An hours-long meeting with Tom Cruise that was preceded by an impromptu choice to urinate into an empty Snapple bottle serves as the highlight from Seth Rogen’s latest appearance on Howard Stern’s radio show.
About 42 minutes into the interview, Rogen—whose Yearbook memoir is out this week—was asked about the “bizarre” meeting with the Mission: Impossible franchise due to a mention in the book. As Rogen explained, the preceded-by-urination meeting took place amid Cruise’s tabloids-spurring relationship with Katie Holmes. Rogen’s frequent collaborator Judd Apatow, who most recently directed Pete Davidson in King of Staten Island, was also in attendance.
“I stopped halfway up the driveway, [which was] kind of in the woods above Sunset Boulevard, and I peed in a Snapple bottle in my car,” Rogen, who noted he made this decision to avoid having to immediately ask Cruise to use his restroom, told Stern on Monday. “I sealed the bottle and left it there, and went on to have a very absurd meeting with Tom Cruise.”
Rogen, however, later learned of the possibility that his Snapple relief was caught on security footage.
“I was passing the exact spot that I peed in,” Rogen said. “I noticed a red light in the woods and looked up and there was a security camera literally pointed at the same spot.”
As for the meeting, Rogen said it included Cruise lamenting “how weird” he was looking in the press at the time, with the Top Gun: Maverick star saying the pharmaceutical industries were “making me look bad.” Cruise, per Rogen, also spoke about the Church of Scientology.
“I’ll never forget the wording he used because I have also thought of applying it to other religions and how funny that would be,” Rogen said, later detailing Cruise’s pitch and subsequent “loaded moment” in the meeting.
“And it’s like with Scientology, he said, ‘If you let me just tell you what it was really about, if you let me, just give me 20 minutes to really just tell you what it was about, you would say no fucking way, no fucking way,’” Rogen recalled. “Is that a good thing to be saying? Is that a bad thing to be saying?”
At that point, Rogen remembered looking over at Apatow while pondering his fear of being converted.
“I’m generally a weak-willed, weak-minded person. … If they got him, what chance do I have?” he joked, noting Apatow ultimately shrugged off the Scientology talk and got the meeting back on track.
Rogen, who earlier this month said sexual misconduct allegations against James Franco had “changed many things” about their relationship and dynamic, will soon be launching his first podcast with Stitcher. As announced on Tuesday, the still-untitled podcast will debut later this year on Stitcher’s Earwolf network and will also be available via all major podcast providers.
“Recording and editing these episodes has been a thrilling and rewarding experience,” Rogen said in a press release. “Bringing people’s stories to life in these sort of ‘audio documentaries’ has given me amazing insight into what makes up the most impactful moments in people’s lives and how they contextualize these moments.”
