To hear Seth Rogen describe his character Andy in Anne’s Fletcher’s The Guilt Trip, one of the big challenges was figuring out how to stifle his funny side. Seth communicated mostly in punch lines during this kooky conversation, as he described the ups and downs of being tossed together with his assigned eccentric screen mom Barbra Streisand for the contentious duration of this rocky road movie.
1. Is it true you’re a gay icon?
I’m a gay icon! Do gay people like Barbra too? I like this. I’m just sitting here feeling good!
2. That famous laugh of yours, how come we don’t hear it once in the movie?
I suppressed it!
3. What was a big challenge making Guilt Trip?
It’s very hard to be funny at 7:30 in the morning! For me it is.
4. How crazy does your real life mother drive you?
Very! Yeah, my mother drives me crazy sometimes. I do have a good relationship. And I see my parents a lot. But it’s a lot like in this movie. For no reason, I get annoyed. And then I’ll kinda find myself just reverting back to like the mentality of a 14-year-old kid. You know, who just doesn’t want to be around his parents. But yeah, most of the stuff I related to in the script, was just that dynamic. And like where your mother is trying, and the more she tries the more it bugs you. And the more it bugs you, the more she tries. And then you see her trying to say the thing that won’t annoy you, and she can’t. Yeah, all that is at times very real to my relationship with my mother. Yeah.
5. So who made who crack up and laugh the most, you or Barbra?
I don’t know what’s the tally! She cracked me up quite a bit. But the way we talk in real life, is not entirely different than our rapport in the movie, in some ways. Like trying to explain things to her about…modern times! And her trying to feed me shit I don’t wanna eat! And I showed her that she had a Twitter account. She didn’t even know it. And I changed her clocks during daylight savings! I did all that stuff.
6. What did you figure out about this guy Andy that you were playing?
Um, I really thought of him as kind of just being thrown into the movie with him. In real time! So I kinda thought I should just try to be as real and natural as possible. And he’s not a particularly funny guy. He’s not even in a particularly good mood for the majority of the movie. But I thought that if you see him a little vulnerable, people seem to relate to that. And we had options, honestly. Like I would do takes where I was more harsh with Barbra, and takes where I was less harsh. And takes where I was more annoyed, and less annoyed. Then then there were times where I was just fully entertained by her. And then times when I was like, just shut the fuck up!
7. Is there anybody you turn to, when you want the truth about how well you did in a movie?
My writing, directing and producing partner Evan is pretty honest with me. Generally speaking! But he’s a producer on this movie, so he had no excuse not to like it! Yeah. But Evan will be pretty honest with me. Whether I like it or not! My wife is nice to me all the time. So that doesn’t count!
