Superbad, released in 2007, stars Jonah Hill and Michael Cera as high school friends Seth and Evan, who set out to impress their respective crushes by supplying them with alcohol for a party. They do so in the hope that they’ll be able to lose their virginities before graduation, but things end up going poorly for them every step of the way. Co-written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the film’s idea was conceived when they were in tenth grade. The initial screenplay eventually reached Judd Apatow, who went on to produce it, but not before significant changes were made.
For one thing, Rogen originally planned to play Hill’s role, but was too old to pass for a teenager by the time the movie was made. The Sony Pictures executives also had very specific notes about the Seth character using one of their products on-screen. While appearing on the red carpet for the premiere of his Apple TV+ series The Studio at SXSW last year, Rogen told Rotten Tomatoes that Sony found Hill’s character so “reprehensible” that a scene in which he was supposed to be shown playing a PlayStation 2 game had to be rewritten.
According to Rogen, the studio made it very clear to him that Hill wasn’t allowed to touch a PlayStation console at any point in the movie. To clarify, they said that they couldn’t have him interact with one of their products because of how “vile” his character was. “It’s based on me, that’s very insulting,” Rogen jokingly told them in response. But at the end of the day, they complied with the studio’s wishes, and only Cera’s character was seen playing a video game in the final version of the film.
In one draft of the script written just before shooting began in 2006, Evan is said to be playing a Grand Theft Auto game while Seth tries on clothes at his house. Frustrated that he can’t find the dirt bike he’s looking for in the game, he says, “Ah, screw it, I’m just gonna kill everyone.” Clearly, whatever Seth’s involvement was supposed to be with that was already changed by then. However, some things would still be altered prior to the film’s release. The video game Evan plays in the actual scene is 2004’s The Getaway: Black Monday, which he spends a lot more time talking about. Most notably, Hill’s character is very dismissive of what Evan’s playing, responding to his game commentary by saying, “Oh, really? Cuz, yeah, that’s what we should be talking about right now.”
The post Why Sony Wouldn’t Allow Jonah Hill to Use a PlayStation in ‘Superbad’ appeared first on VICE.
