In September 2021, Seth Rogen went off script while presenting at the Emmy Awards to call out the show’s producers. He alleged that they said the ceremony would take place outdoors when it was actually in a sealed tent that was too crowded for proper social distancing. It got a lot of headlines at the time and two producers publicly refuted him.
Earlier this week, Seth was a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Seth’s new TV series, The Studio, was the big winner at this year’s Emmys, setting a record for most wins by a TV show in its first season. Jimmy, who hosted the virtual 2020 Emmys (the year that Schitt’s Creek won every comedy award), brought up that Seth had never been invited back as a presenter. He asked Seth to share his theory as to why. Seth confirmed that speaking truth to power got him banned from presenting.
Jimmy Kimmel cleared up a lingering question that Seth Rogen had about his participation in the annual Emmy Awards. [D]uring a Monday, Oct. 6, appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the 57-year-old late-night host addressed Rogen’s theory that he had been banned from presenting at the awards show after doing so in September 2021 when he went off-script and addressed the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I presented there, I think it was four years ago at this point, and I have not been invited back,” Rogen, 43, said, prompting Kimmel to remind the audience of what happened when the actor took the stage.
“You said, and this is a direct quote: ‘Let me start by saying there’s way too many of us in this little room. What are they doing? They said this was outdoors. It is not. They lied to us. We are in a hermetically sealed tent right now. I would not have come to this. Why is there a roof?'”
Kimmel acknowledged that Rogen’s comments were met with applause at the event. While the host implied that the event took place “at the tail-end of COVID,” Rogen replied, “It was in the thick of COVID, from my recollection.”
“It was true. They lied. They did lie. It said outdoor event, and I went,” Rogen insisted, adding, “And I had all intention of doing the dumb schtick that they had written for me. And then I showed up, and I was like, ‘We’re in a tent. I can’t ignore this. We’re going to kill these old … Eugene Levy’s here. We’re going to kill Eugene Levy. I don’t want to do that.'”
He recalled that producers at the time were “outwardly pissed off” after he left the stage.
Rogen said that he knew producers for the show had changed, but he hypothesized that his comments led to him not being invited back.
“Can I tell you something? I checked today because, you know, I’ve hosted the Emmys quite a few times. And you are indeed banned from presenting,” Kimmel replied.
Rogen initially responded by shouting, “I’m with you. I’m like you,” referencing Kimmel’s brief suspension from the air in September. “They’re trying to silence me.”
However, Rogen added, “I went very off-book and made them look bad, so I get that.”
Clearly Emmy voters were not offended by Seth’s comments. I am chuckling at the thought of some master spreadsheet of banned hosts and presenters that gets passed down from producer to producer that includes a column for reasons why they were banned. I’m picturing the reason next to Seth’s name is something like, ”Hurt our feelings about safety protocols during a pandemic.”
Honestly, mad respect for Seth. In recent years, he’s consistently shown up to do the right things. To recap: He cut ties with James Franco after the allegations were made against him, told the All Lives Matters crowd to not watch his movies, and publicly came for both Ted Cruz and Elon Musk. He’s also one of the few male celebrities to understand the nuance in “cancel culture.” Oh, and he based a certain Studio character on a real-life studio exec and laughed at how they were mad about it. Basically, he’s using his power and platform for good, and I love that he is completely unbothered by whatever professional or personal consequences he may have to face. I wish there were more people out there like Seth.
Here’s what Seth said at the 2021 Emmys:
Here’s the clip of Seth talking about being banned. I cued it up, but it starts at 3:17:
Photos credit: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency/Avalon, Getty
This is White Man Confidence used for good instead of evil. You love to see it.
@ Rosie, I appreciate you ticking off the list of why Seth is so awesome. I also love how open and unapologetically child-free he and his wife are. Always nice to see some representation.
Hear hear!
Lol. He knew about James Franco for YEARS and only cut him off after the allegations got louder. It’s speculated he benefited from JF’s “acting school” talent as well.
Hard agree. The “gee, what a nice guy that Seth Rogan is!” revisionist history being pushed here is frustrating, to say the least.
“Speaking truth to power”? Gosh, that must be nice. Katherine Heigl spoke her truth nearly 20 years ago and the Hollywood Boys Club – with Rogen front and center in the pile-on – RUINED her for it.
Heigl called their movie “a little sexist” (know what…? she wasn’t wrong). His butthurt widdle feewings were just so devastated by a female colleague having opinions that he was still calling her “bathshit crazy” and trashing her movies/career in interviews for YEARS afterwards.
A whole decade later, he was whining to Howard Stern about how she never PERSONALLY apologized to HIM.
So Seth Rogen has refined his ability to come off as the Nice Guy and not the frat boy-adjacent misogynist that he truly is. “Using his privilege for good”? Nah. My memory’s not that short.
…or maybe he’s changed?
LOL um you can hate Rogen all you want but Heigl absolutely ruined her own career. There were endless stories of her being difficult to work with and at the height of her success on Grey’s Anatomy, she described her character arc as a “ratings ploy”. Any actress who knows shit about shit knows that you don’t bite the hand that feeds you. She withdrew her name from Emmy contention after implying that Shondra Rhimes didn’t give her the “material” to warrant consideration. She talked shit about Knocked Up AFTER she agreed to star in the film as if she didn’t know the plot and script she signed on to.
Talk about revisionist history–Heigl absolutely overestimated her worth.
I’m not talking about Grey’s Anatomy. I’m talking about Rogen’s response to Heigl’s Vanity Fair comments regarding Knocked Up.
And his years-long “I never got an apology” hissy fit can’t be viewed in a vacuum separate from his association with James Franco. (She did apologize; it just wasn’t grovel-y or “personal” enough for him.
Speaking truth to power? Rogen was directly involved, as executive producer of The Disaster Artist, in silencing Charlyne Yi’s account of working with “sexual predator” Franco and her subsequent desperate efforts to quit the film. Yi has openly accused Rogen by name of enabling Franco and using his position as producer to shield him from consequences.
Yi’s accusation gained even more credibility after Rogen and Franco’s disgusting “joke” on SNL about the latter’s predilection for trying to groom minors to meet him in hotel rooms. Three days after Franco was caught doing exactly that to a 17 year old girl, Rogen was joking about it on live TV.
Oh, he’s “apologized” and made a big production of (finally) getting around to cutting ties with him. But he also maintained he had no idea whatsoever what Franco was up to. They’d been close friends for about 30 years, moved in all the same circles, and made ten movies together in nine years. Rogen knew.
Just because Rogen isn’t as bad as some doesn’t make him a good guy. And that “truth to power” nonsense? Ask Charlyne Yi or the 17 year old victim he decided to joke about on live TV what “truth to power” actually looks like.
Good Canadian boy.