Seth Rogen has revealed why Emma Watson walked off the set of This Is the End back in 2013. The apocalyptic comedy was written by Rogen and Evan Goldberg, and it also served as their directorial debuts. In addition to Rogen, the movie stars James Franco, Craig Robinson, Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill, Danny McBride, and several other celebrities with a story centered on fictionalized versions of its cast in the wake of a global biblical apocalypse. It was a worldwide hit at the box office, earning over $126 million globally.
While Emma Watson appeared in This Is the End, and received rave reviews from critics, she was not comfortable with one scene involving cannibalism, so she walked off the set. The scene that caused the reaction is one where actor Danny McBride holds a leash that has Channing Tatum on the other end as his gimp. He commands Tatum to say hello to their new friends. The part Watson was not comfortable with was that McBride and Tatum were cannibals.
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Updated May 2023: If were looking for more information on Emma Watson and her appearance in This Is the End, you’re in luck. This article has been updated with additional content by Katie Downey.
Seth Rogen Has No Hard Feelings
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Seth Rogen confirmed the story in an interview with British GQ but did not go into details as to why the Harry Potter actress decided to leave. “I mean, I don’t look back on that and think, ‘How dare she do that?’ You know,” Rogen says, “I think sometimes when you read something when it comes to life, it doesn’t seem to be what you thought it was.”
Clearly, Watson was not feeling the whole cannibalistic hilarity vibe that the crew was trying to throw out there. It is disturbing, but everything that Rogen does isn’t at least a little disturbing. It’s tough to say if this was the most disturbing scene from the outrageous and sometimes vile comedy.
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While Emma Watson did walk off the set, she came back the following day to make sure everything was cool with the cast and crew. “It was not some terrible ending to our relationship. She came back the next day to say goodbye. She helped promote the film. No hard feelings, and I couldn’t be happier with how the film turned out in the end,” the actor continued to British GQ.
This Is the End turned out for the better, according to Rogen. “She was probably right. It was probably funnier the way we ended up doing it.” The cannibalistic cameo and ending were actually scrapped, and another scene involving the McBride and Tatum combo was created, which Rogan remarked that it was more tasteful in the end anyway.
This Is the End Was a Very Different Shoot From Harry Potter
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Back in 2013, Seth Rogen and the rest of the This Is the End cast and crew were shocked that they were able to get so many people involved in the raunchy comedy. “Pretty much everyone we went for did it, unless there was a scheduling problem,” he told GQ at the time. “We got people to do sh*t in this movie I can’t f***ing believe they did. It’s truly shocking.”
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He had this to say about getting Emma Watson on board. He was equally shocked to have landed Tatum as the gimp in McBride’s cameo. It certainly added some sprinkles of extra obscure and weird to the movie and brought many fans to tears of laughter.
“You know, as handsome as James Franco is, you want to look at someone else eventually. So we thought it could be funny to throw in a random person that we’re not that comfortable with, and Emma [Watson] just seemed to fit the bill. It was a long shot. I did not think she would do it, but she did, and she’s f***ing hilarious.”
James Franco said that Seth Rogen was the one who was able to get Emma Watson into their brand of comedy. “Seth was really good about making her feel comfortable,” Franco said in the interview “But I did get the sense that she’d never done a movie like this before. I mean, she really went for it, but I could see that it was like, ‘Oh, this is not how they shot Harry Potter.'”
This Is the End is lightyears away from the realm of Harry Potter, but Watson was able to pull off the role, just as long as it didn’t have anything to do with cannibalism.
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