Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen plot the apocalypse in “This is the End.”
Credit: Getty Images
Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg have been friends since childhood and writing partners since high school, where they first penned “Superbad.” Their new collaboration, “This is the End,” features an ensemble cast of some of their favourite past co-conspirators. Rogen, Jay Baruchel, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Danny McBride and Craig Robinson (all playing themselves) hunker down together in Franco’s house during the end of the world.
This idea was spawned from a short you wrote in 2007 called “Jay & Seth vs. the Apocalypse.” How did it turn into a full-length movie?
Seth: It took us a really long time to think of a way to expand it, honestly. We just couldn’t think of where it would go, so we really took us four years of just kicking around the idea to really even get what type of full length movie it could be.
Evan: And then we had the people play themselves idea separate, and until we combined them. It didn’t seem like the apocalypse thing was a full idea to us.
Seth: And then around three and a half years ago, we kind of realized we could combine them all into one movie.
How hard was it to round up all the people you wanted for this film?
Evan: The scheduling of getting them all together, you know, Danny’s on “Eastbound,” Craig’s on “The Office,” Franco does what he does, Jay’s doing a million things in Canada. It was unbelievably hard to get the scheduling worked out.
Seth: We miraculously found a window that all the guys were free, which was basically between April and July of last year, and once we had that window, it wasn’t that bad actually. Never, in our wildest dreams did we think we’d get the six people we initially wanted.
There’s a lot of self-deprication in the movie, was it hard to get the actors to poke fun at themselves?
Evan: The studios were kind of frightened by the concept of actors playing themselves.
Seth: The actors were really into it. I don’t think anyone said no based on content. We were going out to these actors to see if they would play themselves so they were overwhelmingly psyched about it. It was nice to see that some people thought it was a good idea.
Michael Cera was wild, with the cocaine and everything…
Seth: He was so crazy, it kind of raised the bar for everyone. There was a lot of peer pressure involved in making this movie. It was like well Michael did THAT so you don’t want to be the guy who says no to doing something.
Evan: It wasn’t like when an actor finished their bit they went back to their trailer. They stayed with all the other actors because everyone was excited to be with everyone. So you were doing your scene and all your peers were watching you.
It’s the end of the world, you can only have three items to try to survive, what are they?
Evan: Three of these four: water, food, guns, condoms
Seth: The thing about guns is they can help you acquire any other items you may need.
Evan: But you don’t want venereal disease.
Seth: With a gun, you can get condoms.
Evan: True.
Wouldn’t it depend on who you were stuck with, in terms of having condoms?
Evan: Condoms are just always a good idea.
Seth: You can fill them with water and play with them.
What would be the last thing you guys would say to each other?
Seth: You are nothing without me.
Evan: Hahaha
Seth: It’s true, the laugh is probably what would actually happen.
Evan: I hope my last moment is just hahahaha.
