Seth Rogen was almost part of the infamous “Gigli” box office disaster. “The Studio” star and co-creator said during “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” (in the below video) that he auditioned for the 2003 film. The character Rogen read for had a “cognitive disability” and was later played by “The Hangover” actor Justin Bartha.
Now, Rogen is saying that if the audition tape ever leaks, his career could be over. “It has been a long time,” Rogen said. “And thank God it was mostly physical VHS tapes and stuff like that that was being used when I was auditioning for things, because the things I auditioned for, in retrospect, if they were out there in the world, they would end my career very, very fast, I believe. […] Truthfully, if that tape was out [in] the world today, this would be the last interview you ever saw me do. Other than, like, my apology tour. Please, if you have it, burn it. Please sell it to me. I will buy it.”
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At the time, “Freaks and Geeks” alum Rogen believed the “Gigli” role could be Oscar-worthy, and he gave it his all for the audition. “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. […] I don’t think I wore a helmet in to the audition itself, but it was at play,” Rogen said. “And I’m tempted to do an impression of what I did, but I can’t even do it. I can’t. 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.”
“Gigli” was led by Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. Martin Brest directed. Affleck starred as the title character Larry Gigli who is tasked with kidnapping the brother (Bartha) of a district attorney. The feature made only $7 million off a production budget of $75 million.
Affleck later reflected on the film, telling Entertainment Weekly in 2022 that it was a “perfect storm” of a disaster, yet one that in part led to him directing instead. “It engendered a lot of negative feelings in people about me,” Affleck said. “There’s that aspect of people that I got to see that was sad and hard, it was depressing and really made me question things and feel disappointed and have a lot of self-doubt. But if 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. 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.”
