Paul Rudd and Seth Rogen Talk Super Bowl, Their Commercial, and Oscars

• Insider spoke with Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd about their Lay’s commercial airing during the Super Bowl.
• Rudd said he doesn’t care about the game as he’s not over the Kansas City Chiefs losing in the playoffs.
• “When you get that far and then you lose, part of your soul goes. You’re done,” Rudd added.

Paul Rudd admits he’s down these days.

Every since his beloved Kansas City Chiefs lost to the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC Championship Game, sending the Bengals to the Super Bowl and the Chiefs home, Rudd admitted to Insider that he’s not that excited about the game. But he’ll still watch, he emphasized.

One reason is because he and Seth Rogen have a funny Super Bowl ad playing during this year’s game.

The duo, who have have been frequent collaborators since the two starred together in the 2005 Judd Apatow comedy “Knocked Up,” star in a Lay’s potato chip ad that features the two friends reminiscing on all the good and bad times they’ve had together.

Along with Rudd talking about being bummed that the Chiefs lost during our wide-ranging chat, Rogen wondered if anyone really cares about the Oscars anymore, and the two explain how they were taught the proper way to eat a chip.

Rudd says he’s still not over the Chiefs losing in the playoffs and doesn’t care about the Super Bowl

 

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Insider: Paul, you’re a big Kansas City Chiefs fan. Have you recovered enough to even watch the Super Bowl after their heartbreaking loss?

Paul Rudd: I’m going to watch the Super Bowl, but I don’t care about it.

Seth Rogen: [Laughs]

Rudd: And I’m not going to that game. I was at the Chiefs-Bengals game. I flew to Kansas City to see that game. So no, I don’t care. I honestly don’t care who wins.

I’m not over the loss. I think I speak for every Chiefs fan — and by the way, every Buffalo fan can relate — when you get that far and then you lose, part of your soul goes. You’re done. I got really quiet after the loss. So I don’t really care. I’ll watch it because it’s still fun to watch and I’ll be with a group of people, but I’m not emotionally invested.

I get it. Now, Seth, I loved your book, “Yearbook.” But I have to know, did you ever recover Bob Dylan’s harmonica?

Rogen: Oh, thank you. No. Never have. Whoever has that harmonica has either not purchased that book or has decided to keep it — and I get it.

Rudd: Wait, what?

Rogen: There’s a part in my book, and this is true, someone who looks like me was given a harmonica by Bob Dylan because he thought it was me. And in the book, I plead that it be given to me.

Rudd: Oh yeah, you’re never getting that harmonica.

Rogen: No. I’m never. And I get it. Because now it’s even a better harmonica. I curse that harmonica!

Rogen says ‘maybe people don’t care’ about the Oscars anymore

 

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So who should host the Oscars?

Rogen: That’s a tough one. You know, whoever really wants to. I’m sure there are comedians out there that want to, right?

Is it even worth it anymore? It’s a thankless job.

Rogen: I mean, I don’t get why movie people care so much if other people care what awards we give ourselves. To me, maybe people just don’t care. I don’t care who wins the automobile awards. No other industry expects everyone to care about what awards they shower upon themselves. Maybe people just don’t care. Maybe they did for a while and they stopped caring. And why should they?

Paul, you’re being very quiet.

Rudd: No, I mean, who would do it?

Let me ask this: Have either of you ever been offered to host the Oscars?

[Long pause by both]

OK, that means yes.

Rogen: [Laughs] Maybe a soft conversation…

Rudd: I don’t think I would be a good host. Someone outside the box should do it.

Like a Nathan Fielder.

Rogen: John Wilson should do it.

Rudd: Yeah, Nathan Fielder and John Wilson.

Rogen and Rudd explain how they were taught the right way to eat a potato chip

I have to know, how do all of these potato chip commercials feature the people always eating the perfect chip. The same happens in your commercial. They aren’t curly or broken. I want to know the secret. 

Rogen: Well, there’s a guy whose job it is to wrangle and vet for the most perfect potato chip. And the perfect ones are saddled shaped and you have to eat them “saddle up,” right? Was it saddle up or saddle down, Paul?

Rudd: Saddle up.

Rogen: Saddle up! We were told that is the preferred way to eat these potato chips. And by the way, Paul and I ate way more than they thought we were going to. Maybe they thought we were going to be pretentious and not want to eat potato chips all day.

Rudd: And that chip wrangler, by the way, was a little weirded out by how much we ate because he was starting to get nervous he was running out. I mean, I did takes where I took a whole handful of Lay’s potato chips knowing full well that would never make the cut.

Rogen: Yeah, they don’t like that. [Laughs] 

Was there a funny bit that didn’t make it into the commercial?

Rogen: If anything, I’m amazed by what did make it in. I was like, “I can’t believe they are letting us do this.” It was one of those things where we wanted to make something that we actually thought was funny.

Rudd: They were also on board with us changing it too. So it was really fun because each time we would do things that were different.

Rogen: They were very loose. In the past with these types of things we have both encountered very strict and rigid atmospheres. There was none of that on this.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.