FILM · 2013 · USA
This Is the End
33 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
33 Interesting Facts About This Is the End
Interesting Facts (22)
- #001
Seth Rogen said he was shocked by how much the cast insulted one another. In his view, Jonah Hill and James Franco in particular seemed to be the ones who attacked each other the most. At one point he felt he had to step in and remind them that they were in fact friends and liked each other.
- #002
- #003
Initially, Michael Cera did not actually slap Rihanna's butt; instead he made the motion and stopped just before touching her. Because the enclosed space forced awkward camera angles, the scene did not work on camera, as it looked too fake. Eventually Cera asked Rihanna whether he could really slap her butt. She said yes, on the condition that he let her really slap him in the face each time. Cera agreed, but Rihanna, to Cera's dismay, neglected to mention that she would slap him harder with every take.
- #004
There was originally going to be a joke in which one of the characters said they had done drugs with Whitney Houston. When Houston died, the joke was cut out of respect and a different joke was used. While shooting the film, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg were also in the process of trying to persuade Prince to let them use the song "Purple Rain" for Rogen and Jay Baruchel to use on their way to Heaven. After Houston's death, Rogen and Goldberg stopped their talks with Prince and decided instead to use Houston's version of "I Will Always Love You" in those scenes as a tribute to her.
- #005
The shiny, colorful windbreaker Michael Cera wears in the film was his own idea. According to Seth Rogen, it was the only condition Cera had before agreeing to appear in the film. This shocked Rogen, who had thought Cera would complain or be unsure about the inappropriate behavior in the script.
- #006
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- #009
Early in the process, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg decided not to include the cast members' significant others or families in the film. They felt the film would be too dark if they had to deal with that side of things. For example, Danny McBride was newly married and had a new baby, but this was never mentioned, and Rogen's then-fiancée Lauren Miller Rogen was not shown in the scene where Rogen and Jay Baruchel spend their afternoons playing video games and smoking weed. James Franco suggested that his brother Dave Franco (a friend of the group and also an actor) appear in the first party scene, but Rogen rejected the idea, saying he would eventually have to be killed and that it would be too depressing.
- #010
Seth Rogen gave an interview describing how the script he wrote with Evan Goldberg combined the cast members' real traits with elements that had absolutely nothing to do with them, which the actors then produced strange alternative versions of. Craig Robinson reiterated this point in a separate interview, saying that Michael Cera's drug-addicted, butt-grabbing, extremely obnoxious motormouth character in the film was "the epitome of not being Michael Cera."
- #011
Michael Cera's character, "Awkward Teenager," is thought to have come out of a recurring argument Cera had with Seth Rogen about his dislike of being typecast, as Rogen decided to put Cera's feelings on the subject into the script to show not only that Cera was capable of performing outside that type, but that the film industry could be responsible for a hypothetical downward spiral of Cera's life into a dark and dangerous place. Cera was reportedly extremely grateful to Rogen for portraying his character and felt he might be able to thank him for future projects in which he was not typecast.
- #012
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- #016
On the first night, when they sleep together in the living room and scare each other, there is a painting on the wall with the word "geeks" on it, believed to have been made by James Franco. It also includes pictures of characters from the series Freaks and Geeks (1999), on which Jason Segel, Seth Rogen, Martin Starr and James Franco first worked together with Judd Apatow.
- #017
- #018
Emma Watson was originally supposed to be part of the climax in which Danny McBride's character introduces his sex slave Channing Tatum; however, when she learned the scene depicted on-screen cannibalism (McBride was going to start eating Tatum's character), she refused to cooperate and left the set. Seth Rogen later said that although she had read the script, shooting the scene was probably too much for her. He also stated there was no ill will, since Watson came back the next day to say goodbye and helped promote the film. The scene was later re-edited to remove the explicit cannibalism, and Rogen said Watson told him, "You were probably right. It was probably funnier the way we did it."
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Production Story (2)
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- #024
Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg initially asked Sony for a budget of $40–45 million, but Sony was nervous about the film's subject matter and refused. Rogen and Goldberg then asked Sony how much it would be comfortable giving while allowing them to retain creative control, and Sony said $32 million. Rogen and Goldberg accepted.
Behind the Scenes (3)
Characters & Cast (2)
Easter Eggs & References (2)
Deeper Meaning (2)
- #032
- #033
Years after the film's success, Jay Baruchel confirmed that the tension between him and Jonah Hill on screen stemmed from Jay being uncomfortable around Jonah at the time. He said the problem was entirely his own and that he later reached out to Hill and successfully repaired their relationship.
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- IMDb
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