Seth Rogen Says His Audition for a ‘Boy with a Cognitive Disability’ in Ben and J. Lo’s Gigli ‘Would End’ His Career Today

Seth Rogen would not do it again.

On the June 20 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Kimmel asked the 43-year-old comedian about the last time he had to audition for a role. 

“It has been a long time,” The Studio star said. “And man, honestly thank God it was mostly physical VHS tapes and stuff like that that was being used when I was auditioning for things, because the things I auditioned for, in retrospect, if they were out there in the world, [it] would end my career very, very fast, I believe.”

Kimmel asked for an example. “Well, there’s a movie called Gigli … that stars Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez and in the film, they’re assassins or something like that.” The 2003 romantic crime drama was a notorious critical and commercial flop. Affleck, 52, told Entertainment Weekly in 2022 that the movie was “a sort of horse’s head in a cow’s body” — the studio wanted it to be “a romantic comedy” because he and Lopez, 55, had started a relationship.

“In Gigli, they’re assassins who are sent to watch over a boy who — and this was not the words they used at the time – but had a cognitive disability, let’s say,” Rogen continued. “And so I, as an aspiring young actor … I auditioned for this boy with a cognitive disability and I don’t think the script was written in what, by today’s standards, would be the most sensitive portrayal of a boy with a cognitive disability.”

Rogen, who at the time had starred in the TV series Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared, also said that he “didn’t get a lot of auditions,” and he knew the movie was being helmed by “great director,” Martin Brest, who had done Beverly Hills Cop and and Midnight Run.

So he took a big swing. “I don’t think I wore a helmet into the audition itself, but it was at play,” Rogen said. “And I’m tempted to do an impression of what I did, but I can’t even do it! I can’t! That’s how bad it was! It’s so bad I dare not even portray what I did in this audition, because I went for it. I saw myself at the Oscars.”

“And truthfully if that tape was out in the world today, this would be the last interview you ever saw me do, other than my apology tour,” he said. Rogen and Kimmel noted that now that he mentioned it, the video might surface. “Please sell it to me. I will buy it,” Rogen said to whoever has access to it.

The role Rogen auditioned for, Brian, was ultimately played by Justin Bartha. The A.V. Club wrote in a 2021 article in which they revisited Gigli, “Pretty much everything about the depiction of Brian’s disability falls into the ‘oh no’ category.”

Reflecting on the movie in 2024, Affleck, 52, told Deadline his biggest issue with it now was how much money he made even though it was a flop. “I got a big cash payday for that. Well, it doesn’t feel right in retrospect because they lost money. It wasn’t the biggest money-losing movie in history even though it was the most famous bomb in history, perhaps,” he said.

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“Nonetheless,” he continued, “that doesn’t sit right with me. But it also doesn’t sit right with people when they go, wait a minute, we all sacrificed to be committed to this. And then the old story about the $10 million movie that’s made $200 million and nobody’s seen a nickel.”

He added how he and best friend Matt Damon aim for their production company Artists Equity to have more “fairness” in compensation for everyone that works on a film.