Seth Rogen Talks Halloween Costumes, Monsters vs Aliens and Green Hornet
posted by Kristen in Television at 10:00 PM on 2009.10.22
There's no question that Seth Rogen is Hollywood's favorite funnyman. With films like The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Zach and Miri Make a Porno and Superbad under his belt, Rogen made a return to animation with his role as B.O.B. in Dreamworks Animation's Monsters vs. Aliens. Reprising his role as the gelatinous monster with no brain in NBC's Halloween special, Monsters vs Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins From Outer Space, Rogen sat down to take about animation and his role in the special, past Halloween experiences and shed some light on future projects including the highly anticipated Green Hornet.
Monsters vs Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins From Outer Space returns the cast of the original Dreamworks film to Modesto, California to fight against innocent looking pumpkins that are, of course, mutant aliens. With the voices of the original cast, including Rogen, Reese Witherspoon and Will Arnett, the special brings up discussion on Rogen landing the role of B.O.B. in the first place. The actor prefaces the tale by stating it's not particularly interesting but explains that the creators didn't originally want Rogen for the character after he had recently been in Kung Fu Panda and a small role in Shrek 3, “they were weary of using me in another one of their movies” and with that knowledge, along with enjoying the premise of the movie he fought to voice the dimwitted monster. In going further with that Rogen also talks about why he enjoys Dreamwork as an animation studio saying, “I really enjoyed doing the other animated work I'd done up to that point. I thought it was a great idea and I was a really big fan of what Dreamworks Animation had done. It seemed more cynical in a humorous way. It was taking a skewed perspective on these conventions you're used to seeing in these movies. It just seemed really funny.” One of the joys about the character of B.O.B. is how dumb the character is, but being entirely loveable at the same time. Rogen attributes that to a collaborative process he had with the directors, making the joke be about “he had no brain, he was really stupid” and turning the character into what he is now. Fans of the movie might be interested to know in how little interaction he has with co-stars Reese Witherspoon and Will Arnett while making the movie and television special. Rogen admitted he didn't spend any time with the actors while making the projects, it was only in promoting the film that he had time to talk with them. He stated overall, “It's just cool to meet people.”
In talking to Rogen it becomes apparent that he enjoys animation and voicing animated characters. There are several reasons he returns to animation ranging from flexibility to less pressure, “There's a lot less pressure filming an animated movie. When you're doing an animated movie there's five people in the booth, you have all day, and you can play around.” He also went on to go further into the flexibility of animation, saying a schedule can be worked out around the actor's time frame, “I like to work a lot and one of the things in animation is they can schedule around you. Scheduling wise I can do it on a weekend if I'm filming a movie.” Improvisation is also a big factor in Rogen's love of animated film explaining, “It's a fun format to improvise and discover a character in a different way...you have to do it all with your voice. You can actually improvise a lot as a voice actor.” While the actor says it's a fun format with unique directors and characters, he doesn't shy away from saying how time consuming the work of a voice actor is, “I didn't know how animation works and the time consuming part is creating the characters...and the worlds. It's not entirely different from shooting a live-action movie.” Don't look for Rogen to get out of animation anytime soon, he says he's a big fan of the format and would definitely return in other animated projects. In looking at Monsters vs Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins From Outer Space, Rogen says he was blown away by the animation saying, “I honestly had no idea what the animation was gonna be like and when I watched it I was extremely impressed, it was like movie-level quality.” It's unknown by the star how much screen time B.O.B. has in the film but don't worry Rogen says the character is so loud “I don't even have to be on-screen for [B.O.B.] to be around.”
The subject of the special brought up a discussion on the actor's interactions with the holiday and whether he celebrates. While the star won't be celebrating this year, having to get up at six in the morning the day after Halloween to shoot Green Hornet, he does enjoy the holiday, especially the television specials. When asked what some of his favorite television Halloween specials were the actor responded with, “ I always like the Simpsons Halloween specials, they're always amazing. Whenever the sitcoms did their Halloween episodes I always like that.” And what about the star's favorite Halloween costume. He revealed that he's discovered the joy of “paired costumes” since celebrating with his girlfriend, and let it be known that one year “We were Doc and Marty from Back to the Future.”
With that small slip of his shooting schedule it brought up many questions about the film in question, Green Hornet. The film has been bogged down in cast and crew changes and has recently started filming with a cast that includes Cameron Diaz and is being produced and written by Rogen, the star of the film himself. He wasn't willing to let too much be told but did say “It's everything I imagined and more.” While he says it's a “relief” to finally be shooting, there's still a lot needed to make the movie awesome and ready for it's release on December 22nd of 2010. One issue he briefly touched on was a casting rumor featuring Terminator 2 star Edward Furlong, Rogen says, “ Edward Furlong is in the movie,” unfortunately for fans he was tight-lipped about the actors character or role. One cameo he wasn't shy in discussing was the recent announcement of Canadian band Anvil, a band that's received a lot of renewed press with their new documentary. Rogen says, being Canadian himself, “I've known about Anvil for many years and we needed a band for a scene in the movie.” Many online sources have already discussed the scene in question with Anvil. The final Green Hornet question revolved around the idea of pressure and expectation from fans about the movie. Rogen eloquently says, “I take a huge amount of the pressure, I understand that it's my face on it when it comes out, even if it sucks for another reason. As a producer a lot of your work is done before...making sure all the elements are together. I'm there all the time so I can make sure everything's going well. I've been talking about this movie for years and if it sucks no one will be more disappointed than me.”
Finally, there's the many rumors surrounding Rogen and his future projects, some of which the actor was kind enough to confirm or debunk. He did briefly touch on his role in the Simon Pegg/Nick Frost film Paul that has been on the books for awhile, saying “The Shaun of the Dead guys are wonderful. I think Paul will be a hilarious film.” The talk of a Monsters vs Aliens television show might not be too far along since Rogen was unaware of it. He said there was no TV series he was aware of, and if there was he would not be reprising his role. That isn't to say he would not voice B.O.B. in future specials. The actor says he'd love to do another television special, “Anything but Christmas because I'm Jewish, B.O.B. is Jewish.” Don't expect him to re-teaming with director Kevin Smith anytime soon. The star stated, “ No current plans but I truly love that man.” Cult fans might also be a bit saddened to know there's no thoughts on reviving Rogen's series Freaks and Geeks to coincide with the recent relaunches and rebrandings of series like Melrose Place or 90210. Rogen emphasized, “There is not currently because it would probably be terrible but maybe in ten years they'll have really good looking people to play all of us.”
Seth Rogen can be heard as the voice of B.O.B. in the Halloween special Monsters vs Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins From Outer Space, airing on NBC October 28th at 8pm.
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There's no question that Seth Rogen is Hollywood's favorite funnyman. With films like The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Zach and Miri Make a Porno and Superbad under his belt, Rogen made a return to animation with his role as B.O.B. in Dreamworks Animation's Monsters vs. Aliens. Reprising his role as the gelatinous monster with no brain in NBC's Halloween special, Monsters vs Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins From Outer Space, Rogen sat down to take about animation and his role in the special, past Halloween experiences and shed some light on future projects including the highly anticipated Green Hornet.
