Seth Rogen’s Mom Tried To Help Greenlight Movie By Emailing Studio Head

Seth Rogen shares the story of the time his mom emailed a major studio head in order to help him get a movie made. Now one of the most recognizable and beloved comedy actors, writers, and producers in the world, Rogen first got his start by appearing in the 2007 Judd Apatow movie Knocked Up. The actor has since appeared in a number of hits, including Superbad, Pineapple Express, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Neighbors, The Interview, and Long Shot. In recent years, Rogen has also been appearing in roles that carry more dramatic weight such as Steve Jobs, An American Pickle, and Pam & Tommy. He can next be seen playing a prominent role in Steven Spielberg’s upcoming film, The Fabelmans.

In a recent interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Rogen reveals that his mother recently tried to help him turn a script into a movie by emailing the head of a major studio. Rogen worked on the project with Evan Goldberg, his longtime collaborator on movies like Superbad, The Interview, This Is The End, The Night Before, Sausage Party, and several others, but doesn’t reveal any other details about the script in question. Check out Rogen’s hilarious story below:

“My mother I guess had the email. She asked me what I’m doing and I had been writing a movie with my partner, Evan [Goldberg], for years. She read the script and she really liked it, and we kept not hearing if they were going to make it. And then she called me one day and she’s like, ‘Somehow I have the email of the head of the studio. I’m going to email him to tell him to make your movie.’ And I was like, ‘Okay, go for it.’ Honestly, like, I’ve always heard nepotism is a big thing in Hollywood. I’ve never gotten to participate in that in any way. And so I thought, ‘Yeah, email the head of the studio.’ And she did and it did not work.

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Why Seth Rogen Might Be Having Trouble Getting His New Script Greenlit

While Rogen remains tightlipped regarding the project’s details, including its genre, it’s possible that the current comedy movie landscape in Hollywood is what’s keeping the movie from getting made. Family-oriented animated comedies, like those in the Minions franchise, continue to perform well at the box office, but R-rated comedy movies – the type that essentially launched Rogen’s career – don’t exist as they did 10 or 15 years ago. Movies like Knocked Up and Superbad were relatively cheap to make and performed quite well at the box office, but the early 2010s started to see the decline of the theatrically-released comedy.

Comedy movies started to see a significant downturn in box office performance, with most movies in the genre now relegated to streaming. Even Apatow, previously a solid bet when it came to big studio comedies, turned to Netflix to get his most recent directorial project, The Bubble, made. Despite the success of so many of his comedies in the past, it’s possible that the script that Rogen is trying to get made is a comedy, and therefore not the surefire box office bet that it might’ve been during the era of Superbad or even This Is The End. Of course, there are other reasons why Rogen’s script might not be getting made as well, with non-franchise, non-intellectual-property-based movies representing more significant risks for studios in general.

It remains to be seen whether Rogen will have any luck with his unmade script, but it’s not unusual in Hollywood for some projects to gestate for years before eventually being picked up as market forces and consumer trends change. For now, however, the actor continues to have a busy schedule lined up for the future, with the likes of a Sausage Party sequel, Kung Fu Panda 4, Mufasa: The Lion King, and his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot all expected to release in the next few years. While his mother may not have been able to move the needle on his unnamed script, it’s certainly possible that it will get the green light in the future.

Next: Pam & Tommy True Story: Who Is Seth Rogen’s Character, Rand Gauthier?

Source: The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon