This Is the End cowriter and codirector Evan Goldberg has actually been there from the very beginning.

The childhood best friend of Seth Rogen remains his closest collaborator in adulthood, having teamed to pen the screenplays for Superbad, Pineapple Express and The Green Hornet. They step behind the camera for their latest project, which plays off a bunch of celebrity friends playing themselves when a wild Hollywood bash at James Franco’s home suddenly becomes the prelude for a world-shattering apocalyptic event.

Just in case the end really is nigh, Goldberg shares what it's really like to party with these guys; what classic sitcom character Franco resembles when he's dancing; and the time he, Rogen and the real-life McLovin nearly torched not a joint but an actual building.

Fandango: How easy or hard was it to push that meta concept – your stars playing versions of themselves – past all the actors, and then the studio?

Evan Goldberg: Every idea that we have is some weird meta thing. Like The Green Hornet, even, arguably is like a meta mockery of superhero movies. Jonah [Hill] said to me, "If I wasn't playing myself, I wouldn't be in this movie." Maybe they would have done the movie if it was just a fun apocalypse movie, but what's the golden element to that? Halfway through, Jay [Baruchel] was walking past me and I was like, "That scene was crazy, eh?" And he's like, "This is like f***ing free therapy!"

None of it's real – all of it's fake. There are elements of reality: Seth and Jay and Craig [Robinson] are kind of like themselves a little; Franco's playing heavily off of his public persona; Jonah did something absolutely nothing like his persona to totally surprise people; and Danny [McBride] took his persona to Jupiter.

Fandango: What are the parties with those guys really like?  

Goldberg: We've all mostly known each other for a long time, but nothing's changed from how it was to how it is, in the sense that I've never been to Franco's house, and I probably never will (I don't think he owns a house, I think he just owns an airplane and flies around all day). Because before he was famous, he considered himself an artist who also has this good acting career. He loves that art sh*t, he did way before anyone knew who he was, so he's always been kind of a homebody who likes art and doesn't get messed up. He doesn't smoke pot. The most I've ever partied with him was at David Krumholtz's wedding. He dances like Elaine [from Seinfeld] is like what I discovered. He's not perfect. You think he's perfect: he's handsome. He's talented. He's smart. He's kind. But he can't dance that well! They're just dudes, partying. The only difference is if there is a piano, Craig makes the party incredible.

Fandango: Yeah, I've seen it firsthand…

Goldberg: He's made of magic. He's like a human party in a box. And making the movie kind of kept the feeling of partying with your friends alive. Seth had this pioneering idea to create an actor's lounge because he was like, "The actors spend so much time going back and forth from the trailer," and then they're like, "Craig, come to set. Has Jonah come to set? Franco, come to set." Then we came up with the idea to give them each something: We got Craig a pool table. We got Jonah a super comfortable chair with his five favorite magazine subscriptions. We got Jay video games and a television. We gave Franco a little painting area for him to hang out on his own, and Danny didn't ask for anything. And we just kind of created an environment that kept the fun vibe.

Fandango: This movie is like a hybrid of the old-school Rat Pack films or movies with Burt Reynolds' gang of friends, but it's not just you guys having a good time. Did you focus on telling the story, first and foremost?

Goldberg: [Seth and I] don't write movies that aren't extremely plot driven. They have a purpose and a place and a goal. We need that goal. In Pineapple Express we needed the friends to save each other. And Superbad was a similar thing, and Green Hornet. We try to structure it into a proper story with a start, middle and end just because we're story nuts.

Fandango: How much nerding out did you do over apocalyptic films?  

Goldberg: We tried to light the movie like Apocalypse Now. That was our reference. Tthat movie's about five guys or six guys stuck on a boat in an equally crazy scenario – I would say that's no less crazy than the end of the world. Maybe I'm going to look silly saying this, but Tremors is one of our favorite films of all time. I think it's so genius. Only Ghostbusters can compete for normal people reacting normally to the most f***ed up situation ever. Of course The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby, and we even watched End of Days with Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Constantine. We were like "We've got to see it all!" We watched every kind of apocalyptic thing we could.

Fandango: Was Ghostbusters another goalpost for you?

Goldberg: The weird thing is we definitely discussed Ghostbusters a bunch because it's one of the greatest comedies ever, and it's very similar to this, with guys reacting normally to impossible situations. But only in hindsight thanks to guys like you have we realized that subconsciously, there's a lot more Ghostbusters in there than I imagined. We sell comedy, so we're not advertising the horror too much, but I think it's great because when that first thing jumps through the window, people scream, and it makes us so happy because that's nothing we've gotten before. Initially, the moment when Craig's outside and running and things are on fire, we have this whole thing where he's like "Please don't kill me. I play Darryl. I'm in The Office. I'll act for you, I'll perform – whatever you want." And people didn't laugh. We realized that we've got to play the scary moments for scary.

Fandango: What was the degree of difficulty landing noncomedians Emma Watson and Rihanna?

Goldberg: Seth had read in some magazine that two of Rihanna’s favorite movies were Superbad and Pineapple Express, so that gave us the courage to call her, and we asked, "Do you want to do the movie? You'll die. It won't be a lot of work. It will be a lot of fun. We'll do some improv scenes with you." And she was just like, "Yeah man, chill – I'll be there." With Emma, we said "It would just be so awesome if she was in the movie. She doesn't know us. There's no reason she would do it, but let's just give it a shot."

Fandango: What's the most scary or strange or paranoia-inducing real-life situation that you and Seth have actually been in?

Goldberg: Me, Seth and Sammy Fogel, who is the guy we based McLovin on, were a trio in high school, and then Seth went to make Freaks and Geeks and me and Fogel went to McGill University. It was spring break in Canada – we went out and partied all night long, just got super drunk, because Seth had $21,000, which to us was $40 billion, so we went and bought a bunch of liquor.

I sweat like an animal, so I always leave fans on, and one of my fans burst into flames and started spitting fire across my room. I woke up and the covers were completely on fire. There was a hanging hammock, and the flames were like licking it. I started screaming, "Seth! Sammy! Seth! Sammy!" Sammy slept through most of it because he's a prick, and Seth ran over to help me. Throughout this whole thing, I'm completely naked.

So then Seth runs to get water. And he passes me the Brita, and we're drunk, and the Brita's empty. So then we get cups and fill them with water, and then we remember there's like, numerous fire extinguishers. Meanwhile the whole building's about to go up in flames and I'm totally naked, he's in his underwear, and then Fogel comes out in a bathrobe, like "What's going on?"

We managed to blast out the fire. And I was so shocked that, like, naked, I took all this stuff outside to the garbage, and I was like,"'Oh, wait – I'm still naked."  

Fandango: Was there a character, like maybe Jay, that was actually a surrogate for you?  

Goldberg: No. Jay and I are both rah-rah Canadians, but no, no. The big screen can't hold me.

 

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