The actor and director of 'The Interview' initially rejected the big boss' demand to soften the violent scene, but he eventually conceded.
- Dec 11, 2014
AceShowbiz - "The Interview" that will come out in theaters this December 25 is apparently slightly tamer than it was originally intended. In the latest email leak as a part of Sony hacking scandal, it's revealed that Seth Rogen had reluctantly agreed to tone down the violent scene that shows the murder of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.
It was Kazuo Hirai himself, the head of the studio's parent company Sony Corp. in Japan, who asked the gore to get toned down. Rogen initially refused to comply when Sony Pictures' co-chairman Amy Pascal informed him about the big boss' demand. "This is now a story of Americans changing their movie to make North Koreans happy," he wrote. "That is a very damning story."
But Pascal pointed out it would just be a small compromise on his part, "As embarrassing as this has been from my point of view, you have to appreciate the fact that we haven't just dictated to you what it had to be, given that I have never gotten one note on anything from our parent company in the entire 25 years that I have worked for them."
She assured Rogen that she was on his side in terms of keeping the movie forward despite concerns from the higher-ups. "I'm not taking no for an answer," she wrote. "If I was prepared to do that, we would have been done a long time ago... I would have done the easy thing and shut this down but I haven't, much to everyone's incredible annoyance here."
Regardless, Pascal told the actor she couldn't just ignore Mr. Hirai's request, "This isn't some flunky. It's the chairman of the entire Sony Corporation who I am dealing (with)." She added, "I haven't the foggiest notion how to deal with Japanese politics as it relates to Korea so all I can do is make sure that Sony won't be put in a bad situation and even that is subjective."
Eventually, Rogen yielded. In a later email, he told Pascal his latest edit "removed the fire from the hair and the entire secondary wave of head chunks". He added, "Please tell us this is over now."
North Korea was initially believed to be the culprit behind Sony hacking scandal, but the country denied any involvement. They, however, applauded the cyber attack as a "righteous deed."
