Seth Rogen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, & Anthony Mackie Open Awkward Holiday Gifts & Talk 'The Night Before'

I'm Oliver here at the Young Hollywood Studio with Anthony Mackey, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Seth Rogan. How are you?

I'm good. How are you?

I'm great. It's, it's Christmas at our studio today.

Christmas? We got elves!

I know, everything. What what more could we want?

Nothing.

What more could we want?

Cookies!

And we've got cookies. One more thing that we brought for you is that we got Hannah Carl elf. She's got some gifts for you. Hannah. Hannah Carl. Come on. Hannah Carl. You can tell I'm British. I thought it was Hanna. I thought it was Hanna Carl. She's huge in Antarctica. Come in, Hanna. On behalf of Young Hollywood, we felt like we had to come bearing gifts because it's holiday season, right? We got the night before. There's vouchers for a car in there. There's a car. I think there's a car. There's not a car. There's no car. We got those two dogs. I'm not giving the dog away. So we're gonna start with this is Anthony. This is for you. Mine looks really big. So why not have Anthony open the gift first because

Do I open it?

Yeah, you gotta open everything inside. Bring it, bring it out, pull it out. Bring it all out. I haven't seen what's in them so I don't know either.

Oh, it's a Christmas squid. Is it a Santa pasta hat? Oh, I don't know what that is.

Well, because when you see the film you'll see how much he's trying to get.

Oh, this is good. This is good. I like it. I think that was very relevant to the movie as well. Now you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to take a sharpie and make him brown. That's how I roll. You know me so well. It would be like the new Christmas tradition.

I don't know if we're really replacing this with another tradition.

That's a joke. Give me some credit. Obviously that was a joke. I'm totally cool. He's working definitely.

Gentlemen. I got the sweater. This one's for you. This one's for you. Nice. Let's do this. I think one of them's just gonna let go. I think the dogs farted. This is your gift. What did I get? I got two reindeer.

Well you gotta look at each other. They are? I didn't look carefully enough. They totally are. You have to pay attention to that.

It's my favorite position. Give me some of that reindeer girl.

What is a selfie elfie? A selfie elfie. In the night before you do a really good elfie. I'm calling it elfie now. Elfie. The elf face. You elfie pretty well.

Elf facial hair. I didn't know elves had facial hair specifically.

You know you can put these on. You can put this on if you want. Hold on. They're meant to be worn. Hold on now. I've got mine on now. It looks good. I think it's sticky.

No you rip the bottom one off. This is we can edit all this part out, right? Make it look good.

This is for you. So Seth gets all the goodies. I got nothing. I got nothing. You got? Now I got nothing. He's with my dogs. They're cards from Young Hollywood. Stays with the holiday party. That's good. Thank you. That looks dope. Joseph has got a, and by the way that lights up. You gotta see the bottom. There's a little switch at the bottom. That's fully functional.

That looks dangerous. Don't wear this on an airplane.

Oh that's good. That's dope.

That is in fact dope.

That's pretty impressive. I'm going to wear this for the rest of my life.

You guys better be wearing these. We should wear them to the premiere.

You're going to do mushrooms. Not hallucinogenic ones.

Thank you. No they're all we just had to package them back up for for legal reasons.

Just focus on yourself. Trains. Is this cocaine?

I've been doing cocaine for 11 years. I don't think.

Yeah no one has.

Thank you. What are these dudes? Oh those are great. Do you guys play those on? One minute Jewish party games. What's a what's a one minute? What what? One minute Jewish party games. Jewish tongue twisters. Mostly. We okay? Soon shall some. Luckily you're reading this not me. This wasn't being said by a Jewish person it would I would really struggle. Literally be propaganda. Thank you guys. Enjoy the gifts. When you finish those mushrooms there'll probably be some crazy things happening in the studio. You look insane. Only your right eye is working. Do I look weird now? Yes you look weird. Still weird. Weird. Anthony, it's nice to see you uh you showing off your comedy chops as well.

Yeah man. It was I was really lucky. I felt very lucky when I got the role. I didn't I went into it thinking there's no way possible I would get the role. And I think that's why I got it because I was just like my audition was with Seth and I was like I'm gonna just with Seth for 30 minutes. And he continues to do that. That's right.

Because Seth you you produce this as well.

Uh huh I did.

Very hands on.

I don't know am I very hands on? I don't know. By the time we're filming you know I think most of the work is done. It's getting movies made is a lot harder than making movies. And that's where I think most of.

You bring the ability to like let everyone involved in the movie kind of have the freedom to try because you've you know you've been so successful.

That's nice. Yeah yeah. No yeah they let us do what we want which yeah we don't get a lot of notes from the studio which is great. Um and then we slowly destroy the studio that made this movie so they uh they weren't able to give us notes.

My thing is if I have a sex scene I'm you do it. You know I'm an actor. You know what I mean? I don't want the stocking or I don't want the cover I don't want that. If you can't deal with it. Because it's gonna go dark. You know what I mean? It's gonna go dark. It's gonna go dark.

Yeah yeah. Dark.

Dark.

I'm still confused. What are you saying?

Dark. Dark. Okay got you. You turn the lights off the room go dark. Okay. I've got it now. I've got it.

We should never hang out together because I'm going to stand anything either of us are saying. It's going to be like Rosetta Stone for English.

This is brilliant. Brilliant. We could have subtitles along the screen this whole interview. But the story in itself it's obviously very you know Christmas is a massive part. But it's got this journey that the guys go on and it's emotional as well. It's nice. You know you kind of find yourself at the end of it.

I remember when we first started talking about the movie we said we want like if you're gonna make a Christmas movie it shouldn't just be funny.

Yeah. And I think that's actually true of your movies in general they can be really really funny but there's always something underneath.

Yeah I think this one in particular though like Levine adds I think more emotion than is my instinct to a movie. And um I think I mean we didn't want to just like make fun of Christmas movies. We wanted to like make a Christmas movie. And in order to make a Christmas movie it has to have like a certain level of kind of emotional resonance or or it just doesn't feel like it fits into that genre you know. And so that's what we try to do when we make movies in general that are kind of takes on genres is to not just like mock the genre but is to like is to like be the the type of movie you know. And so we wanted to be a Christmas movie. And in order to do that yeah it has to have emotional elements to it.

What are you guys doing here? It's the only karaoke place that's open on Christmas.

Yeah it's our it's our tradition.

I know I should have remembered that you guys come here but Run DMC I got to see it live. It was awesome. Oh um this is what you guys missed. She did Miley Cyrus she destroyed Wrecking Ball. It was amazing. You still like that song. Everybody does. You can cry to it. You can run to it. You can party to it. And you guys do karaoke as part of the tradition in the movie. Yes. Um if you guys were going to rock up at a karaoke now what would be your go-to song?

Um Billy Ocean Caribbean Queen. Winning. Nice. That's a good one. Didn't even think about it. That's what I do. Didn't even think about it.

Um Joseph any go-to karaoke tune there?

Oh go-to karaoke. That's cheating. You to have a go-to. You have to constantly rediscover. Which isn't to say I don't have them. Exactly. I'm just saying it's cheating. I'm not going to tell you what they are because I want you to think that you just it happened to spontaneously.

Okay okay. Seth. I feel like you've got one in your back pocket.

I actually don't. I never really do karaoke. Um So this must have been fun. It was fun. Yeah. Um I was just at a party last night with karaoke actually. And I sang um what was it? It was a good night. Yeah exactly. I can't even remember. Kiss the Girl from the Little Mermaid. Okay. Yeah. Someone else picked it. It was just on. I think the same person who picked it the last time. That's it. Well the best actually karaoke song that I've ever performed and it just happened to be in the binder was called Oops I Farted Again. And it was like a spoof of Oops I Did It Again. No didn't put that together. And I just saw it and I was like I guess this is what I'm singing. Oops I farted again. Very clever. Very clever.

Whoever came up with that. Is a genius. Thank you.

might want to consult on the next movie. Yeah. Just to keep them in the back pocket. Um you mentioned uh Jonathan obviously. Um you guys have worked before on 50/50. So having him involved. How was it how was it working with Jonathan?

Uh it was great. I mean you know the funny thing about it was being the new guy to the I guess the Seth Universe. Um it was it was very comforting knowing that he had such a grasp on what he wanted the story to be. And um there was never an instance where I felt like I didn't fit in or I wasn't a part of the group because everybody was so we were all very interactive with um Jonathan about character and stuff like that and keeping the art going throughout the course of the movie as it evolved. Right.

I love it. It works very well. And and I love the character that I love Mr. Green. Yeah. It's brilliant. What's up man? So glad you're open on Christmas. A lot of people need me on Christmas. Did you have Michael in mind? Because I feel like it just fits perfectly.

Not originally honestly. We wrote the part not really knowing who would play it. And then we thought of Michael Shannon. Um mostly because he did this video where he reads a letter written by the head of a sorority um that was on Funny or Die. That was unbelievably funny and um and I'd met him once or twice before um and yeah he's just a truly unique um energy. Yeah. And he's so funny in the movie but um yeah it it it's one of those things where when you watch it I couldn't imagine it being anyone else.

Oh yeah. So I called the number on these tickets. They don't give out the address till like 10:00. So that gives us like several hours to hit as many Christmas traditions as possible. And it's going to be the best night of our lives.

Obviously a big part of the movie is getting to this Nutcracker ball. Yes. Which uh which you happen to get tickets to for the guys while you're doing a you're working as an elf which is a strange job.

It's a strange job. It's not what you want to do. Yeah.

Right right exactly. Being an elf would suck.

Being an elf would suck. Unless you really have. We've had a lot of elves like for our press like we did lip sync battle and there were elves and like and and I keep thinking like these poor elves. But at least they're elves like in shows. This is an elf working catering.

It's true like yeah. I guarantee you at our premiere there'll be people dressed as elves handing out food and it'll be it'll come full circle yeah.

We specifically said in our movie that that job. And now we're making you do it.

But I feel if you're going to be an elf working with you guys would be the way to the way to do it. You don't want to work with Santa Claus.

We bully them. That's that's really hoping. Putting your high up. Those are the great elves when you've reached like of.

There's a line at the end of the movie which I love which is uh better to say too much than not say enough. That's your line.

It is.

It's a lovely line that kind of touched me. Because I'm normally the person that says I love you within five minutes when I meet a new girl. So I say too much clearly. You've validated your approach. I was like I see we think alike. We think alike. Um is there any way or any saying that you like to live by life? A quote that you personally use or that springs to mind?

Oh man. A quote that I personally use. Jeez.

Any of you. It could be anything.

Carpe diem.

There you go. Oh very good. There he's gone.

I don't know what it means but I say it a lot. Is that what is it Greek? No. I'm joking.

Oh man. I feel like you've got one.

Uh I do. I the race is not run by the swiftest of foot but the one who endures to the end. There you go. That's a good one.

Who said that?

Uh Benjamin E. Mays. He was the president of Morehouse College in Atlanta.

We're going to the best Christmas party in New York City. That gives us several hours to hit as many traditions as possible.

The night before. Watch it these guys are absolutely brilliant. The movie's hilarious. Anthony, Joseph, Seth thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks for the sweater.

You're welcome. You're welcome. I'm glad that you fix it. Very impressive. I've got a few gigs at my house. If you Yeah.