-Seth, welcome.
Welcome back to the show.
Thank you so much for coming on.
How is life
in quarantine for you?
-It's okay, you know?
I always say
I can't be too good.
I'm doing as good -- You don't
want to be the guy in quarantine
who's like, "Everything's great!
It's fantastic!
Never been better!"
-Yeah, I understand that.
-I have a very subdued sense
of gratitude during this time,
I would say, in general.
-I saw on Instagram that you're
doing pottery, a lot of pottery.
-I am doing a lot of pottery.
It's a good hobby
during quarantine.
-But how do you -- 'Cause
I'm interested about this.
Do you get the clay --
You buy the clay, or --
-Yes. Clay was not considered
an essential service, though,
so I literally had to buy
illegal clay.
I literally made
an illegal clay deal
from the back door
of a pottery studio.
And as we were --
We were like, "This might be
the most apocalyptic thing
that has happened to me,"
was illegally purchasing clay
from the back
of a pottery studio.
-How do you know
anything about this?
Or you just went for it?
-Lauren did it in high school
and always was trying
to convince me to do it.
And like many stupid things
in my life,
I very arbitrarily said no.
I remember she tried to get me
to see the play "Wicked"
for three years
before I would agree to do it.
And then I went, and I was like,
"This is fantastic.
I'm an idiot."
-Yeah, "Why would I
not see that?"
-It was a similar thing
with pottery
where she was like,
"Let's take a class."
I was like, "I won't like it.
I won't like it.
And then I went and did it, and
I was like, "Oh, I love this.
This is fantastic."
-I read somewhere
that you're into "Below Deck."
Is that true?
-Oh, I love "Below Deck."
Are you kidding me?
-That's my jam.
I love that show.
-It's the best.
Yes, it's fantastic.
-Do you like "Med,"
or do you like all --
every "Below Deck"?
-I'll take all --
I thought "Sailing Yacht"
was one degree worse,
for some reason.
I can't put my finger on it.
-It didn't look that much fun
to me when they sailed.
-No, it was stressful.
It seemed like a stressful job.
But, yeah, I love "Below Deck."
They're always trying to get me
to go on it,
which I say no to all the time.
-You can't go on it.
-I can't go on it. You look like
a dick no matter what.
Like, you are the antagonist
on the show.
Like, you can't do it.
And they still want you to pay
to go on the cruise,
which is crazy to me.
-What? No.
-Yes. Like, it's like,
Bravo is literally like --
keeps sending me e-mails
asking me to pay like 40 grand
to be on an episode
of one of their TV shows,
which is psychotic.
-That's genius. It's genius.
-It is just -- If that is the
business model for "Below Deck,"
I understand why
there are so many of them,
because it is a good --
That's a good business.
-Yeah. I love it. Speaking of
love -- This is a good segue --
I loved "An American Pickle."
I loved your new movie.
-Thank you.
-It is brilliant. I got to say,
at first, when it started out,
I go, "Oh, is this gonna be,
like, a serious --"
I knew nothing about the film.
-The first 25 minutes
are in Yiddish,
so that is probably a curveball
for a lot of people,
I would imagine.
-I go, "Maybe he's going
for the Oscar for this one,"
which by the way,
you might as well,
because you are fantastic.
Dual roles.
I have so many questions.
So, basically, do you want
to set up who you play?
-Yeah, I play two characters.
I play Herschel Greenbaum,
first, who is an immigrant.
He was born in Eastern Europe.
We find him in the early 1920s,
and the Cossacks
were killing the Jews,
as they were in Eastern Europe,
and he fled to America,
as many Jews did,
my own family included,
North America, as well,
or Canada, as well.
And, yeah, and then he has
a wife, and she gets pregnant,
and then he falls
in a pickle vat --
'cause he works
in a pickle factory.
He falls in a pickle vat,
where he's brined and preserved
for 100 years.
-Dude, it's the great--
-And then they find him,
and then his only living heir
is his great-grandson,
who is also, like,
a 38-year-old.
-He falls into a pickle vat
and is brined perfectly
for 100 years.
It's the best thing -- I go,
"What a curveball."
I think it's so funny.
I can't believe this. I go,
"I'm so excited about this."
As soon as he falls in,
they put the lid on.
They go, "This building's
condemned. Shut it down."
And it's like -- It's just --
It plays off --
And then when you
come back in 2020,
there's reporters and everyone
kind of taking it seriously,
like, "Now, tell me,
how long have you been brined?"
And it's all these --
It's very well written and well
thought out.
Like, they're fine with the fact
that you've been in there
for 100 years.
-Yes, the science holds up.
We explain very clearly in the
film that the science holds up
and that it is not illogical
to be considered too closely.
[ Laughs ]
-But I will say,
acting across from yourself
and doing it believably.
It's not like
from the '80s or something
where they'd have a weird scene,
and you see, like, a weird arm,
and you go, "Oh,
that's Seth's arm."
This looks -- I don't know
how you pulled this off.
Like, how did you do it?
-It was very painstaking
and technical.
I made one choice early on
that affected a lot of things,
and that's I refused
to wear a fake beard
at any point in the film, 'cause
I just think they look bad.
And I've watched
$500-million movies
with terrible-looking
fake beards.
-Just can't do it.
-You watch "Avengers: Endgame"
and you're like,
"Yeah, it looks great,
but Thor's beard
is the worst-looking part
of that entire movie."
Like, they can better do
100, like, aliens
fighting each other.
They can't do a beard.
And so I knew that --
-So you did the whole movie
as Herschel first.
-Uh-huh, and then I shaved,
and then we went back
and basically shot
the entire movie again as Ben,
the other character.
-It made me laugh. I loved it.
It just moved so quickly.
It was well written
and well done, and I just --
This was something --
I love that you're always
doing something different.
I did not see this one coming
at all.
-This was a particularly strange
film, I will say.
-I loved it. It's on HBO Max.
I want to show a clip.
Here's Seth Rogen
in "An American Pickle."
Take a look at this.
-[ Laughs ]
-[ Gasps ]
[ Both laughing ]
