Seth Rogen has reflected on his Gigli audition, in which he was to play a “boy with a cognitive disability."
Speaking on a recent episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Rogen was asked about the last time he auditioned for a part. Admitting that it had been a while, he then opened up about his experience auditioning for the 2003 film.
"The things I auditioned for, in retrospect, if they were out there in the world, they would end my career very, very fast," joked Rogen. "There’s a movie called Gigli that stars Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez and, in their film, they are assassins sent to watch over a boy with, and this was not the (correct) words at the time, a cognitive disability."
"So, I, as an aspiring young actor, auditioned for this boy with a cognitive disability, and I don’t think the script was written in, what by today’s standards, would be the most sensitive portrayal," Rogen continued. "I also, as a young actor, didn't get a lot of auditions, so I wanted to leave an impression. I don’t think I wore a helmet into the audition.”
Rogen explained how potentially offensive the audition was by refusing to show it to the audience. "I’m tempted to do an impression of what I did and I can’t even do it," he said. "That’s how bad it was. Truthfully, if that tape was out today, this would be the last video you see of me today — outside of my apology tour.”
Elsewhere in this conversation with Kimmel, Rogen spoke at length about his hit Apple TV show, The Studio. Aside from saying he’d love to have Vin Diesel on the show, Rogen explained the inspiration behind one of Season One’s biggest moments when Griffin Mill (played by Bryan Cranston) had a mushroom-fueled trip in a Vegas gondola.
"I was at a Bachelor's party at the Venetian, and one of my friends did too many mushrooms," Rogen explained. "We were wandering around late at night and we were talking to people. I look away and then I look back and the next thing I know, he’s in one of the gondolas and he’s floating away."