Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Rogen, Faris, Hill at Aero Sneak Preview Screening of OBSERVE AND REPORT

The conversation about the Sneak Preview screening of OBSERVE AND REPORT quickly turned to the trend for male frontal nudity in cinema, little dicks being funnier than big dicks and a lot of balls with Seth Rogen, Anna Faris and director Jody Hill. How did you get this film made was the question of the evening. Director Jody Hill attributes it to Seth Rogen. Seth explained that they went to Warner Bros. revealing straight away that there would be "Ten minutes of balls towards the end." What WB saw in the script is what they got. Rogen went on to add that "we told them, it won't get any softer. When asked what he did to prepare for the role of Ronny, Rogen said, "Nothing, its really disappointing. I don't know what's in Ronny's wallet." Hill says he wrote the part for Rogen. It takes guts to show your dick everyone agreed, but Rogen pointed out that it is even more perverse to show a little dick, than a big dick and he believes that is funnier. He thinks perhaps they got away with it with the studio because "The Dick is so little, its less offensive." The other revelation of the evening? Rogen surmised that "Balls are just like little breasts anyway." Faris stated that female nudity doesn't seem to be so funny anymore and this explains why she kept her bra on during the "lovemaking" scenes. That and in her mind, her character had a nipple mutation to which Rogen added, "She didn't have any nipples."
Hill and Rogen agree that nothing was really cut out due to censorship and nothing great was lost to the cutting room floor. "There is no big scene where I fight dinosaurs," said Rogen. "But it would have been cool if there were."

Faris related that a lot of what you do as an actor "is attempt to win over the audience" so playing a completely unsympathetic character was very different. She recalled meeting "with these guys to convince them I could be a slutty whore."
In discussing the intensity of the material (penial sight gags), director Hill said, "I lied a lot" when the cast recalled that he was constantly saying, "This will never make it in the film." And who was that guy who played the pervert and got to reveal his private parts for an extended period of time? "Randy is a friend from college," Hill explained. "He said he wanted to do the film and I told him he should think about it." Randy took on the role and finally called his parents after the premiere to warn them about it.

For Hill, his foray into bigger budget filmmaking was so different from THE FOOT FIST WAY, he would say to Rogen, "Aren't those lights down the road going to mess up the shot?" and Rogen would reply, "Those are our lights."

Anna opted for a smart pair of black patent leather sandals with a very high heel (5-6 inches) and black short shorts, while the men went with New Balance, t-shirts and sweatshirts. More coverage to follow. Here are some early photos for now.