Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s meta apocalyptic comedy This is the End features cameo appearances from almost anyone to have appeared in anything related to Judd Apatow’s brand of Hollywood comedy including James Franco, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, Jay Baruchel, Jonah Hill, Mindy Kaling, Michael Cera, Danny McBride, Paul Rudd, Aziz Ansari and Jason Segel, but the most surprising guest star was comfortably Emma Watson.
The Harry Potter alum isn’t the sort of actress you’d expect to show up in an R-rated effort populated by some of the industry’s most recognizable comic actors, especially as a foul-mouthed and axe-wielding survivor of the end of the world. The fact that it was so unexpected and saw Watson playing so firmly against her clean-cut image made it one of the funniest moments in the movie, but there were reports making the rounds at the time that she ended up walking off the set after refusing to shoot a certain scene.
In a new interview, Rogen confirmed the rumors that Watson had departed This is the End without filming the additional footage that would have seen her pop up again in the third act, but he admitted there were no hard feelings and what they ended up with was probably better than what was originally in mind.
“I mean, I don’t look back on that and think, ‘How dare she do that?’. You know? I think sometimes when you read something, when it comes to life it doesn’t seem to be what you thought it was. But it was not some terrible ending to our relationship. She came back the next day to say goodbye. She helped promote the film. No hard feelings and I couldn’t be happier with how the film turned out in the end. She was probably right. It was probably funnier the way we ended up doing it.”
Watson’s initial swansong in This is the End would have seen her interact with Danny McBride when it was revealed he and his gang of cannibals had been keeping Channing Tatum as a gimp on a leash, which is a bizarre sentence to have to write. As such, you can understand why Emma Watson wasn’t sold on the idea of throwing herself into that particular mix.
