Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne don’t remember the exact date or location of their first introduction more than a decade ago — it was either via a chance backstage encounter at a talk show, according to Byrne, or through one of their many mutual friends, according to Rogen — but a real-life friendship and a successful working relationship were forged when they played a married couple in 2014’s hit comedy “Neighbors.”
“I remember the ‘Neighbors’ audition very clearly,” Byrne says.
“I don’t remember anything that clearly, if I’m being honest, but I do remember that,” Rogen quips. “We did an extensive round of looking for people to co-star. [Director] Nick Stoller had worked with Rose on ‘Get Him to the Greek’ and was always saying how funny she was. She came in and read and it was no contest. There was no one else [we wanted].”
Ten years and a “Neighbors” sequel later, they’ve brought their comedic chemistry to the small screen via AppleTV+’s half-hour “Platonic.” The series, co-created by Stoller, revolves around estranged college friends who reconnect at pivotal points in midlife. It premiered last May and received a Season 2 renewal in December.
“I never dreamed I’d have this great kind of partnership in comedy with someone,” Byrne says.
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“I’d say the comfort [between us] has only grown, which made it easier and hopefully funnier for audiences,” Seth Rogen says of working with Rose Byrne.
(Paul Sarkis / Apple TV+)
“We definitely understand each other’s rhythms better,” Rogen adds. “I’d say the comfort [between us] has only grown, which made it easier and hopefully funnier for audiences.”
Over a recent video call, the two stars, who also serve as executive producers of “Platonic,” discussed the joy of doing physical comedy, coveting Rogen’s colorful wardrobe and those pesky scooters.
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You both got to lean into some physical comedy. Rose, I read that you found some unique videos in your research about ketamine trips.
Byrne: Oh my God, yeah. These [YouTube] videos, they’re really wild because it’s a lot of footage from convenience stores where they’ve recorded people, and it’s really pretty disturbing. That was one of those [scenes] that was really, really fun to do. And then Seth’s just game. I was all over the place. He kept having to prop me up, and I was kicking him in the face, his wine is everywhere.
Rogen: Yeah, that was something where it was helpful to know each other well. And YouTube is an amazing resource for comedy. I think that’s the first place to stop if you’re going to do a physical gag.
Seth, you had some physical work with those electric scooters that are everywhere in L.A. Do you or Nick or someone on the writing staff have a personal vendetta against them?
Rogen: No, I don’t hate the scooters. I don’t love them either. I lived in West Hollywood for a long time and I would come outside and there would be a pile of them outside my front door. It’s impossible not to feel some sort of resentment toward them. What’s funny, my father-in-law actually hates them. He tried to throw one and majorly f— up his shoulder for a year and a half. I also hurt my shoulder throwing them pretty early on in the shoot. It hurt for quite a while. Those things are a lot heavier than they look.
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“I never left the bucket hat. I don’t know if it’s back or not, but it’s back with me,” Seth Rogen says. “I’ve been a consistent believer of the bucket hat.” So too is his “Platonic” character.
(Paul Sarkis / Apple TV+)
A hopefully less painful subject:You got to keep your character’s clothes. How are you wearing them?
Rogen: I do wear them. The clothes were a strong choice; it was an idea I had. The character was not scripted as dressing any specific way, but to me this guy is desperately trying to be cool and hang onto his youth and also trying to assert himself as a unique individual in this downtown Arts District world. He’s also someone who’s probably just friends with a lot of people with clothing companies, and I know people who work in this type of field, so it was representative of things I’ve seen, but mostly it was a way to look like a sad old man trying to be young.
Byrne: I loved it. And it also gave me an opportunity to make fun of you. It was always like a good warmup joke [for Sylvia], being like, “What are you wearing?” It’s just such a specific kind of needle that you were threading. It was really fun.
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You’re also one of the few that pulls off the bucket hat really well. It’s not a good look for everyone.
Rogen: I actually do wear bucket hats. We went out for dinner yesterday, and my sister was like, “You’re really sticking with the bucket hat?” I’ve never left them. I went with it in the ’90s when it started and I never left the bucket hat. I don’t know if it’s back or not, but it’s back with me. I’ve been a consistent believer of the bucket hat.
Byrne: It is a hard one to pull off. I look ridiculous in a bucket hat.
Rogen: You could argue that I also look ridiculous, but I embrace it.
Is there a specific line that fans quote to you or something that people want to talk to you about regarding this show?
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Rogen: I get a lot of talk from people who hate the scooters.
Byrne: People have strong feelings about the scooters.
Rogen: Very strong. And guys who bleached their hair. I got a lot of middle-aged men [coming up to me] like, “I saw you, thought it looked pretty good.”
Byrne: I’ve had a lot of [positive feedback] from mothers trying to get back in the workforce. It’s a passage in life for a lot of women, and that was definitely part of this character. And then also people who’ve had similar friendships with a guy or a girl and have this history of a great friendship that is not the same anymore and how that is. I hadn’t really seen a show like this before where it really is about a friendship, and that was nice.
Looking ahead, what can you share about your hopes for Season 2?
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Rogen: I don’t know what I can say. I’m looking forward to it.
Byrne: I’m kind of in the same camp. It’s great to get a second go. You really can lean into more of what was working and leave what wasn’t.
Rogen: Yeah. I think especially with TV, there’s a sense that it gets better as you do it. There’s probably the wave, probably crests, but I know as you’re shooting the sixth episode, I’m always like, oh, we’re all so much funnier than we were when on the second episode. That’s what I’m looking forward to is, to Rose’s point, knowing each other, knowing what works a little bit better and having a little less concern that people will just massively reject what we are doing.
At the centre of Madhuvidhu directed by Vishnu Aravind is a house where only men reside, three generations of them living in harmony. Unlike the Anjooran household in Godfather, this is not a house where entry is banned to women, but just that women don’t choose to come here. For Amrithraj alias Ammu (Sharafudheen), the protagonist, 28 marriage proposals have already fallen through although he was not lacking in interest.
When a not-so-cordial first meeting with Sneha (Kalyani Panicker) inevitably turns into mutual attraction, things appear about to change. But some unexpected hiccups are waiting for them, their different religions being one of them. Writers Jai Vishnu and Bipin Mohan do not seem to have any major ambitions with Madhuvidhu, but they seem rather content to aim for the middle space of a feel-good entertainer. Only that they end up hitting further lower.
After more than two and a half years of research, planning and construction, Dataland, the world’s first museum of AI arts, will open June 20.
Co-founded by new media artists Refik Anadol and Efsun Erkılıç, the museum anchors the $1-billion Frank Gehry-designed Grand LA complex across the street from Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. Its first exhibition, “Machine Dreams: Rainforest,” created by Refik Anadol Studio, was inspired by a trip to the Amazon and uses vast data sets to immerse visitors in a machine-generated sensory experience of the natural world.
The architecture of the space, which Anadol calls “a living museum,” is used to reflect distant rainforest ecosystems, including changing temperature, light, smell and visuals. Anadol refers to these large-scale, shimmering tableaus as “digital sculptures.”
“This is such an important technology, and represents such an important transformation of humanity,” Anadol said in an interview. “And we found it so meaningful and purposeful to be sure that there is a place to talk about it, to create with it.”
The 35,000-square-foot privately funded museum devotes 25,000 square feet to public space, with the remaining 10,000 square feet holding the in-house technology that makes the space run. Dataland contains five immersive galleries and a 30-foot ceiling. An escalator by the entrance will transport guests to the experiences below. The museum declined to say how much Dataland, designed by architecture firm Gensler, cost to build.
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An isometric architectural rendering of Dataland. The 25,000-square-foot AI arts museum also contains an additional 10,000 square feet of non-public space that holds its operational technology.
(Refik Anadol Studio for Dataland)
Dataland will collect and preserve artificial intelligence art and is powered by an open-access AI model created by Anadol’s studio called the Large Nature Model. The model, which does not source without permission, culls mountains of data about the natural world from partners including the Smithsonian, London’s Natural History Museum and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. This data, including up to half a billion images of nature, will form the basis for the creation of a variety of AI artworks, including “Machine Dreams.”
“AI art is a part of digital art, meaning a lineage that uses software, data and computers to create a form of art,” Anadol explained. “I know that many artists don’t want to disclose their technologies, but for me, AI means possibilities. And possibilities come with responsibilities. We have to disclose exactly where our data comes from.”
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Sustainability is another responsibility that Anadol takes seriously. For more than a decade, Anadol has devoted much thought to the massive carbon footprint associated with AI models. The Large Nature Model is hosted on Google Cloud servers in Oregon that use 87% carbon-free, renewable energy. Anadol says the energy used to support an individual visit to the museum is equivalent to what it takes to charge a single smartphone.
Anadol believes AI can form a powerful bridge to nature — serving as a means to access and preserve it — and that the swiftly evolving technology can be harnessed to illuminate essential truths about humanity’s relationship to an interconnected planet. During a time of great anxiety about the power of AI to disrupt lives and livelihoods, Anadol maintains it can be a revolutionary tool in service of a never-before-seen form of art.
“The works generate an emergent, living reality, a machine’s dream shaped by continuous streams of environmental and biological data. Within this evolving system, moments of recognition and interpretation emerge across different forms of knowledge,” a news release about the museum explains. “At the same time, the exhibition registers loss as part of this expanded field of perception, most notably in the Infinity Room, where visitors encounter the 1987 recording of the last known Kauaʻi ʻŌʻō, a now-extinct bird whose unanswered call becomes part of the work.”
“It’s very exciting to say that AI art is not image only,” Anadol said. “It’s a very multisensory, multimedium experience — meaning sound, image, video, text, smell, taste and touch. They are all together in conversation.”
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