Promoting the October release of their movie The Interview, Seth Rogen and James Franco spoke from backstage at the Tonight Show about the inspiration behind their parody of Kanye West’s “Bound 2” video with Kim Kardashian. Explaining the aftermath and Kanye West’s own reaction to their version, Rogen and Franco detailed an offer from West to perform the parody at his wedding.
“The way I remember is, one night, you sent me an email, I think the video had just dropped,” James Franco said of the origins of the parody. “You said, ‘Check this out. Can you memorize some of these lyrics? I wanna do something with it tomorrow.’ And originally I think I was gonna play him…You had that great idea and then the other great idea of switching it. But then I think we weren’t gonna do the whole video. I think that was my contribution to this: ‘Let’s do all of it and do it shot-for-shot.’”
“It became an obsession almost, we were just like, ‘We have to get it exactly right,’” Rogen added.
“It took us like three hours to do it,” he continued. “Which means that it probably took them less time. Well, I actually know it took them less time. So, we make the video, the odyssey continues. We release it. And then, you know, I’m a big fan of Kanye West so I was obviously a little worried about what would happen when it came out. I was here in New York, actually to do this show, when it premiered, the first episode. I came out and did a joke where I gave him like a $100 bill. I was at my hotel in the lobby, and I heard like, ‘Yo!’
“So, I saw him in the hotel and I instantly was super apologetic. He said that he thought it was funny, thank God. I was like, ‘Man, it was funny, it took us like three hours to make that.’ He was like, ‘Man, you guys spent more time working on it than we did.’ [Laughs] Which, I bet they spent more money on it though. I would imagine. Kanye’s take on it when he talked to me was that it was supposed to be bad. That it was bad for the purpose. I don’t hate it. I love the song. The video, it’s a little crazy. It’s not bad though. It’s entertaining. We’re talking about it still.”
Recalling a phone call from West after that initial response, both actors detailed the phone call they received shortly after.
“We got a call that Kanye West wanted to talk to me and James and we didn’t know what it was about,” Seth Rogen said. “He gets on the phone with us…He was gonna get married and he talked about how maybe wanted us to perform.”
“He was almost shy,” Franco said. “He’s like, ‘I got this idea. I don’t know, but maybe you could come out and do the “Bound” thing. I have the motorcycle and you guys could do it live.’ There was kind of silence for a second after. And then, Seth was like—Seth’s really good. I mean, I’m sure Seth’s heard like a billion pitches of different things so Seth’s good at it. So, he was like, ‘Okay.’ And then Kanye was like, ‘Now that I hear that coming out of my mouth I think maybe it’s not the best idea. Maybe it’d be funny for the first fifteen seconds and then everybody would sit there awkwardly.’ I was game for something. But it seemed like it just wasn’t gonna happen. It was just like, we can just enjoy this phone call.”
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I’m confused. So Rogen and Franco are coming out with a Hip-Hop album? Otherwise what the fuck is this doing on a music website?
Because HHDX/HHTMZ knows that anything with Kanye’s name in it will generate the most clicks and comments.
they parodied a hip hop song fool. it’s about hip hop.
Damn DX Staff, why y’all gotta be such assholes?
cause my butt hurts.
It was never meant to be bad. If he meant it to be bad then it would be more entertaining than it was.
If you didn’t notice: Why the fuck is her hair moving in the opposite direction of the motorcycle? Why is it an obvious green screen? Why are there cheesy close ups? It was supposed to be bad, you retard, but it doesn’t change the fact that it was still a terrible video. And this is coming from a fan.
yeah it was supposed to be cheesy
If it was supposed to be cheesy and funny it wouldn’t have been so random and boring. You 2 just can’t accept that he fucked up. Like most of his shit videos.
“Like most of his shit videos”, yeah you’re just a faggot.
I think its time for certain people to stop monitoring everything I do and say for the purpose of nothing, and just to repeat rubbish. Privacy me thinks.
The problem is you are paying to much attention to them. You need to get on with your life, like the angel said. If you provoke him it will be like he said in the song covering this issue. Stop being stubborn.
They are in denial. both on drugs and about who they are. go in the opposite direction and take no notice. they are washed up sellouts and dont care what you have to do or say. cus they are possessed.
ABSOLUTE NONSENCE