The NSFW Topic Seth Rogen Reportedly Taught Tom Cruise About
Seth Rogen apparently gave Tom Cruise a lesson in the modern era of NSFW content. According to writer, director, and producer Judd Apatow, he met with Cruise in 2006 to discuss a potential romcom for Cruise to star in. Apatow brought Rogen along for moral support as the two were filming "Knocked Up" at the time. The topic of conversation for the men took a pearl-clutching turn when Rogen brought up "marijuana and pornography," Apatow told Stephen Colbert on his show "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert."
"Those two subjects," Apatow reiterated. "And [Rogen] starts talking about watching adult films on the internet." Then, Apatow did an impression of a shocked Cruise discovering this information for seemingly the very first time. Apatow's Rogen impression was spot-on as he recounted the actor confirming to Cruise that, yes, such a thing exists.
"So anyway," Apatow added, "no movie was made." He also admitted that he thought Cruise wasn't thrilled about the idea of internet adult films — or maybe he already knew they existed, and he was just trying to be nice by asking more about it.
Rogen told a late-night host that he's not sure how the topic came up
Seth Rogen also mentioned the time he introduced Tom Cruise to the world of adult films on the internet. In an interview on "Late Night with Seth Meyers," Rogen explained how Cruise's biggest controversies had his reputation floundering, so Cruise was meeting with different comedians (like Judd Apatow) for opportunities. Unfortunately, Rogen did something embarrassing before the meeting even began that was surely caught on camera: he peed in a Snapple bottle in Cruise's driveway because he didn't want to ask Cruise to use the bathroom first thing. (Rogen told Howard Stern in a different interview that as he left Cruise's house, he saw a blinking red light indicating that, yes, there was a camera that saw everything.)
When Meyers questioned how the topic of adult films came up in the men's discussion, Rogen said he didn't even remember how they got talking about it — it just happened. He was fully convinced that Cruise wasn't faking and that he truly did not have any idea internet pornography existed until the meeting.
Rogen has also shared another memory from that conversation — Cruise pitching Scientology to him and Apatow.
Rogen feared he'd be swayed into Scientology
Scientology is the reason that Tom Cruise and his ex-wife Katie Holmes divorced, but at the time of this meeting, they were still married, and their daughter Suri had just been born. Seth Rogen spoke with Stephen Colbert after his book "Yearbook" was published and explained how he almost got the Scientology spiel from the other actor.
According to Rogen, the meeting between the men had been going on for a while. The discussion changed from movies to Cruise's negative public image, and Cruise told Rogen and Judd Apatow he felt there was a conspiracy: the pharmaceutical companies were pulling the strings and making him look bad because Scientologists don't believe in using pharmaceuticals.
"And then [Cruise] looks at us," Rogen told Colbert, "and he goes, 'You know, people have a lot of misconceptions about Scientology, and if you let me tell you for one hour what Scientology was, you would say, 'No f****** way.'" And I remember thinking like, 'Do I say yes?'" Rogen wasn't sure how to respond and admitted he was worried he'd be too easily swayed into Scientology. Thankfully, Apatow declined the religion's pitch, and they got back to talking about movies.