{"id":740968,"date":"2026-07-03T13:54:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T13:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/740968\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T13:54:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T13:54:12","slug":"seth-rogen-says-oscar-winning-star-quit-knocked-up-over-graphic-childbirth-scene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/740968\/","title":{"rendered":"Seth Rogen says Oscar-winning star quit Knocked Up over graphic childbirth scene"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Seth Rogen<\/a> has lifted the lid on what happened behind the scenes on Knocked Up, revealing why an A-list actor who had been due to star opposite him quit the project. <\/p>\n

The hit 2007 comedy, written and directed by Judd Apatow<\/a>, saw Katherine Heigl play high-flying TV producer Alison, who found out she was pregnant after a one-night stand with Ben Stone, an unemployed (and appropriately named) stoner played by Rogen. <\/p>\n

But when production initially began, Anne Hathaway<\/a> was in the leading female role. <\/p>\n

Rogen was quizzed on the Les Mis\u00e9rables star\u2019s exit as he appeared on The A24 Podcast with Olivia Wilde, who he stars opposite in the new film The Invite. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was Anne Hathaway who quit [Knocked Up],\u201d Rogen admitted. <\/p>\n

\"HathawayHathaway ultimately decided \u2018Knocked Up\u2019 wasn\u2019t for her (Getty)<\/p>\n

Referring to a graphic birth scene in the film, which cut to the baby\u2019s head emerging as Alison gave birth, Wilde said: \u201cBecause of the crowning right? Is that real?\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I mean\u2026 it could have been a hundred million things,\u201d Rogen replied. \u201cThat was what I remember being told. Crowning is a tough one. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe didn\u2019t want the crowning of the baby to be visually representative. Even though it wasn\u2019t going to be hers\u2026 It\u2019s obviously not real. But she didn\u2019t even want\u2026 she felt that it was not her brand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rogen added that he does wonder if Hathaway may have thought, \u201cI don\u2019t know if this is for me\u201d after rehearsals began. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe had a sense, and she knew it was not for her,\u201d he explained. \u201cAnd history will tell \u2026 she has been right about a lot more things than I have over the years. So I think she was probably right.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"HeiglHeigl and Rogen in \u2018Knocked Up\u2019<\/p>\n

Knocked Up was one of Apatow\u2019s biggest hits, earning more than $200m at the worldwide box office. <\/p>\n

As well as Rogen, the film featured a number of other actors Apatow would go on to work with multiple times, including Paul Rudd and Jonah Hill. The filmmakers\u2019 wife, Leslie Mann, also starred as Debbie, Alison\u2019s judgmental older sister.<\/p>\n

Heigl later criticised the film, calling it \u201ca little sexist\u201d for \u201cpaint[ing] the women as shrews, as humorless and uptight, and it paints the men as lovable, goofy, fun-loving guys\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt exaggerated the characters and I had a hard time with it, on some days,\u201d she told Vanity Fair. <\/p>\n

Heigl did later backtrack on her comments<\/a>, saying during an appearance on The Howard Stern Show in 2016 that she regretted \u201cs***ting on” Apatow and Rogen. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":740969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,88],"class_list":["post-740968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=740968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/740968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/740969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=740968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=740968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=740968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}