Seth Rogen has seriously been crushing it in Hollywood! Since getting his start on Freaks And Geeks over 20 years ago, he’s proved himself to be a multi-hyphenate talent, between being a bankable Hollywood star, talented writer, producer and director and becoming a pot businessman. (And he also has an impressive knack for ceramics.) When speaking to CinemaBlend, he admitted that so much of his career has been “very surprising” to him. However, there’s one element of it that he apparently did expect.
Our own Jeff McCobb spoke to Seth Rogen (about Kanye West and more) amid the junket for The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which we know quite a lot about. During his chat with the actor (who voices Donkey Kong), Jeff pointed out that Rogen has become a “bonafide voice actor” within the past decade. When asked if he’s shocked to see himself become so accomplished in that realm, he responded with these honest thoughts:
Of all the things I did see coming, I kind of thought I’d have a good voice acting career, if anything. The other stuff is all very surprising to me, but I actually kind of saw this coming, honestly.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Directed By: Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic
Written By: Matthew Fogel
Starring: Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, Seth Rogen and Fred Armisen
Rating: PG for action and mild violence
Runtime: 92 minutes
Seth Rogen definitely has an iconic voice, with his laugh being particularly notable, as many of us could likely clock from a mile away. As the star pointed out, a lot of things have really surprised him over the years regarding how his career has played out, but he’s perhaps known for a while that voiceover work would be viable for him — and it very much has lately.
The star has a sizable voice-acting resume that dates back to 2006 when he had a small spot as “student” on an American Dad episode. After that, it only grew, with the actor then working closely with DreamWorks Animation on properties like Kung Fu Panda and Monsters vs. Aliens and voicing an alien named Paul in the R-rated comedy of the same name. In 2016, Rogen co-wrote the raunchy animated movie Sausage Party and starred in it as the voice of a sausage named Frank.
If that weren’t enough, Rogen has voiced some seriously iconic characters in the last few years including Pumbaa in the hugely-successful The Lion King live-action remake and now as Donkey Kong in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, the latter which is poised to be another big movie. Per THR, the movie based on the Nintendo franchise is set to break records and have the second-best box office debut of all time for an animation movie, behind Incredibles 2 with an expected $368 million global five-day opening.
While there’s certainly been discourse about Chris Pratt voicing Mario, the animated movie is earning hugely positive reactions from fans, even if critics — including our own Eric Eisenberg, who gave it 2 out of 5 stars in our The Super Mario Bros. Movie review — are calling it more of a “checklist of nods to the games” than a movie. Regardless of the reception though, Seth Rogen seems to have had a blast voicing Donkey Kong, and it’ll be exciting to see what he does down the road. You can hear his work in the film now, as it’s currently playing in theaters.
