On Monday, before Sony Pictures made the decision to pull “The Interview,” actors Seth Rogen and James Franco couldn’t imagine that their comedy wouldn’t make it to theaters.
The two shared their thoughts about the controversial picture, which is about a plot to kill North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, with USA Today on Monday, right before Sony announced its decision.
USA Today said the interview transcript has an “almost out-of-body weirdness” now. Neither man had any idea their movie would be pulled.
“The movie is bawdy and goofy, and oddly, respectful of the North Korean people, even making a statement about human rights abuses and starvation in the hermit kingdom,” USA Today wrote.
Rogen said he learned a lot about North Korea, and that he and co-director Evan Goldberg were “just fascinated by it,” USA Today said. “We were just like, well, this place is crazy. Honestly, we didn't think it was that controversial. We are not the first people to make a movie about North Korea. I would never have predicted that ours would be the one to draw this reaction on the grand scale of things. It's (expletive) crazy in all honesty. It's (expletive) weird. It's insane."
Still, fascinated or not, Rogen also told USA Today that they didn’t “want to villainize someone” who wasn’t bad.
“First we wrote the movie. It was originally Kim Jong Il. Then he died. There was a moment where we waited. We wanted to see if (his son and successor) Kim Jong-un was also bad,” Rogen told the newspaper. “Then he was and we wrote him into the movie.”
TMZ reported Rogen was at Sony Thursday morning but that “he feels betrayed” by the studio.
The entertainment site talked with Rob Lowe, also in “The Interview,” who said he and Rogen were on the same page and indicated it was cowardly to pull the movie.
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