Up the working title?

Apatow: No, that’s it. I’m a big fan of titles that could not be more obvious. It helps people.

Seth Rogen: It’s helpful for consumers. I’ll take it from here… (Seth laughs his inimitable laugh)

Apatow: Thanks, Seth. Thanks, guys.

Hey Seth

Rogen: How’s it going?

Good. Have you allowed yourself to indulge in any diva behavior?

Rogen: Oh yes, nothing but rose petals. No, not really. No fresh grapes, none of the finest oils rubbed on my feet.

How early before this was announced did you know that Judd wanted you to star in a movie?

Rogen: It’s something that we’ve talked about, this movie SUPERBAD, which is just getting made with Jonah Hill and Michael Sera was something that original I should star in, but as the years went on I kinda outgrew it, but the notion of having a big role, in my mind, was always out there. And Judd seemed pretty on-board from pretty early on in our relations, it was just convincing the people who actually pay for all this shit also that it’s a good idea.

Did you write the script with him?

Rogen: I was definitely around. He had a pretty clear vision of what the story should be, and a lot of it is based on his own personal experiences, I mean, I haven’t ever had a fuckin’ kid, so I have no idea, but I do know how I would react to that, and the roommates, and what guys do when left to their own devices, so I was definitely there for a lot of the writing process, but the general flow of the story was not my doing.

But then you know when you get on set…

Rogen: Then you throw it anyway, so it doesn’t even matter. Whoever’s saying any given line is the person who wrote it. (Seth really laughs over this one)

Do you have an idea ahead of time what you’re going to say?

Rogen: I don’t think of it at all, I’ve got to try not to. Sometimes actors will want to run by me what they want to do, and I discourage that as much as possible. It just seems funnier if I don’t know what the hell the other person’s going to say, and it just seems like it makes for more organic looking scenes, and it just makes it more fun if I don’t know what the other guys are planning, and I can just roll with it, so I like to be as unprepared as humanly possible. But that’s all under of the umbrella of being very familiar with the script and the story, and I’ve been around the material for almost a year now, so what the lines are in any given scene are the least important part of it, it’s just knowing what purpose the scene is supposed to serve.

Katherine Heigl came in late, replacing Anne Hathaway…

Rogen: Yeah, it wasn’t that late. I think technically Anne Hathaway was only on board for like a day or two before it all went down the toilet, so it wasn’t all that eleventh hour.

So Heigl was there at the rehearsals?

Rogen: She was there, and she was one of the only girls who seem genuinely amused by me. A very big piece of the puzzle. Either a lot of them were great actresses, or genuinely hated me. She seemed to get my humor more than most. And the fact that she’s almost as tall as I am, and the fact that she’s a commanding statuesque presence helps me in a lot ways, because I can go at her a lot harder than if I’m with some frail little tiny actress. She’s louder than I am. Which cause we’re yelling at each other for most of the movie, we needed someone where we could go at each other, but it wouldn’t seem too harsh on either of our sides. She tears me a new one.

(Paul Rudd comes back and starts showing us some records, including one by Sissy Spacek, and Telly Savalas.)

What’s it like playing more of a dramatic role?

Rogen: It’s interesting, I kind of approach it like any other scene, but I have to think of less jokes. It’s kind of a nice break some times, cause no one’s expecting me to be funny if I’m getting my heart ripped out of my chest, I mean the fact that when I watch it I want to slap myself in the face for being a pussy I think is a good thing, ultimately, it means I’m showing a new side of myself.

The face slapping side.

Rogen: Exactly.

You were in YOU, ME, AND DUPREE this summer.

Rogen: I was

Are you getting calls now to be a comic ringer?

Rogen: I guess so, that’s kind of what that felt like a little bit.

"Show up and be funny!"

Rogen: Yeah, it’s interesting, it was an interesting experience to see what that is, to be brought in as the guy expected to kill, and I hope I did a good job.

And those set are run differently than what Judd does.

Rogen: Those sets are run much, much differently. This is really as far from that, actually most movies, it’s weird to think that they’re both acting, you know, it could not feel like a more different job when you’re on a normal set.

Tell us about Jonah Hill, who played the shoe buyer in Virgin?

Rogen: He plays one of my roommates in this movie, and he’s the lead in SUPERBAD, which I wrote as well that we’re shooting next month. He had come in an auditioned for 40-YEAR-OLD-VIRGIN, and I was in the theater seeing THE LIFE AQUATIC, and I hear a voice saying "Are you Seth Rogen?" and it was Jonah sitting behind me, and I’d never seen him, and he’s very weird, but we went to the same high school, Crossroads, which every fuckin’ famous person in the universe went to, so he kind of knew some people I kinda knew, and he mentioned he was coming in. And then when he came in I was like "that guy’s a really cool guy talked to him in a movie theater," and he got the part, and he was just so funny, and it was literally a one line scene in the script but Judd lets his actors go off a little bit, and he was hilarious, and then we started hanging out with him, and he became one of our friends, and when we were casting this movie, we cast him and he’s just murdering, he’s hilarious. And when SUPER BAD came along, and we found out that was getting made, we were looking for an 18 year version of me, and Jonah seemed like that, and we got him.

What’s Super Bad about?

Rogen: It’s about two guys in high school trying to buy liquor.

What’s it like having a stand in?

Rogen: My stand-in has to wear a wig that makes him look like me, which I feel terrible about. This serves no actual technical purpose other than amusing people. Every time someone comes to visit they say "Hey, your stand in, does he have to wear that ridiculous wig all day long?" He does?"

Rudd: My stand-in was actually my stand in on ANCHORMAN

Rogen: Well that’s funny. They’re good guys, and they occupy the exact amount of light that we do.

Rudd: And wear exactly the same clothes.

Do you guys get the sense that you’re making the Caddyshack’s and the Animal House’s of your generation?

Rudd: I don’t know if ours are as good as those are.

Rogen: I don’t think so.

Rudd: I don’t know if ours will stand the test of time, and those movies are amazing.

Rogen: ANIMAL HOUSE holds up so well, it’s crazy, that movie hasn’t lost a thing over the last thirty years. And CADDYSHACK makes you forget that those nameless kids are the stars of the movie. Bill Murray’s like in ten minutes of it, that’s what I realized rewatching it. "Oh it’s about these guys that I’ve never fucking seen before"

(Rudd does an impression of the female lead of Caddyshack)

Rogen: But you always hope, I mean I’m always amused by the movies we make. You just have to hope other people are as amused as you are. But it’s really hard to judge when you’re in the middle of it, and you’re making up your lines like… I know Rudd will laugh his fucking ass off at an Al Jarreau reference, will a theater full of people? Who the fuck knows, but you kinda gotta have faith in it.

Rudd: Some of the funniest stuff ever is the stuff that makes only five people laugh.

But when you say stuff like "Be like David Caruso in Jade"

Rogen: Yeah! Exactly! Is it kinda stacking the deck a little bit when it comes to critics, because as I’m saying that I’m thinking "well, obviously movie critics will like that." They’ve seen JADE. 99% of the world hasn’t. That has been a question of what amuses me and what amuses you and what amuses everyone.

Rudd: It’s always best to stick to what you think is funny.

Rogen: Exactly. You don’t know what other people think is funny. But if you laugh you know at least one guy thinks it’s funny.

Then came the obligatory Wet Hot American Summer reference, which had to happen as Loverboy’s "Turn Me Loose" had been playing as we waited to head in, as we all said how much we loved that film.

Rudd: That’s a movie that builds a following because of DVD’s. Whenever I hear songs from it… We’re doing another movie right now that David Wain’s directing, it’s called THE TEN. It’s even weirder than WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER. Even less people will see it. .

Rogen: Which means you like it that much more.

Rudd: Kerri Kenney and Tom Lennon and a lot of THE STATE are in it. And a lot of the people who love STELLA. The shorts that they make.

It’s interesting how these groups cross over.

Rogen: I was supposed to be in THE TEN, but unfortunately my schedule conflicted, I don’t think I can.

Rudd: It’s a really incestuous group, we’re all friends, we all live close to each other. But we’re all crossing over, because we all find the same things funny.

Rogen: You realize "I can talk to David Wain on the phone?" That’s possible? And as soon as you realize that’s possible you realize "I can work with these people who I’m a fan of through weird circumstance!" And I think that everyone gets that feeling of "We can work together?"

Trying to get to the bottom of this… Judd said you (Seth) discovered the Alligator Fuckhouse.

Rogen: Did I? I think Gerry just said that, I don’t think the Alligator Fuckhouse is anything. I did create the master list of filthy terms that Gerry spouted off in that. But some of them were Gerry just getting some confused.

This led to a quick discussion of sexual euphemisms for things that mostly likely have rarely (if ever) been performed, like a Donkey Punch

Rogen: They’re sort of terms for date rape, these sexual positions.

Who thought of something like the Rusty Fishook?

Rogen: College kids. Dane Cook. I blame him.

These projects reunite a lot of the stars from Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared. Do you feel vindicated?

Rogen: I do. Jay went on to do MILLION DOLLAR BABY, Linda Cardelini’s on ER, and James Franco’s a fucking movie star now, but we’re all still friends with each other, and communicate with each other, it is really validating, and I’m sure the execs are hanging their heads knowing they could have had us. I still would have been under my FREAKS AND GEEKS contract had the show not been cancelled.

But how many shows last five or ten years and are still good?

Rogen: That’s a good point, I mean the writers on FREAKS AND GEEKS kinda knew we might be cancelled, and they had the same inklings on UNDECLARED. It’s not like we saved anything, every good idea went into the show, cause we knew we wouldn’t have to sustain it for five years. It was like "We’ve got five more, do every thing you’ve ever thought of." But it’s awesome just to work with them again, that’s the most fun of. I mean, Franco did a little thing, and Jason Segal and Jay and Martin, and you know, it’s just a blast to act with them again. I mean the first acting I did in my life I did with them, and so it’s awesome all these years later to make a real movie with them. It’s pretty awesome.