Seth Rogen has been a fixture in our pop culture world for decades, from cult-classic fare like Pineapple Express and Sausage Party to producing unconventional comic book adaptations like The Boys and Preacher. This past weekend, his filmography went into new territory with An American Pickle, which debuted on HBO Max. The film sees Rogen playing two roles — Herschel Greenbaum, an Eastern European immigrant who wakes up in 2020 after accidentally being pickled for 100 years, and Ben Greenbaum, his great-grandson. While Rogen is far from the first actor to play opposite himself, it sounds like he was pretty fond of the experience. In a recent interview with Yahoo! Entertainment, Rogen joked that he prefers working with himself more than other actors.
“I liked working with myself a lot more than I like working with most other actors, I can definitely say,” Rogen revealed. “I’m much more low maintenance. I’m a lot more punctual. I’m rarely on set waiting for myself to show up or emerge from my trailer or finish up a call with my manager or agent. I actually enjoy it.
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“Other actors stress me out, to be totally honest,” Rogen continued. “And I get nervous around other actors a lot of the time. So removing that I think was actually quite a pleasure.”
As Rogen revealed, the dual roles posed an interesting challenge when it came to production, particularly with regards to facial hair. As a result, the movie was essentially shot twice over — once with Herschel, and once with Ben.
“I didn’t want to wear a fake beard for the movie, because I think they look bad, and as an actor they’re very restrictive,” Rogan explained. “So I grew a big gigantic beard and we shot the entire movie as Herschel, and then I shaved and we went back and shot it again as Ben, basically.”
You can check out the synopsis for An American Pickle below!
“The film, directed by Brandon Trost, is based on Simon Rich’s New Yorker novella and stars Seth Rogen as Herschel Greenbaum, a struggling laborer who immigrates to America in 1920 with dreams of building a better life for his beloved family. One day, while working at his factory job, he falls into a vat of pickles and is brined for 100 years. The brine preserves him perfectly and when he emerges in present day Brooklyn, he finds that he hasn’t aged a day. But when he seeks out his family, he is troubled to learn that his only surviving relative is his great grandson, Ben Greenbaum (also played by Rogen), a mild-mannered computer coder whom Herschel can’t even begin to understand.”
An American Pickle is now available to stream on HBO Max.
