Seth Rogen has worked out what he wants from his life. He works when he wants to, he writes, produces and collaborates on projects, he’s happily married and very happily childfree. Rogen has been talking about his commitment to staying childfree in recent years, and something interesting has happened – he’s gotten the kind of pushback a woman would get from saying that she doesn’t really want kids. People were genuinely mad at Rogen for repeatedly saying “I love my childfree life.” Well, Rogen covers the March issue of Esquire, and he talks about it again. He’s also talking about the LA wildfires and his love of reality television. Some highlights:
On not having kids: “People really had strong takes on it, being like, F*ck this f*cking guy. Who the f*ck does he think he is not to have kids? Well, if you hate me that much, why do you want more of me? You should only have kids if you really want kids and we just don’t really want kids. Time kept going by and the moment where we were like ‘Let’s do it!’ just kept not happening. I look at my friends with kids and honestly I feel like some of them are incredibly happy and fulfilled, and some of them seem like maybe they wish they had put a little more thought into it. I just didn’t want to be one of those people.”
On the L.A. wildfires: “It was pretty frantic,” he says. They had to evacuate from the Sunset Fire just over Hollywood, to [wife Lauren] Miller’s father’s place down the hill. “I stood on the street in front of his house, looking up at Runyon Canyon on fire, watching as the helicopters dropped water and got control of the situation. Our house was one strong gust away from burning down itself. It was intense…I feel terrible for many people I know who lost everything. I feel terrible for many more people I don’t know whose stories I’m reading about all day on social media.”
On his passion for reality TV and its stars: “I get starstruck with reality people in a way I don’t get around movie stars.”
On staying grounded in Hollywood: “My first experience in all of Hollywood was making something great [Freaks and Geeks] that no one wanted and was instantly canceled, so that was a good tone setter.”
On not getting into the LA club scene: “Once in a while, we’d go out in that world. I remember getting really drunk with Rick James one night, so that really dates the story. But that was not my lane. I felt much more comfortable around the people who were into the work element of Hollywood, who wanted to go see a movie on a Saturday night and then hang out and smoke.”
On his celebrity status: “I’ve never been someone the paparazzi were fascinated by, and people don’t really shout at me on the street, so I feel like I dodged a bullet there.”
On weed: “Weed is something that’s been very therapeutic to me and made my day-to-day journey much easier and better. It’s had an additive aspect to my life, and it’s allowed me to do all this stuff, which I really like as well.”
On the state of comedy: “The complaint that comedy’s harder than it used to be is not a valid complaint. Maybe it was too easy before. And why should it be? Why shouldn’t it be hard? I like that my job is hard, because I’m trying to do something that requires a huge amount of resources and people’s time and energy…What do you wish you could say? What do you feel has been taken from you? It’s always funny when people are like: Oh, they could never make the Diversity Day episode of The Office today. You can still watch it.”
I’ve enjoyed everything he’s said about being childfree, and I actually enjoy that a man is briefly getting the kind of treatment reserved for childfree women too. He’s really pushing back on it too, like how dare you judge me! What he says about the state of comedy – I agree, and I also think the “you can’t say all of these offensive things anymore” comedy is so cheesy and lame. I would love to smoke with him and watch a movie, honestly.
Cover courtesy of MARK SELIGER for GQ. Additional photos courtesy of Cover Images.
