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Stoner-Movie Stars: A Roundtable

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PINEAPPLE EXPRESS Seth Rogen and James Franco

Dale Robinette

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: How do you account for the proliferation of stoner movies out this year? Has pot gone mainstream?
ROGEN: I hope it's because people are getting smarter and realizing that it's not the worst thing you could be doing with yourself. It's way less harmful than, say, getting drunk every day, which is pretty acceptable in a lot of circles in society. Also people are finding out about medical marijuana, penalties are dropping with some [jurisdictions] making possession less of a charge. The optimistic part of my brain credits it to people coming around.

CHO: It might have something to do with the water since Bush got in office. It feels like there's been a lot of responses to this administration in the last few years, and maybe this is one of them. But it does seem like pot is less demonized than it used to be. At the same time, young people are doing really damaging stuff, and I wonder if that has something to do with it — that potheads have become recognized as so much less harmful than, say, meth addicts.

CHONG: Weeds had a lot to do with it. That's a very good example of pot [permeating] the middle class. But it goes in cycles and depends on what regime is in power at the time. If Democrats are in, then it's a stoner-friendly environment; if it's the Republicans, then they put us in jail. Then again, Nixon gave us a nice contrast. Cheech and I were into our live act while he was president, and that conflict worked out well for us. It's what made us popular at colleges.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Because of the films you've appeared in, it's safe to say people will assume you're stoners. Is that an affiliation you embrace or try to escape?
CHO: People think that I am [a stoner]. They also think that [costar] Kal [Penn] and I wrote and directed Harold and Kumar like two stoner buddies who decided to make a movie together Matt Damon and Ben Affleck-style...but that's not the case. What are you gonna do? I could shout from the rooftop, ''I don't really do weed!'' but it would be so futile. I could get really hoarse, and I don't think I'd ever be heard.

CHONG: I embraced it. Cheech, you know, he got tired of it. With Up in Smoke and all the Cheech and Chong movies, no one ever got hurt, it was all big laughs. We created two characters that everybody could look down on, and that was the secret — we made everybody feel good. We made homeless people look at us and say, ''Well, I'm not that stupid.''

BENSON: Woody Harrelson is always backpedaling from it. Cheech Marin did Cheech and Chong for years and then people discovered that he was a good actor, so he distanced himself from it. Now some in the stoner community feel betrayed by this. Pot is putting me on the map, so for me to turn away from it now would be hypocritical, lame, and something that I don't want to do. But pot isn't my only thing. That's like saying The Dude in The Big Lebowski is a pothead, but he's also a drinker and a bowler.

ROGEN: There's really nothing bad about it. People don't expect much from me. I can say stupid things and they'll say, ''Hey, he's probably high, don't worry about it.'' There's really no major downside to it right now. I guess if I want to one day star in an Atom Egoyan film about Holocaust survivors, it might hurt my chances, but maybe not. It really has only helped; it's allowed me to make these movies. With Pineapple, we honestly thought, No one will ever put out a weed action comedy — that's crazy! Literally every time I watch it, my jaw is on the floor and all I think is, ''I can't believe they let us make this movie.'' It feels like we stole a camera from a studio, went out and shot it. So if I have to be called the biggest stoner around and they'll let me make Pineapple Express because of it, then I'm more than happy to take on that responsibility.

Posted Apr 17, 2008 | Order Article Reprints

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