At the LA press day for Observe and Report Rogen and Faris both said it was the opportunity to work with Jody Hill that drew them to the film. "Getting a job is always a victory in this town, but I had seen Foot Fist Way, his first movie, and loved it and loved this idea we've been talking about a little bit, the idea of this unapologetic comedy which I think Foot Fist Way is as well," explained Faris. "Then when I read this script and was able to go in and meet with the guys for it, I was really happy because it's very rare that you come across a character that's so offensive and awful. It's just like taking a bite of a juicy apple but naughty. As a woman, it's great to be able to not have to win over an audience, I guess. And Jody, he just wanted me - for all of us, essentially, I guess - to be as awful as we could. So there's a lot of freedom in that."
Faris plays Brandi, a gorgeous and easy makeup counter girl who is the object of Rogen's affection in Observe and Report. Rogen stars as Ronnie Barnhardt, a mall cop with delusions of grandeur who uses the presence of a flasher at the mall to not only try and get close to Brandi but also to show off his law enforcement skills. Ronnie's not as likable or as huggable as most characters Rogen's played in the past, and Rogen admits he's not much like this character. "I think for all these movies, I think you just need one small thing for people to relate to. I think for this one, he views himself one way and the world views him another way. He has a hard time dealing with that and I think that's relatable," offered Rogen. "It's small, but I relate to that."
Observe and Report at times is a little more serious than most of Rogen's comedies, but Rogen says that doesn't mean he's moving towards more serious roles. "No, not really," said Rogen. "I'd say, I mean, I guess the end result of this movie, I think it comes across as a serious role I suppose but as we were filming it, it did not seem like that at all. I think people are, ideally, from what I've read, viewing it exactly how we wanted them to. But when we were filming it, it did not feel like a dark, serious role. The second they yelled, 'Cut!,' we were laughing after every single thing we were doing, regardless of how dark it may seem on film."
And speaking of how dark Observe and Report gets, there were rumors Warner Bros might try to get them to tone it down. "Whenever an article about your movie comes out in a webpage, someone e-mails it to someone, generally speaking I would say," said Rogen on the truth behind the rumors. "There was never really a major battle as I would put it. I think when people first saw it at these early screenings, they kind of made the assumption that the studio would never let us release it in the form that they saw it. But, it was always the plan. There was really never a moment of like… There were little things, little specific things, some of the moments in the fight with the cops and some little specific things here and there, but there was never like a giant over-arcing 'maybe this movie will be drastically different' moment. I think, yeah, when people saw the first screenings, they assumed that moment would happen. But I guess they weren't privy to the conversations we had before making the movie where we were all like, 'We're making a crazy f**king movie, don't be shocked when it turns out crazy.'"
Faris added, "That's funny because for me the experience was a little bit different. I sort of thought that our tender lovemaking moment, I thought, Jody was like, 'Okay, you guys are having sex and you're going to have some vomit come out of your mouth. You're passed out and your boobs are jiggling all over.' I was comforted by the studio. I was like, 'You know what? There's no way. […]There's no way. I'll do it, sure, because I don't want to be a stick in the mud, but there's no way this is going to make it in the movie.'"
"You didn't know about those conversations either," said Rogen. "We didn't tell many people about those conversations."
Future Projects
Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (Superbad, Pineapple Express) are still busy writing the script for The Green Hornet, even as the start of production looms in the near future. According to Rogen, filming will begin on The Green Hornet at the end of June.With Michel Gondry (Be Kind Rewind, The Science of Sleep, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) locked down to direct, the question now on everyone's mind is how will Gondry handle the effects? "You know, he actually really does not want to," answered Rogen when asked if Gondry will go with his homemade style of effects. "Me and Evan have actually come up with…we've approached him with ideas. Like, 'Hey, maybe we could do something like this?' You could do you some of your weird people made out of string and sh*t like that.' He's like, 'No, I don't want to do any of that.' He's like, 'The fact that you think I want to do that drives me crazy and makes me never want to do anything like that again.'"
"You know, he hates being predictable and repetitive and doing what's been done before. So as soon as he starts to feel like he's expected to do something, then he doesn't want to do it at all."
As for the story, Rogen's not giving away much. "At first we were kind of resisting the notion of an origin story but then we realized we could kind of embrace it and then played with that idea, it could be a lot better. So that's something we've added."
