The catty back-and-forth between Seth Rogen and Entourage executive producer Doug Ellin is more interesting than anything that has happened on the show in a very long time. In an interview with TV Guide, Ellin claims that he harbors no ill will toward the actor, who told GQ in 2008 that Entourage wasn’t funny. In fact, Ellin says he originally considered Rogen for the part of Turtle.
“I’m a fan of Rogen’s,” Ellin said, “I had seen him in Undeclared, and I said to our casting director, ‘There’s a Midwestern kind of guy who I think would be funny for this show.’ But then we found Jerry [Ferrara, who plays Turtle], so we went that way.”
As for the Turtle quip in a 2009 episode that Rogen’s “ugliness is oddly fascinating” (which resulted in Rogen calling Ellin a “moron” and “asshole”), Ellin said that, despite his appreciation for the actor, he couldn’t let Rogen completely off the hook for his GQ comment: “If he’s going to say the show sucks, I’m going to say he’s ugly,” Ellin explained. Ellin’s contention he has no problem with Rogen is also a bit hard to take considering he has now forever linked the actor to a character Rogen went out of his way to bash in the episode of The Simpsons he wrote.
Before Their Feud, Entourage Creator Considered Seth Rogen for Show [TV Guide]
