Seth Rogen Shares Creative Tips and Inspiration

If you don't quit, you might make it. And if you quit, you definitely won't. And, and honestly, I think after all the years I've seen people make it and not make it the only common denominator is, is that anytime we're making a thing that I know I would be psyched if I saw it or got it, saw it was out in the world. I get excited, like, and, and that's kind of it. Like, if I'm making a movie and I'm like, I would love this, I would see this movie and be like, this is ******* great. Whoever made this movie, like, ****, they went for it. They did it. I'd be jealous. I didn't make this movie. That's what I know. I'm doing something good. That's why we wrote super bad. We were like, let's write our favorite movie. Let's write the movie that we want to see and no one else is making. And it was the same thing with pineapple express. This is the end. And the boys was a comic book. We loved, we were like, let's make this. No one else is going to *******, let's make this into something, you know? Um, it's the same thing with everything that we've done for the most part, which is like, let's make the thing we want more than any, why not make the thing that you think other people will want? Cause who the **** knows what other people want? It's never been that hard for me to convince myself to like, take the leap and do the thing that is maybe crazy and do the thing that is a big swing and, and, and to put myself out there. And I think that's also what's good, I guess, about being rejected enough times is you kind of like, you see, like it sucks, but you can survive it. And so it's ultimately worth trying to do it again, you know? And, and, and it, even the worst case scenario is survivable. If you just keep going from a creative standpoint, you know what I mean? If anything, my biggest fear is to make a thing that's like ******* boring or not taking a big swing, or it doesn't seem like it's trying to. Push things forward or like, it's just like happy to relax. And, you know, like, I think like the fact that we get to make anything, movies, TV shows, it's like, there are so many people who are trying to do it and we get to do it. So like we, we should ******* go for it. I find a lot of writers want to talk about like, to me, I'm like, just write it. Let's just write it. Let's just see how it looks. Let's just try it. Just write it down. Like, and I think a lot of people are precious with writing and a lot of people, you know, it's like a big, they kind of like, they, they try to like, it's very like sanctimonious or something like that, you know, but I, I try to like really just write different versions of things. Share. I share a lot of early versions of things with like a group of people that I trust. I'm sending rough versions of things to people. I'll rewrite it instantly. I'll do a hundred drafts of something, you know? I'm really not precious with that. You know, I enjoy writing and I've been doing it since I've been writing like, you know, screenplays since I was 12 years old, you know, I'm 40. So it's like, it's so much a part of who I am that like, I do it all the time. If I have, I'm generally working on a few things. If I'm making up a coffee and have five minutes, like I'll, I'll write for a few minutes, like, uh, you know, I, I, I genuinely enjoy it. I think all creative people and people who have creative pursuits in their life have self-doubt. Like it's impossible to put yourself out there. I think from my experience and from meeting all the creative people I've met in my life from people who, you know, it's their first day on set, you know, and, and they have one line to Steven Spielberg, they all have self doubt. They're all worried. People won't like what they're doing. That people are going to think it's stupid, that they're going to think they're stupid for wanting to do it, that they're going to just reject it. And, and, and by proxy reject them, honestly, being nice, being the type of person people want to be around that people like that people that comes down to it, want to help instead of not help, that is very good. Like I've seen that just if people don't like being around you, then, then, then you will fail because you need other people to help you succeed. You know, um, working hard is like something you can control in a very uncontrollable world I find. And like, um, you know, it's funny. I was meeting with someone recently who like ascended very high in Hollywood. And she was like, I always fetishized hard work. Like, to me, that was like, like, like if you weren't working hard, I like had no regard for you basically. And like, and to me that was like, and, and that's a good reminder of like, those are the people you're up against. And that was something that I always knew from a young age was like, I, I don't consider myself a competitive person, but I knew succeeding in Hollywood was inherently a competitive pursuit. There's only so many jobs and there's way more motherfuckers trying to get their job, those jobs, then there are jobs available. So by the nature of that, I was competing with people for these jobs. And I knew I had to be able to look at myself and be like, am I at least working harder than everyone else who was competing for this job? I might not be better than them or smarter than them or have as many connections with them or be as good looking as them or any of these things. But I can at least work harder than that, you know? Um, and that to me was something that was like controllable and I've never seen someone regret the amount of hard work they put into their pursuits. And so, you know, that, that is something that will help you succeed, especially Hollywood, it's not a fair industry. It is not fair. Who makes it the best people don't make, you know, it's very luck oriented. It's very connections oriented.