PlayStation banned Jonah Hill from touching the console in ‘Superbad’: “It’s too vile a character”

According to writer Seth Rogen, Sony refused to let Jonah Hill touch a PlayStation in Superbad due to his character being “too vile”.

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Superbad is a coming-of-age buddy comedy about two teenagers who want to lose their virginity before going away to college. Jonah Hill’s character Seth is based on co-writer Seth Rogen, while Michael Sera’s Evan is inspired by fellow writer Evan Goldberg.

Released in 2007, Superbad sees the pair attend a number of disastrous house parties, try to get hold of booze and avoid the police.

Before heading out on their grand adventure though, Seth goes round Evan’s house to get ready. During the scene, Evan can be seen playing PlayStation 2 game The Getaway: Black Monday.

According to Rogen, Sony would only let the console and game appear in the film if Jonah Hill’s Seth was never seen touching it.

Speaking to Rotten Tomatoes, Rogen said it’s the funniest note he’s ever got from a studio. “With Superbad, Sony made the movie and Jonah Hill’s character, Seth, was so reprehensible to the studio,” he explained. “There’s a scene where they’re playing video games and they’re like, ‘Jonah can’t touch a PlayStation’. We can’t have him interact with our products because it’s too vile a character.'”

“He’s based on me so that’s very insulting, but ultimately, we accommodated them,” he continued.

Back in 2023, Rogen said “no one’s made a good high school movie since” Superbad but dismissed rumours of a potential sequel. “It’s so rare that you do something in your career that is actually just viewed as good. I know enough now not to fuck with that, to just let it be good and not try to go revisit it. And just let it exist.”

Years earlier, he admitted that a lot of the jokes in the film were “blatantly homophobic”.

“They’re all in the voice of high school kids, who do speak like that, but I think we’d also be silly not to acknowledge that we also were, to some degree, glamorising that type of language in a lot of ways,” he added.

In other news, The Boys‘ Jack Quaid has revealed his dream role would be starring in an adaptation of a classic video game.

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