Seth Rogen isn’t fond of the MPAA ratings system.
On Saturday, June 21, the 32-year-old actor and producer made an appearance at the Produced By conference where he shared his perspective of the movie rating system. Needless to say, he isn’t too impressed.
According to Hollywood Reporter, he deemed the system “weird” and “stupid.” The famed Pineapple Express star feels the ratings’ system “is so stupid; why play that game?” Rogen asked. “Why even enter a system that stupid?”
“There’s nothing more frustrating than being on set and coming up with a joke and being told you can’t do it because it’s a PG movie,” added Rogen. “It’s like boxing with your hands tied behind your back … because of some weird ratings structure.” “It’s just devastating,” he said.
Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and producing partner James Weaver went on to discuss the production of the 2011 superhero action-comedy film, The Green Hornet.
Despite garnering more than an estimated $227,817,248 at the Box Office, the three agreed that the Blockbuster film was the most “frustrating” to make. “We learned not to make $200 million movies,” said Rogen, who executive produced and starred in the film. “It’s not fun.”
Goldberg went on to explain the positive aspects and benefits of focusing on the production of R-Rated films. He and Rogen both agreed they’d much prefer acting in R-Rated films centered around raunchy crude humor, as opposed to dealing with the boundaries of PG-13 films.
“Once it’s R-rated, you can pretty much do anything you want except penetration,” the Knocked Up star explained. “Once it’s R-rated, you’re pretty much left alone contract-wise,” he quipped.
However, the ratings system is the only factor that contributes to limitation in production. Rogen also revealed a number of production barriers they faced while producing their most recent release, Neighbors.
“Instead, we literally cut the budget in half [to $18 million] and made the movie we wanted to make,” said Rogen, adding: “At least we didn’t make a movie we hate and had to work on for a year and a half.”
A sequel for the film is currently being discussed. However, no plans have been finalized as of yet.
Image via Seth Rogen, Facebook