Seth Rogen struck controversy, but not gold, with his 2014 comedy The Interview. Starring himself and James Franco, the movie hit bumps in the road after the studio behind the production, Sony, was believed to be hacked in retaliation for the film. Suddenly, funny man Rogen found himself at the center of an international incident, but he didn’t find much to laugh about at that time.
Rogen took part in an interview with Rolling Stone where he was asked about the one movie he wished he could do differently. The Pineapple Express star answered, “When I look at The Interview, there’s some things that I think we could have fleshed out a little bit more. I think maybe the tone of the movie gets a little inconsistent sometimes.”
Seth Rogen doubts North Korea hacked Sony
The Interview is about a late night TV host and his producer getting the chance of a lifetime to interview North Korea’s dictator, Kim Jong Un. Before meeting with Un, however, the two men are pulled aside by the CIA and ordered to assassinate the North Korean leader. When Sony Pictures Entertainment was hacked shortly after the movie was announced, it was thought by many to be retaliation from North Korea, though Rogen has since expressed his doubt.
In the interview, Rogen was asked if he had any “lasting scars” from the experience he had surrounding the hack and threats made against theaters that played the movie. His answer was surprisingly honest.
“Not really,” he said, “and honestly, the further I get from it, the less I think North Korea actually did it and the less about me I actually think it all was. I really think the movie was used as a facade to launch some attack on the executive leadership at Sony, and that was not being carried out by North Korea. I think it was being carried out by disgruntled Sony employees more than anything.”
President Obama pardoned Seth Rogen’s worries
Though Rogen seems fairly blase about the incident now, at the time he admitted that he did worry that his career might be over after all the dust settled. “It was hard to process, a lot of it,” he recalled. There was one person, however, who helped to put the scandal to bed and proved that Rogen had friends in high places.
“It was weird hearing Barack Obama talk about it, which he did at length during a press conference. And his attitude made us feel a lot better. Having the support of the president was incredibly helpful and therapeutic.”
Rogen typically keeps a low profile, but that doesn’t keep him from becoming an occasional target of tabloids. In 2018, the Globe claimed Rogen was buying his wife, Lauren Miller Rogen, expensive gifts in an effort to save their marriage. The outlet claimed Rogen’s focus on his career put him and his wife at odds.
Gossip Cop looked into the rumor and found that the spouses often support each others’ careers and had even expressed interest in renewing their vows. We determined this story to be absolute nonsense.