Seth Rogen reveals he auditioned for Eminem’s “8 Mile” but failed badly

In a chapter from his upcoming book Yearbook, Seth Rogen revealed that he auditioned for the role of Cheddar Bob, the friend of Eminem’s Rabbit character from Oscar-winning 8 Mile movie, who infamously shoots himself in the leg with his own gun during a scuffle.

Seth Rogen auditioned twice for the film after his first attempt proved unsuccessful due to the casting director not liking the “rappery” dialogue. He was asked to come back and bring someone to do the audition with him. That friend was Jason Segel, who was also auditioning to play Cheddar Bob.

“We asked our agents if our auditions could be scheduled one right after the other, so that one of us could audition for Cheddar, with the other reading the Rabbit part, and then we’d switch. We had a sleepover at my apartment the night before the auditions so we could rehearse and then carpooled to the audition together.” Rogen told the Insider magazine.

Rogen read for Cheddar first, then Segel. However, Rogen couldn’t stop breaking character and laughing at the delivery of the lines.

“Yo, yo, muthaf**ka! It’s Chedda! What up, bitch!” Segel said, delivering Rabbit’s lines off-screen. Rogen, responding as Cheddar said: “Yo, yo, Rabbit! You gotta record your s**t at Paisley Park, yo!”

“I started laughing hysterically. And so did Jason. We literally couldn’t make it through the auditions. As soon as one of us started the scene, the other would lose it…It was so silly, we couldn’t finish. We just excused ourselves and saw ourselves out, tears streaming down our faces.” said Rogan.

In the end, the role of Cheddar Bob went to Evan Jones. Rogen and Eminem would later end up crossing paths with one another in the 2009 film, titled Funny People and later in 2014, The comedy movie, The Interview, also starring James Franco.