Seth Rogen and Jason Segel tried to help each other get cast in 8 Mile.
Seth Rogen and Jason Segel’s embarrassing 8 Mile auditions
The Invite actor and his pal, How I Met Your Mother star Segel, both had high hopes of being cast in rapper Eminem’s 2002 movie and they worked together to help each other.
Speaking to Olivia Wilde in the latest episode of The A24 Podcast, the pair spoke about late casting director Mali Finn, whom Olivia once worked for as a casting assistant.
Seth shared: “I only remember her because she’s responsible for the craziest audition of my life.”
He went on to explain that he auditioned to play “a guy called Cheddar or something, maybe.” That role, “Cheddar Bob,” was ultimately played in 8 Mile by actor Evan Jones.
Seth went on: “What’s funny – and I guess, if you were her casting assistant, this also makes sense and adds up – is that I was told beforehand, because the scenes were with other rappers, we got a fax or some s*** beforehand being like, ‘No one in this office feels comfortable reading the other roles. So you have to bring someone to read with you,’. Like we all had a rapper on standby, a reading rapper.”
Seth then turned to his former Freaks and Geeks co-star Jason Segel to read the scenes with him.
He said: “I found out Jason Segel also had an audition for it, and so we just went with each other, and then one of us did it and then we switched to the other one. We both started laughing. I started laughing uncontrollably to the point I was just like … It was too stupid.”
8 Mile is a 2002 American hip-hop biographical drama film produced and directed by Curtis Hanson. It contains autobiographical elements from Eminem’s life and starred Eminem in his feature film debut, alongside Kim Basinger, Brittany Murphy, and Mekhi Phifer.