Seth Rogen on the emotional filming process of Steven Spielberg’s ‘The Fabelmans’
Beloved American filmmaker Steven Spielberg has recently screened his latest work, The Fabelmans, at the TCL Chinese Theatre. The movie is characterised as a semi-autobiographical and semi-fictionalised recounting of his past, and it shares his passionate journey of becoming a filmmaker and the familial bonds that supported him.
The cast includes Paul Dano and Michelle Williams as the caricatures of Spielberg’s parents and Gabriel LaBelle playing the fictionalised version of the director. In the film, Seth Rogen plays a close friend of the family, and the actor jokes that he was concerned Spielberg was contacting him to yell at him for “some joke I’d made” when he first called. When it became clear the call was for a part, Rogen said it was “very surreal”.
The actor elaborates on this experience: “I have friends who have worked with Steven Spielberg, and it’s been surreal for everyone I know,” he said. Rogen then references the director’s upcoming project and how it’s so different, stating: “The added layer of it being such a deeply personal film, it was something that was not lost on anybody”.
Rogen also shares the filming experience with his co-stars. He discusses how “there was a point that I went up to Michelle and was like, ‘You’ve worked with Scorsese, does this seem different than that?’ And she’s like, ‘Oh this is way different. This is a singular experience'”.
Detailing further, Rogen states: “I was glad she verified my feeling that that’s what was happening.”
For the story, Spielberg delved deeply into his past, and Rogen confirmed that every day of production was emotional. “He would cry a lot, openly,” he shares about Spielberg tenderly. Rogen specifies how “we’d show up on set, and he would just see a certain piece of wardrobe or a certain piece of set dec[oration] or everyone coming together to recreate a certain thing”, which resulted in the director’s touching emotional responses.
“I saw him cry dozens of times throughout filming the movie, which was actually very beautiful,” the actor shares, “And I think made everyone want to really honour what he was doing. You saw how much it meant to him and how truthful he was being.”
The Fablemans is scheduled to be released on January 27th, 2023.
Never Miss A Scene
The Far Out Film Newsletter
All the latest film news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.