Sundance 2012: Seth Rogen’s phone-sex moment
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Of the many things you might expect when you walk into a Sundance movie, a cameo from a member of the Judd Apatow crew isn’t at the top of the list.
But there was one of those insiders, Seth Rogen, materializing on-screen during the risqué comedy ‘For a Good Time, Call…’ As a phone-sex call is made to protagonists Katie and Lauren (played by Ari Graynor and the film’s co-writer, Lauren Anne Miller), two economically desperate twentysomething women who’ve started a phone-sex line in their New York apartment, Rogen pops up on screen, wearing a pilot’s uniform and engaging in a solitary sexual act in an airport bathroom as he banters dirtily with the women.
The sight of the actor prompted a peal of laughter at the movie’s premiere at Sundance earlier this week. As the back-and-forth unfolds, Rogen rips off one of the best lines of the film when, as things heat up on the phone, he calls out to a crew member in the next stall to “Delay the flight.”
There’s a reason the comic actor wound up in the movie: Miller is his wife.
‘I remember Seth and I were brushing our teeth one night and I said ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we got some comedians to do cameos as some of the callers,’ ‘ Miller recounted to 24 Frames. ‘And then I said, ‘Wait, would you do it?’ And he said ‘Totally.’ ‘
Though he has no formal role on the picture outside of the cameo, Rogen advised Miller and visited the set. “I would be silly not to listen to the person who is extremely successful at doing what I’m trying to do,” Miller said.
Rogen isn’t the only raunch-comedy mainstay to have an unexpected moment in the film -- witness Kevin Smith as a cab driver who rings up the phone-sex line while a passenger waits in the backseat.
With its raunchy story of female friendship, ‘Good Time’ has evoked the inevitable comparisons to the Apatow-godfathered “Bridesmaids.” Miller said she showed the movie to several people in the filmmaker’s posse but not yet the director himself, who has been working on a new movie.
Filmgoers will get a chance to see the movie and Rogen’s surprise spot -- Focus Features acquired the comedy and will release it domestically. “I feel like that women who watch movies have been subconsciously wanting this,” Miller said. ‘I hope this is only the beginning of real stories about real women.”
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-- Steven Zeitchik in Park City, Utah
