By Christina Radish

Seth Rogen at the premiere of "Observe and Report" held at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Calif. on April 6, 2009.

In the Warner Bros. Pictures dark comedy Observe and Report,  Forest Ridge Mall head of security Ronnie Barnhardt (Seth Rogen) patrols his territory with an iron fist. The master of his domain, he combats skateboarders, shoplifters and the occasional unruly customer while dreaming of the day when he can achieve his dream of becoming a cop. Ronnie’s delusions of grandeur are put to the test when the mall is struck by a flasher. Driven by his personal duty to protect and serve the mall and its patrons, Ronnie seizes the opportunity to showcase his underappreciated law enforcement talents on a grand scale, hoping his solution of this crime will earn him a coveted spot at the police academy and the heart of his elusive dream girl Brandi (Anna Faris), the hot make-up counter clerk who won’t give him the time of day. But his single-minded pursuit of glory launches a turf war with the equally competitive Detective Harrison (Ray Liotta), and Ronnie is confronted with the challenge of not only catching the flasher, but getting him before the real cops do.

Co-stars Seth Rogen and Anna Faris spoke to MediaBlvd Magazine about being in such a twistedly funny film.

MediaBlvd Magazine> Seth, how did you get involved with this film?

Seth Rogen> I agreed to do it, before I even read the screenplay. I’m friends with writer/director Jody Hill. We’d known each other for awhile. I’d seen his first film, The Foot Fist Way, and I had seen Eastbound & Down already, so I was in. He was like, “I’m thinking of doing another movie,” and I was like, “Okay, whatever you need, man.” And then, I got the script months later. Before we started pre-production is when I read the script. I was like, “Perfect, let’s do it!”

MediaBlvd> How do you know Jody?

Seth> While we were filming Knocked Up, I met him. That was around three years ago. I saw The Foot Fist Way. Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, who I’m friends with, bought the rights to it, so I got a DVD of it, thought it was funny and basically started hanging out with him.

MediaBlvd> You were so committed to this character. Did that make you feel like you were doing a drama?

Seth> No, not at all. In my head, it was all very funny. There was no dramatic element to it at all, really. The more serious and crazy it was, the funnier I thought it was, after the take. In my head, it was all a comedy.

MediaBlvd> Did you base this on anybody that you had met?

Seth> I talked to a security guard for 20 minutes, a week before we started shooting. Throughout my life, I have encountered many security guards, but I didn’t really base it on anyone. It was pretty much on the page. When I read it, and just through talking to Jody, I got what he was going for.

MediaBlvd> Can you talk about working with the flasher?

Seth> His name is Randy Gambill. He’s actually a good friend of Jody’s. They went to film school together. He was actually the production designer for The Foot Fist Way. He’s also one of the teachers on Eastbound & Down.

MediaBlvd> What was it like to shoot that scene with him?

Anna Faris> He wore a patch, some of the time.

Seth> He wasn’t always as naked as he appeared to be. But, there is that scene where he’s naked in front of hundreds of people, and he actually was.

Anna> He was very brave.

Seth> There was no hiding it. He said it was one of the best days of his entire life.           

MediaBlvd> Anna, how did you not crack up during filming?

Anna> It was hard! There were definitely moments where I had to bite my tongue a little bit. But, you really don’t want to mess up somebody’s take. That’s really important. It’s great to laugh and have a good time, but you usually do that after they say, “Cut!”

Seth> I feel really guilty when I start laughing while someone else is doing their take. If it makes you want to laugh, it usually means they’re doing something really funny and, if you ruin it, I’ve seen people get really pissed off about it. Because we’re all really good friends, you might be willing to show how mad you actually are, if someone fucks up something that you or someone else is doing. It instantly becomes very unfunny, if you laugh during someone else’s take.

MediaBlvd> Did either one of you spend time at the mall, when you were a kid?

Seth> I was one of those skateboarding kids, in the mall parking lot.

Anna> I hung out at the mall. We tried to meet guys. I got an Orange Julius, every now and then. But, I was a pretty good kid. I also looked about five years younger than I was, so no guys were interested. I had headgear, too.

MediaBlvd> What was the most fun thing about making this film?

Anna Faris at the premiere of "Observe and Report" held at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Calif. on April 6, 2009.

Seth> Honestly, I thought the movie was awesome and insane, and I couldn’t believe we were getting to make it, so that made it really exciting, on a day-to-day basis. I’d just be standing there with a gun and there would be a guy covered in blood on the ground, and I’d be like, “What are we doing? This is nuts!” I’ve been friends with Jody for awhile. We’re very close in age, and that experience really was different from any experience I’ve had. It felt like making a movie with a good friend, rather than for a director, which was great. It was a really unique experience, in that regard.

MediaBlvd> Anna, have you ever been pursued by a guy with a warped sense of reality?

Anna> There are a few weird fans out there, but I’ve been fortunate. Jody is so great at writing such specific characters. You read the role and, because the dialogue is so specific, you know exactly how to play it. It makes your job so much easier. You don’t have to search a lot, and that’s really nice.

MediaBlvd> Seth, you have a lot of physical stuff to do in this film. What kind of training did you have to do? Did you have to learn how to shoot the guns?

Seth> We shot a lot of guns in Pineapple Express, so I already knew how to shoot guns. I had to learn how to ride a motorcycle, which was pretty rad. I think I’m the first Jew ever on a motorcycle. That was fun! But, other than that, it wasn’t that outside the realm of what I’d done before.

MediaBlvd> Was there a lot of ad-libbing during filming, or did you stick to the script?

Seth> There was a lot of ad-libbing. Jody would really push us to improvise and come up with new ways of doing things.

Anna> He would throw out a lot of lines too, while we were shooting. You’re forced to be very active in the scene, which is great. We had that freedom.

MediaBlvd> What was it like to work with Ray Liotta and Michael Pena, who are usually more dramatic actors?

Seth> No. It was great! They’re both hilarious. With Ray’s role, the straighter he played it, the funnier it ultimately was, and he totally got that. Something a lot of actors would do, in that situation, is play into the comedy, and he didn’t do that, in any way, shape or form. He was in a cop movie, which was perfect. And, Michael is hilarious. He’s one of the people who we almost cast in Undeclared, in 2000, but he took another job instead. We’ve always thought he was funny, and then we were shocked when he went off in this really dramatic direction. And then, Jody called me and said, “We’ve got this guy for Dennis. His name is Michael Pena.” And I was like, “Michael Pena! We’ve been trying to cast that guy for 10 years!”

MediaBlvd> Anna, how was it to film that scene with you and Ray in the backseat of the car?

Anna> We ended up talking about his daughter. We really couldn’t move. That backseat was tight. I was slammed up against him and there was a camera wedging us in. It was awkward, for sure. And, I was wearing that huge push-up bra and my boobs were right in his face. We were both sweating. And, we were stuck back there for a long time.

Seth> It was a really long time. I just remember thinking, “Thank God, I’m not in that car!”

MediaBlvd> Seth, did you gain weight for this film?

Seth> I actually did gain a little weight for Observe and Report. We shot it right after Zack and Miri Make a Porno. Not that I was in amazing shape after that, but it seemed like it would be funny, the bigger Ronnie was and the less physically capable he looked. The joke is that he actually is pretty dangerous, but we wanted that to come as a real surprise and for the audience to think that he was the fumbling guy. In fact, quite the opposite is true.

MediaBlvd> In regard to The Green Hornet, is Stephen Chow still going to be Kato?

Seth> Honestly, we’re not 100% on that right now. He might be, he might not be. We have no contract in place, but it’s a distinct possibility. I wouldn’t rule it out.

MediaBlvd> Will you have the beard in the movie?

Seth> I don’t know. There’s not a lot of superheroes with facial hair, so that could be a fun twist on it.

MediaBlvd> How far along are you with that?

Seth> Evan Goldberg and I are rewriting the script, and we’re beginning the early phases of pre-production. There are people working on the movie. They’re building the Black Beauty car. It’s moving forward. It’s crazy! It’s happening.

MediaBlvd> Now that you’re a big movie star, are you still going to write roles for yourself?

Seth> Yeah. It’s not about control. We just enjoy writing. That’s how we started. To me, the most fun element of what I do is just sitting and writing the screenplays.

Anna> With the exception of a script like this, I feel like you have to create the characters that you want to play.

Seth> Yeah, I totally think that’s true. Honestly, I wish I was sitting there today and someone sent a script that was hilarious to me, and I read it and thought, “This is amazing! Perfect! I’ll go do it!” But, that just doesn’t happen. We started writing, in the first place, because we were like, “No one’s making the movies we want to see. Do we have to do it? I guess we do!” That’s still how we feel. If someone else was writing this Green Hornet movie, that would be great. I’d sign on and do it. But, no one else is writing it, so we have to do it.