Seth Rogen reveals he once auditioned for Eminem's '8 Mile'
Seth Rogen has spoken about the time he auditioned for Eminem‘s 8 Mile, and how it didn’t go so well because he struggled to execute his lines.
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In a chapter from his upcoming book Yearbook, the actor and producer revealed that he auditioned for the role of Cheddar Bob, the friend of Eminem’s Rabbit character who infamously shoots himself in the leg with his own gun during a scuffle.
Rogen auditioned twice for the film after his first attempt proved unsuccessful due to the casting director not liking the “rappery” dialogue. He was asked to come back and bring someone to do the audition with him. That friend was Jason Segel, who was also auditioning to play Cheddar Bob.
“We asked our agents if our auditions could be scheduled one right after the other, so that one of us could audition for Cheddar, with the other reading the Rabbit part, and then we’d switch,” Rogen told Insider. “We had a sleepover at my apartment the night before the auditions so we could rehearse and then carpooled to the audition together.”
Rogen read for Cheddar first, then Segel. However, Rogen couldn’t stop breaking character and laughing at the delivery of the lines.
“Yo, yo, muthafucka! It’s Chedda! What up, bitch!” Segel said, delivering Rabbit’s lines off-screen. Rogen, responding as Cheddar said: “Yo, yo, Rabbit! You gotta record your shit at Paisley Park, yo!”
“I started laughing hysterically,” Rogen added. “And so did Jason. We literally couldn’t make it through the auditions. As soon as one of us started the scene, the other would lose it…It was so silly, we couldn’t finish. We just excused ourselves and saw ourselves out, tears streaming down our faces.”
In the end, the role of Cheddar Bob went to Evan Jones. Rogen and Eminem would later end up crossing paths with one another in the 2009 film Funny People.
Earlier this week, Seth Rogen shared a photo from the set of Pam & Tommy without his signature beard.
The actor, who is starring in the upcoming Hulu series about Pamela Anderson’s marriage to musician Tommy Lee and the leak of their sex tape, shared the new image on Instagram.
Meanwhile, Eminem has made $1.78million (£1.3million) from his first collection of ‘Shady Con’ non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
The rapper sold the first line of the digital collection on the online marketplace Nifty Gateway last month (April 24-25).
The collection included digital action figures based on characters in some of Eminem’s best-known music videos, original instrumental beats created by the star and more.