'Bad Neighbours' is a very, very funny comedy about the relationship between a suburban couple with a newborn baby and the members of the frat house that moves in next door. In truth, however, the success of the film comes down to another relationship — the one between star Seth Rogen and director Nicholas Stoller.
Rogen first worked with Stoller — who also directed 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall', 'Get Him To The Greek' and 'The Five-Year Engagement', and wrote the last two 'Muppets' movies — on a Judd Apatow sitcom almost a decade ago. “I think we met in 2000,” Rogen remembers. “We actually shared an office on 'Undeclared'. We were the two youngest writers. I was 18 and I think he was 24. It was ridiculous. We wasted a lot of time, but we were both very fast writers. Considering how lazy we were, the two of us wrote a proportionately large amount!”
After their time in the 'Undeclared' writer's room, both men went on to great careers in comedy — but their paths never crossed professionally. “Nick and I have been good friends this whole time, even though we've never actually worked together since 'Undeclared'. I would go to his screenings, and he would come to ours. I was the producer on this film, so depending on how you look at it, we were both calling the shots in our own way! It was great.
“I was excited that he was very enthusiastic about trying to make a different type of movie than he had made before. I love his other movies, but I knew this story wasn't going to be like his other films. It was exciting to hear that he was willing to reimagine his visual and editing styles as well as the overall tone because this film is somewhat dirtier in humour than his other movies. It was exciting to watch him do something so different.”
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Though 'Bad Neighbours' is a little more explicit than Stoller's other films, it has something in common with them, too — a balance of raunch and real emotion. It's a potent blend that goes back to Stoller and Rogen's experience working on 'Undeclared' with Apatow. “Yes, I think that's something that Judd Apatow instilled in all of us,” Rogen says.
“That's why we all have a similar sensibility in that regard. Almost everyone who came from 'Undeclared' and 'Freaks & Geeks' as a writer feels that way, including Jenni Konner, who does 'Girls', which is different and explicit at times but also emotional.”
Frat boys Zac Efron and Dave Franco are the neighbours from hell. Of course, Stoller wasn't the only director on the set of 'Bad Neighbours' — Rogen made an impressive directorial debut last year with 'This Is The End'. Did that experience leave him wanting to grab the megaphone from Stoller's hand and taking over? “No, it didn't,” he laughs. “Many times I'd show up on set and say that I'm so glad I'm not directing this movie. It's nice to not direct if someone extremely great is directing. It probably would have been frustrating if Nick didn't do a good job and [I] had to stand around and take over! I was mostly thinking, 'Thank goodness I don't have to tell the extras to do this in that scene'.”
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'Bad Neighbours' — starring Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne, Zac Efron and Dave Franco — is in cinemas from Thursday May 8.
