Earlier this month, Mitt Romney hosted his annual summit in Park City, Utah, for “top Republicans, wealthy donors and powerful business leaders.”
And Seth Rogen.
Yes, the director/star of The Interview and executive producer of AMC’s Preacher was personally invited to speak at the VIP conference about Alzheimer’s—since Rogen and his wife Lauren run Hilarity for Charity, an organization that spreads Alzheimer’s awareness, funds Alzheimer’s research and provides nursing care to families affected by Alzheimer’s.
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“I got a phone call from Mitt Romney recently, which was a weird call to get,” Rogen recalled on Friday’s The Late Show. “He’s not the loosest of guys, I guess you would say. And when you’re talking to him, you realize the name ‘Mitt’ is a weird name…It must be short for Mittens!”
Rogen told host Stephen Colbert that he thought attending Romney’s summit was “a good chance to reach across the aisle, as it were,” so he went. “Almost all of the attendees were Republican people—and I’m OK with that, but I didn’t know how I would react, honestly, to every situation,” he added.
He said he was put in “a bit of a pickle,” however.
“At one point, two very young, white teenage men…they asked to take a picture with me. They’re maybe 16, 17. Very nice fans—clearly fans of mine.” He agreed to pose for the picture, “And then they said, ‘Our Dad wants to meet you,’ and I turned around and Paul Ryan was walking towards me.”
“My whole buddy puckered, as it were. I tensed up. And…I didn’t know what to do!” he continued. “And he came over and just grabbed my hand. And I’m like, ‘I’m shaking his hand, I don’t know what to do.’ And he says, ‘Can I have a picture with you?’ and I look over and his kids are standing right there expectantly, clearly fans of mine, and I said, ‘No way, man!’”
Both Rogen and Colbert erupted in laughter. But there was more: “And I couldn’t stop. I said, ‘Furthermore, I hate what you’re doing with the country at this moment, and I’m counting the days till you no longer have one iota of the power that you currently have.’ And I look over and his kids are still standing right there, and I feel very conflicted about this at this moment. It’s not their fault, but at the same time, they should probably learn that if they like a movie or song, the person who made that probably doesn’t like their Dad that much—unless they’re watching Roseanne reruns.”
The funnyman did confess that “his kids seem lovely” and that he was “glad” he didn’t take a picture with Paul Ryan. If that weren’t enough, Rogen also shared a story about his hilarious run-in with Anthony Scaramucci and his thoughts on Donald Trump’s surreal meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un—a topic he’s very familiar with.
