It’s hard to remember a time when Seth Rogen wasn’t America’s favorite stoner comedian. Starting with the back-to-back releases of Knocked Up and Superbad in 2007, Rogen’s star launched sky high (pun-intended), with both movies quickly becoming cultural touchstones. But is was with 2008’s Pineapple Express that Rogen cemented his status as the sincere goofball stoner that everyone loved.
This week marks the film’s 10th anniversary and so Rogen decided to share some behind-the-scenes tales and fun facts on Twitter. You might not believe this, but some funny stuff went down while filming a movie that includes cross joints, James Franco smashing a bong on Danny McBride’s head, and Bill Hader describing being stoned as feeling like “a slice of butter melting on top of a big ol’ pile of flapjacks.”
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Related Story: Seth Rogen Reveals How Weed Makes Him Creative
Scroll below to read about all the injuries actors suffered on set and how Judd Apatow deemed everyone’s favorite meth kingpin as “not scary enough” to play a drug dealer.
How It All Started
In #PineappleExpress, me and my co-writer Evan had to roll all the cross joints needed to film (about 100) ourselves because nobody else on the crew could roll them properly.
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) August 6, 2018
The name #PineappleExpress was around for years before the movie. It’s a Hawaiian weather system that sometimes hits the Pacific Northwest, which is where we’re from. Evan heard the name and said “that would be a great name for a movie.” Years later we found a perfect fit.
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) August 6, 2018
There was NO strain of weed called #PineappleExpress when we made the movie. We said “if one day, people are out there selling weed called Pineapple Express, it worked”.
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) August 6, 2018
We wrote #PineappleExpress express for me to play Saul and Franco to play Dale. James wanted to switch roles, and I didn’t care that much, so we did.
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) August 6, 2018
The Injuries
The reason Saul wears a headband in #PineappleExpress is the result of another injury. There’s a shot (that’s in the movie) when we are running through the woods, Franco hits his head on a tree. He actually hit his head on a screw that was holding a pad in place and got stitches.
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) August 6, 2018
Throughout the fight scene in Red’s house in #PineappleExpress, I broke my finger and Danny McBride got his head cracked open when Franco hit him with the bong.
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) August 6, 2018
I did my 99% of my own stunts in #PineappleExpress, (which might explain all the injuries) including this one: pic.twitter.com/DrV9jF1wIS
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) August 6, 2018
Danny McBride And Stormy Daniels
In #PineappleExpress, Red was originally supposed to die the first time he was shot when he was tied up in his apartment, but we thought Danny Mcbride was so funny that we just kept bringing him back to life.
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) August 6, 2018
In #PineappleExpress, Red refers to his ex wife having gotten out of jail recently. There’s a pic of Red and his ex wife, who was played by Stormy Daniels.
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) August 6, 2018
In #PineappleExpress, originally, Red killed Matheson with a Ford Fiesta, but Ford didn’t want their car involved in a movie murder so we had to change it to a Daewoo Lanos, which is ultimately much funnier I think.
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) August 6, 2018
Bryan Cranston
I’ve got one. Bryan Cranston auditioned. He may have even read at a table read and I said “I don’t think he seems scary enough to seem like a real drug dealer.” If he did PE maybe the Breaking Bad people would have said, “not him, he always plays drug dealers.” https://t.co/YqJE1pr2QH
— Judd Apatow 🇺🇦 (@JuddApatow) August 7, 2018
Random Notes
We DID have a smoking billboard for #PineappleExpress that got shut down by the fire department because people keep thinking it was on fire. https://t.co/UslrDgNyuN
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) August 6, 2018
Kanye came to the premiere of #PineappleExpress. pic.twitter.com/VpOMXHoiJI
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) August 6, 2018
The shots of the dick drawings on the principals desk in Superbad was actually filmed on the set of #PineappleExpress in the woods while we were shooting Dale and Saul destroying their cell phones.
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) August 6, 2018
