THE STUDIO Star Seth Rogen Covers GQ’s ‘Men of the Year’ Issue

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GQ revealed its third Men of the Year cover featuring the “Hollywood Mogul of the Year,” Seth Rogen.

Fresh off his record-breaking night at the Emmy Awards (his arms, literally bruised from holding the statues), Seth sat down with GQ’s senior special projects editor Zach Baron to talk about the wild success of THE STUDIO, the state of the Hollywood industry, what keeps him grounded, and projects he wishes that he’d have done differently. 

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On parallels Seth feels with his character in The Studio…

“…I’m constantly dealing with the things my character is dealing with and being afraid that I’m letting down people that I’m a big fan of, and being afraid that I am not a part of the team in the way that I want to be a part of the team, and being afraid I’m making the wrong choices as to which movies I’m getting behind and which ones I’m not. Am I being too business-minded? Am I really nurturing creativity? Am I making these choices for the right reasons? That’s all based on my own fears.”

On the state of the Hollywood industry…

“It’s been better, but it’s a constantly evolving industry and it’s a very volatile industry by nature. And to me that has always been what’s interesting about it and what’s exciting about it and what is, at times, incredibly aggravating. But, in other times, incredibly inspiring is how fast it can change and how on a dime the whole industry can shift into a new direction.”

On why he prefers making comedies over dramas… 

“To me [comedies are] more fun and more challenging in a lot of ways … to make a great comedy is making a great drama, but then also making it funny, which is harder. And so I view making a great comedy, honestly, as much harder than making a great drama.”

On what kickstarted his career…

“I think luck has a lot to do with it. The timing was in our favor. The moviegoing climate was in our favor. The types of risks studios were making at that time. The mentality that went into making movies was very different then than it is now. If I was just born 15 years later, things could have gone very differently just because of timing.”

Speaking on a project he’s particularly proud of…

“I’m really proud of Superbad. I’m proud that we made that movie and that it’s based on my friends and that I wrote it with my friend, and that it turned out really better than we hoped it would and that people still like it. And to me, the fact that it has in any way stood any test of time, which I’m very aware comedy is not necessarily even designed to do that necessarily.”

Speaking on a project he regrets or wants another shot at…

“I think The Interview, for example, could have used maybe another set comedy piece in the second half of the second act that could have bolstered the comedy in some ways….

“With everything that went wrong with this movie, I’m like, ‘We could have used another set piece around page 70.’  [Laughs.] To me, that’s what I view as something that if I could go back, I would do differently with the movie. I just feel like I have a better understanding now of what a comedy film needs in order to really delight an audience in the way that I want to.”

On how The Studio captured Hollywood insiders…

“It’s gotten very meta. It does feel like I’m running a fake movie studio at times. I’m having directors’ agents call me to pitch their clients to be the directors of fake movies on our show, which is very weird and very meta. And I’m having to actually turn down directors I’m a big fan of because the movie, the fake movie, maybe isn’t quite right for the fake package we have in our heads.

GQ’s Men of the Year issue hits newsstands November 18 and the annual celebration to toast this year’s honorees takes place in Los Angeles on November 13.

[Photo Credit: Tyrell Hampton/GQ]

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