Seth Rogen reveals the scene that made Anne Hathaway quit ‘Knocked Up’: “She felt that it was not her brand”
Seth Rogen has discussed the gruesome scene that led to Anne Hathaway quitting Knocked Up.
The Judd Apatow comedy starred Rogen alongside Katherine Heigl, but initially Hathaway was lined up for the female lead role before suffering a change of heart before filming began.
Now, in a new episode of The A24 Podcast, Rogen’s co-star in the new movie The Invite, Olivia Wilde, probed him on the subject after revealing she failed an audition for Knocked Up.
Wilde asked whether it was true that Hathaway quit the film “because of the crowning right?,” in relation to the movie’s graphic birth scene.
In response, Rogen confirmed, “Yeah, I mean it could have been a hundred million things. That was what I remember being told.”
He added of the specific scene, “Crowning is a tough one. She didn’t want the crowning of the baby to be visually representative. Even though it wasn’t going to be her, it’s obviously not real.”
Rogen also stated that Hathaway “felt that it was not her brand,” before adding, “Part of me also, we had started rehearsing the movie… maybe she was just like, ‘I don’t know if this is for me.’ I don’t know. I will take what she said at face value, which was the crowning.”
“She had a sense, and she knew it was not for her,” he conceded, and noted that the Oscar-winner “has been right about a lot more things than I have over the years”.
On the other hand, Rogen said Heigl “knew what was right for her,” and praised her performance as “great”.
Hathaway previously gave her perspective in 2012, stating to Allure, “My issue with it was that having not experienced motherhood myself, I didn’t know how I was gonna feel on the other side about giving birth.”
Knocked Up was a huge success, which also led to the subsequent spin-off, This is 40, which focused on Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann’s characters.
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