"We Just Excused Ourselves": Seth Rogen Details His Butchered '8 Mile' Audition

In his new memoir, Seth Rogen recalls an 8 Mile audition gone terribly wrong.

It's hard to imagine a time when Seth Rogen wasn't landing gigs in Hollywood. But long before the comedian was a household name, he was scrapping for roles on the audition circuit. Some of these presumably went well. However, one that absolutely did not work out was his audition for the role of Cheddar Bob in the 2002 blockbuster, 8 Mile. 

Detailed in his new memoir, Yearbook, the audition seemed doomed from the start when Rogen asked friend and collaborator, Jason Segel, to be his scene partner. We asked our agents if our auditions could be scheduled one right after the other, so that one of us could audition for Cheddar, with the other reading the Rabbit part, and then we’d switch," Rogen explains. But it was arguably the duo's familiarity that did them in. Rogen read first for the role, but couldn't take the script seriously and erupted into laughter. "I started laughing hysterically. And so did Jason. We literally couldn’t make it through the auditions. As soon as one of us started the scene, the other would lose it," the comedian recalls before admitting "we just excused ourselves."

Obviously, neither of them landed the role as B Rabbit's sidekick. And while the film went on to put up numbers at the box, Rogen and Segel hit their stride not too long after that. Rogen went on to star in some of the biggest comedies of the decade, including The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Super Bad, Knocked Up, and Pineapple Express.

Alongside his new memoir, Rogen recently brought his cannabis company, Houseplant, south of the Canadian border. Launched in 2019, the company offers a range of flower and smoking accessories designed by Rogen himself.

Pick up a copy of Seth Rogen's Yearbookand comb through the full selection of Houseplant products.