Comedian-writer-director Seth Rogen
appears on the cover of this month's GQ.
In the accompanying interview, Rogen,
37, says that he regrets homophobic jokes in his early films.
Rogen gives as an example a homophobic
bit used in The 40-Year-Old Virgin.
“[Rogen] is aware that some of the
work from that period has not aged well,” GQ wrote,
referring to films Rogen worked on with Judd Apatow in the early to
late 2000s.
“Evan [Goldberg] recently was like,
‘By the time my kids are grown, all of our work will be deemed
unwatchable.’ He's like, ‘I have no doubt about it. I think
entire parts of culture will just be deemed regressive and no one
will fucking watch it anymore, and there's a good chance our movies
will fit into that category,'” Rogen said.
“I think if you actually care, then
it's easy. We do not want people to feel bad when they're watching
our movies. I've had people come up to me and be like, ‘That made
me feel like shit when I was in the movie theater and everyone was
laughing about that.’ Like the ‘How I know you're gay’ thing
[from The 40-Year-Old Virgin], it's something people have been
like, ‘It's not fun to be in the theater when people are laughing
at that, knowing what they're probably actually laughing at.’ And I
don't want anyone to have that experience watching our movies.”
“That's why Todd Phillips makes
movies. Let him have that,” he
added, referring to the creator of The Hangover series of
films.
In The 40-Year-Old Virgin, the
characters played by Paul Rudd and Rogen each suggest the other is
gay.
“You know how I know you're gay?”
Rudd's character asks. “You like the movie Maid in Manhattan.”
“You know how I know you're gay?'
Rogen's character asks. “I saw you make a spinach dip in a loaf of
sourdough bread once.”
“You know how I know you're gay?”
Rudd's character asks. “You have a rainbow bumper sticker on your
car that says, 'I love it when balls are in my face.'”
“That's gay?” Rogen's character
says.