Seth Rogen doesn't think North Korea hacked Sony over The Interview controversy
The actor-comedian addresses his theories about the hacking incident
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Actor-comedian Seth Rogen has revealed that he doesn't think that North Korea actually hacked Sony to see The Interview ahead of its release date.
In an interview with Vulture, the 36-year-old mutli-hyphenate discussed his perspective about the hacking saying it didn't make sense that North Korea had seen the film so far ahead of its release date because the hacked emails weren't leaked until near the premiere date.
"Then, months later, when the movie itself finally came out, all this hacking s*** happened," Rogen said. “This was months after North Korea had probably already seen the movie. Why would they wait [to leak the e-mails]? And they never did anything like that before and haven’t done anything like it since. So things just never quite added up."
Rogen further explained that he believed there was no way the hack was done remotely: he thought it had to be a "physical act."
"It required plugging shit into other s***,” Rogen explained. “And the hack also seemed weirdly targeted at Amy [Pascal], which seems fishy - of all the people to target? Why not me? Why not Michael Lynton [Sony Pictures Entertainment's former chairman and C.E.O.?"
When the emails leaked, that Pascal - the then chairperson of Sony Pictures Entertainment's film division - was heavily criticised for a racist email conversation about President Barack Obama with Scott Rudin.
It's that leaked conversation that made Rogen rethink who was behind the hacking.
Instead, he thinks addresses a theory that it was "a disgruntled Sony employee" instead of North Korea.
"I’ve also heard people say that they think someone was hired to do the hack as a way of getting Amy Pascal fired," said Rogen. "I don’t know if I subscribe to those theories, but I kind of don’t think it was North Korea."
Regardless of the outcome, Rogen doesn't regret making the film, but wishes elements of it were better.
"Creatively we could have done things to help the tone,” he said. “There was a joke in Hilarity for Charity [his Netflix special] that we wound up cutting out where Nick Kroll was yelling at me about The Interview, and he’s like, 'Your failure to wrangle James Franco’s performance gave the whole movie tonal problems.’"
When asked if Rogen would work with friend and fellow The Interview costar James Franco again following sexual misconduct allegations, he said he would, and he declined to comment further on the #MeToo movement.
"The truth is that my perspective on this is the least relevant perspective," he said. "I’m friends with these people and I’m a dude. All that combined makes me the last person who should be talking about this."
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments