Longshot is perhaps one of the most interesting comedies to surface in 2019. As far as Hollywood goes it is a role reversal film. On one hand you have the confident Secretary Of State played by Charlize Theron and on the other hand you have the bumbling writer who doesn’t believe he is good enough to be her romantic partner – played here by Seth Rogen.
Watching the film your realise that this is a film that is going to be talked about for a long time come and we soon find that leading man Seth Rogen is very frank when he talks about the film.
“There was a grand total of one person who could play the role of Charlotte,” says Rogen wearing his trademark smile. “She was pretty much the only person that I was interested in making the movie with and yeah it took seven years for us to become successful enough to have Charlize Theron in our movie. We were just really big fans of hers and she generally plays scary people in movies but then when you would see her in interviews and stuff she always seemed hilarious and very likable and human. So we thought yeah that is a very good character for the movie, someone that has a very strong business demeanour but is likable and funny, and yeah honestly we thought she (Charlize Theron) was the only person that could do it.”
“In the beginning she is the Secretary-Of-State and she has had this politically driven life,” he explains when the discussion turns to Theron’s character – Charlotte. “She is one of those people that has been groomed to be a politician from a very early age and she has clearly worked hard to achieve that goal. She is very diplomatic and she always seems willing to, although principled, always willing to play the game to a degree and they were neighbours and she was Fred’s babysitter when she was around 14 or 15 and he was around 10 or 11… she babysat for him.”
“Throughout the film her principles are challenged and she has to make some tough decisions in regards to that,” he continues. “And I don’t think that Fred is always offering the best advice but he is giving what he considers to be good advice. Ultimately, he just wants to support her because he recognises very early on the film that she is a very good leader and that she is a good person. It is almost him like stepping back from his own ego and realising that it doesn’t have to be about him and his stuff.”
For those movie fans out there who know the kinds of comedies that Seth Rogen is involved in it is perhaps a weird experience knowing that he is now the lead in a romantic comedy but it turns out Rogen himself has been a fan of the genre for most of his life. “I loved how funny they were and how emotionally gratifying they were,” he says with his serious side coming to the fore. “And I liked how aspirational they were when it came to relationships and partnerships and that was just always something that I have wanted to make. I just wanted to make a movie that was as funny as our other movies but had a strong romantic story that really reflected what I and other people who made the movie liked about those kinds of movies when we were growing up, basically.”
Long Shot opens in cinemas today.
