Paul RuddandSeth Rogenwere two major highlights ofSuper Bowl LVI, the longtime friends and costars appearing inLay’s hilarious commercial. But while the spot found the duoreminiscing about some of their more outrageous golden memories together, turns out making the ad was just as memorable.
“We always have fun together,” Rudd tells PEOPLE, in a joint interview with Rogen. “Seth and I have worked together a bunch, and I will say, more than maybe any single person I’ve ever met, Seth is the most unaffected — has not changed in anyway. I mean, he’s still the same dude, and working with him is a blast because there really is this kind of freedom. I’d say that was a big part of the fun of doing this.”
“Who doesn’t love working with a friend?” Rudd asks.
Frito-Lay North America
Rudd, 52, and Rogen, 39, have known one another for nearly 20-years, collaborating in films likeKnocked Up,This Is the End,Sausage Partyand more.
“I was a fan of Seth’s,” Rudd recalls. “I remember watchingFreaks and Geeksand loving the show. Like, ‘Oh yeah, this guy’s hilarious on that show!’ And then40-Year-Old VirginI would say really… solidified the friendship.”
Turns out, that was because director Judd Apatow had Rudd and Rogen testing with every actor auditioning for the film. “[We] spent like, hours and hours and hours and hours in a very small room together, just reading actors like nonstop,” Rogen says. “That was a very formative process in a lot of ways.”
It was also a lot of fun. “It was just a fun environment,” Rogen explains. “I remember shooting the scene where we’re playing poker, and Carell’s character reveals he’s a virgin. That was the scene the whole movie was conceptually based on; Carell pitched that scene as like the concept for the movie, basically. And we were allowed to improvise. It felt like they were letting us make our own movie for the first time. It was awesome.”
Universal Pictures
Rudd says that feeling of carried over to making their Lay’s commercial too.
“It’s funny, even doing this commercial, it felt similar to that,” he says. “The idea was always there of being nostalgic, talking about memories and things that we had done together growing up, but it evolved and changed over the course of a few weeks. We got to play.”
They also atea lotof chips. “They’re good chips!” Rogen laughs. “Honestly, it was not conceptually hard to wrap our head around acting like we like Lay’s potato chips. They’re good potato chips!”
“On these commercials, they have people with obviously very specific responsibilities and there was one whose responsibility was to give us perfect potato chips to eat. But we went through them so much, I think he was kind of surprised,” Rudd continues. “We just ate so many of those chips through all the different takes. And normally they’ll say on these things, ‘Do you want to spit bucket?’ I don’t think we ever used a spit bucket. We just ate them all.”
“No, the idea of spitting out potato chips seems insane,” says Rogen. “I think the prop guy was having a small panic attack. I remember we asked the guy like, ‘Did we eat way, way, way, way, way more of these than you thought?’ He was like, ‘Yes. We did not prepare properly for this.’ "
Of course, sharing snacks without judgement is one of the best things about any friendship. But when it comes to Rudd and Rogen’s bond, their connection goes deeper.
Asked what they like the most about the other, Rogen praised Rudd’s love of music. “The extent of Paul Rudd’s encyclopedic knowledge of obscure music is truly unbelievable,” he says. “And it’s one of those things that comes up in my life, like whenever I’m around people, talking about a song, ‘Who sings this song? What’s the words to that song?’ I’m always like, ‘If Paul Rudd was here, he would know the answer to this question.’ And it’s true.”
“Well, it’s not totally true, but for some of that it’s a bummer because it occupies brain space that I’d rather have for something useful,” Rudd jokes.
Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
For Rudd, it’s Rogen’s unwavering ability to be himself. “I’ve been around people who are pretty impressive, well-known people and I freeze up a little bit; I get nervous. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen Seth get nervous or not act totally like himself around everybody,” Rudd says. “He just seems totally relaxed and engaged. It’s an amazing kind of quality that a lot of people possess it, but Seth possesses that more than anybody I know.”
“I was desensitized at a very young age to be around people I really looked up to, I think. It was like exposure therapy,” Rogen teases, adding, “I’m an open book — quite literally, I’ve written books.”
“I look forward to reading them, Seth,” Rudd says.
source: people.com
