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Early in Seth Rogen’s career, he auditioned for a role in a film that he thought could change everything for him. When Rogen auditioned, he thought he’d done so well that he could win an Oscar. Looking back, he thinks the audition tape could end his career. The film nearly ended the career of one of its stars, Ben Affleck.
Seth Rogen said he thought he could have won an Oscar for his role in a Ben Affleck film
In the earliest years of Rogen’s career, he auditioned for a role in the 2003 film Gigli. Affleck and Jennifer Lopez starred in the film. Rogen auditioned for the role of Brian, which eventually went to Justin Bartha. He felt proud of his audition at the time but, looking back, he can’t help but cringe.
“I don’t think the script was written in what, by today’s standards, would be the most sensitive portrayal of a boy with a cognitive disability…” Rogen said on Jimmy Kimmel Live, adding, “I don’t think I wore a helmet in to the audition itself, but it was at play.”
He believed the performance he gave would appall people today. At the time, though, he thought it could win him awards.
“And I’m tempted to do an impression of what I did, but I can’t even do it. I can’t,” he said. “That’s how bad it was. It’s so bad. I dare not even portray what I did in this audition. Because I went for it. I saw myself at the Oscars.”
He told anyone who had copies of the tape to burn them.
“Truthfully, if that tape was out [in] the world today, this would be the last interview you ever saw me do,” he said. “Other than, like, my apology tour. Please, if you have it, burn it. Please sell it to me. I will buy it.”
Ben Affleck wasn’t as optimistic about the film as Seth Rogen
Even if Rogen gave the performance of a lifetime, he likely wouldn’t have won any awards for the film. It did terribly with critics and audiences alike. Affleck said he realized there were significant problems with the movie as he was making it.
“[Gigli] didn’t work and we did five weeks of reshoots, which we knew were not gonna work,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “It was a movie that didn’t work….”
Affleck and Lopez began dating after meeting on the set of the film. The coverage of their relationship and the film at the same time felt catastrophic to Affleck.
“It’s just that it became a story in and of itself,” he said. “The funny name, the Jennifer Lopez romance and overexposure of that, it was kind of a perfect storm. And I remember talking to Marty the Friday it came out and I was like it’s just spectacular, it’s a tsunami, it couldn’t be worse. This is as bad as it gets.”
Ben Affleck said ‘Gigli’ changed the course of his career
Affleck said that Gigli wasn’t all bad, though. The intensely negative reaction forced him to pivot to directing, which he has found very fulfilling. He also met Lopez, who became an important figure in his life.
“[I]f the reaction to Gigli hadn’t happened, I probably wouldn’t have ultimately decided, ‘I don’t really have any other avenue but to direct movies,’ which has turned out to be the real love of my professional life,” he said. “So in those ways, it’s a gift. And I did get to meet Jennifer, the relationship with whom has been really meaningful to me in my life.”
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