"There has been a long history of people using comedy to point out how absurd the worst things in the world are," says Seth Rogen, who stars in, co-directs, and co-wrote the story for the new film The Interview, in which he and James Franco attempt to take out a fictitious Kim Jong-un. "The Interview is in that tradition. Often, things are so messed up that it steps into the absurd, which becomes funny - and the only way to make people think about horrible things is to wrap them up in a funny, digestible package."
"This movie is partly about North Korea, but it's also about power, about the weird and fascinating convergence between celebrity power and political power," says James Franco, who stars opposite Rogen. "And because it's a comedy, it can be more outrageous. I hope the reaction is that it will do what all outrageous comedies do - be outrageous but also provide commentary on what's going on today."
The filmmakers sought a certain level of verisimilitude by using the real-world name in the film. The path to comedy often goes through stages - and screenwriter Dan Sterling acknowledges taking a more conventional approach at first. "I originally envisioned the movie with a completely imaginary dictator," he says. But then, Sterling says, they had the idea to try it with a fictitious Kim Jong-un. "We thought, why not try it and see what happens? We immediately realised that it was so much more exciting, provocative, and funny."
Sterling relished the experience of working with Rogen and Goldberg, he says. "All of their suggestions and notes made me do better work," he added. "They pushed me to make it more outrageous, more funny, more filthy - more everything."
In The Interview, Sterling built on the framework that Franco and Rogen have relied on in the past as the basis to build a larger, more complex comedy on top. It's a relationship that works well because the two have performed together for many years now - dating back to Freaks and Geeks, through Pineapple Express and This Is The End. "The first scene Seth ever shot was with Franco," says Goldberg, "so he has a real nostalgic love for working with him. The second they come together, you can tell that Seth is truly at ease. He's never said this to me, but I assume that Franco is his favourite person to act with. They just feel comfortable together. They have an inherent trust in each other. In the same sense that Seth and I write really well together because we learned how to write together, they act really well together because they learned how to act together."
In his screenplay, Sterling created a wholly original character in Dave Skylark - "a very genial, pleasant person with good people instincts; he's intellectually limited with not a great deal of knowledge about anything, but he's good at getting people to open up," explains Sterling.
Evan Goldberg says it's a part that was created especially for Franco and one that Franco took extreme pleasure in bringing to life. "Dave Skylark is Dan Sterling's masterpiece," says Goldberg. "Dan created this incredible character, and Franco is the best guy to play him, because Franco is fearless. He'll do anything. When you give him something crazy, he gives you something crazy back, and this is one of his craziest roles."
"Watching Franco on set was like watching an animal that had been let out of a cage," Sterling says. "He was going bananas, in the best way. It's fun to see an actor having a ball, doing your script."
How does a character as self-involved and shallow as Dave Skylark become a relatable protagonist? Again, Rogen credits Franco. "Franco is very sweet, and I think that comes across," he says. "Skylark seems vulnerable, even though he's an audacious moron. There's a real sensitivity to him - he wants approval. He's not just vain, he's also weak. He wants the approval of the world, but even more, he wants Aaron's approval. On the other hand, I don't think he'd be happy if he wasn't famous."
Franco wanted in on the project as soon as he heard about it - which, he says, was on the set of Pineapple Express - but was especially excited to play the part when he saw the way the characters were coming together. He saw his role as a chance to poke a little fun at himself - or, maybe, the person that audiences think he is. "There's a way of reading my public persona that people might think I'm only interested in getting attention - just like Dave Skylark does," Franco points out. "So the idea that I can take the piss out of my public persona is fun for me. Why should Gawker get to have all the fun?"
"It was important that the character start off as a superficial talk show host - the kind that traffics in the lowest level of celebrity gossip - and a guy who loves what he does: all he cares about are his fame, his numbers, how many people like his show," Franco says. "He's been granted power based only on how much attention he gets - not the value of the information he shares. It strengthens the parallel between my character and the character of Kim Jong-un - also someone who gets a lot of attention. These two popular figures come together."
What's it like for Rogen to direct Franco - one of his best friends and one of his most frequent collaborators? "We get along really well; we're funny together," Rogen says. "Other than the fact that I've known him since I was 16, as far as the work goes, he's very technically minded and very aware of how movies are put together. So, he provides you, as a director, with not just funny stuff, but usable stuff. Another actor might give you something funny that there's no way you can edit into the scene. Franco understands when he's on camera, how the coverage works, how it will be edited together.
James Weaver, Rogen and Goldberg's producing partner and president of their production company, Point Grey, says that the directing team of Rogen and Goldberg is perfectly in sync when it comes to directing together. "It's like they're one person," he says. "They bring a unique perspective as co-directors - Seth is acting in the scene, so he brings that point of view, and Evan is the observer, offering something totally new."
"As the director, when I'm acting and something isn't going right - maybe the camera's not moving at the speed it should, or if one of the other actors is going on a run that I know we won't use - I get taken out of the scene," Rogen says. "Sometimes, because I'm in the scene, Evan will see things I don't, or I'll see things he doesn't. Nine times out of 10, we'll have the same answer to any question - and if there's any disagreement, we'll do it both ways and work it out later."
For Dan Sterling, writing a scene that put his director, star, and producer through a little hell is part of the point. "I've come to realise that, to me, the funniest thing in the world is to see Seth Rogen suffering, physically, on camera," he says. "I have seen him submerged in a puddle in a marsh in the mountains in the middle of the night, two feet from a tiger, for 14 consecutive hours, and that was hilarious! But he never complained once."
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