Seth Rogen Was Mortified That Friends Thought He Was Actually Balding in ‘The Fabelmans’
Christian Zilko
Seth Rogen landed one of the most coveted parts in Hollywood when he was cast as Bennie, a fictionalized version of Steven Spielberg‘s father’s best friend, in “The Fabelmans.” It’s a pivotal role in the director’s most personal film, but that doesn’t mean that the entire experience was glamorous.
In a recent appearance on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” Rogen revealed that the honor of starring in Spielberg’s autobiographical film was accompanied by an embarrassing grooming request.
Rogen recalled that prior to his first day of shooting the film, Spielberg asked him to make a change to his appearance. “I want you to cut back your hairline so it looks like you’re going much more bald than you are,” Rogen remembered the director saying.
Rogen was understandably not thrilled with the request, but he wasn’t going to argue with the man who directed “Jaws.”
“I was like, ‘Okay, this is a big thing for me, but how do you say no to Steven Spielberg?’ So obviously, I go back and I do it, and to me, it’s very drastic,” he said. “I’m like, ‘Oh, my God, it’s all everyone’s going to talk about.’ I’m going to see everyone and they’ll be like, ‘Oh, my God.'”
Unfortunately for the comedian, he ended up receiving the opposite reaction. People didn’t seem to notice the makeover, which made him realize that everyone just thought he was losing his hair.
“Instead, I kept running into people I know and seeing them. And no one said anything and that made me realize: To them, I’m balding!” he said. “I was already balding! It wasn’t a shift.”
Rogen was ultimately able to make peace with the reaction from his friends and family. He explained that, considering all of the famous actors who have actually lost their hair, being falsely perceived as balding is a relatively small problem to have.
“I work with a lot of actors who, now in their career, they have more hair than when they started,” he said. “It’s a stressful double life they have as a balding actor who is pretending not to be balding.”
“The Fabelmans” is now playing in select theaters. It expands nationwide on Thanksgiving.
