It's a fairly regular occurrence now for actors and directors to livetweet along with their movies months or years after their theatrical release, but Seth Rogen and James Franco's tweet-a-long viewing of The Interview, held today at 2PM using the hashtag #TheInterview, is unprecedented. It's only three days since The Interview, the bro-comedy that sees both Rogen and Franco infiltrate North Korea to kill Kim Jong-un, officially hit theaters and download services. Rogen, who co-directed the movie, noted the speed at which the movie made it to the small screen.
It's at this point that I gotta say that it's fucking weird I'm watching this on TV right now. #TheInterview
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) December 28, 2014
The session, featuring comments from stars Franco, Rogen, and co-director Evan Goldberg, was advertised by Twitter's own account. Rogen took the role of organizer, telling co-viewers — who'd presumably obtained their copy of The Interview through one of a number of services offering the movie — when to press play, and providing a timestamp some halfway through the film for viewers at home to catch up.
If you wanna join in, we're 44 minutes into our #TheInterview live tweet. If you're not into movies and hate us, this is your nightmare.
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) December 28, 2014
The actor used the time to add comment and context to most of the movie, interspersing behind-the-scenes facts about shooting locations, music rights, mine shafts, and the best way to film an exploding head with ruminations on life in modern North Korea. Did you know that millions of North Koreans are starving? Also, that's Rogen's actual dog at the end of the movie!
Forced crying and waling is a big thing is North Korea. #TheInterview
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) December 28, 2014
Perhaps the greatest testament to my acting is someone asked me if I actually shoved that missile in my ass. #TheInterview
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) December 28, 2014
James Franco, for his part, turned up an hour into the livetweet session. The actor got straight down to business.
Hey, Franco is here!!! Sorry! Just in time for the jokes about the missile in Seth's butt!@Sethrogen @evandgoldberg #TheInterview
— James Franco (@JamesFrancoTV) December 28, 2014