In an appearance on The A24 Podcast alongside his The Invite co-star and director Olivia Wilde, Seth Rogen revealed Anne Hathaway’s final straw in not moving forward on Knocked Up.
Rogen starred in Knocked Up alongside Katherine Heigl, but her role of Allison Scott was almost played by Hathaway, who joined the cast during pre-production. Near the start of the podcast, Wilde remarked that she also auditioned for Knocked Up and even made it to the table read. When she asked who was ultimately cast before Heigl, Rogen confirmed Hathaway quit the project due to creative reasons. More specifically, it was the graphic depiction of childbirth.
“Because of the crowning, right? Is that real?” asked Wilde. “Yeah, I mean… it could have been a hundred million things,” Rogen responded. “That was what I remember being told. She didn’t want the crowning of the baby to be visually representative. Even though it wasn’t going to be hers… It’s obviously not real. … She felt that it was not her brand. Part of me also… We had started rehearsing the movie, maybe she was just like, ‘I don’t know if this is for me.’ I don’t know. I will take what she said at face value, which was the crowning.”
In the film, director and writer Judd Apatow originally planned to use real footage of childbirth, but instead opted to use prosthetics for the graphic (and quite realistic) crowning scene.
While Knocked Up was a success, grossing $219 million worldwide in 2007 on a budget of $25 million, Rogen admitted that Hathaway probably made the right call. “She had a sense, and she knew it was not for her,” Rogen added. “And history will tell… she has been right about a lot more things than I have over the years. So I think she was probably right. [Heigl] knew what was right for her, yes. And then Heigl was great. Katie Heigl was great.”
