Rogen, Apatow Call-Out WaPo Critic

Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow may be able to handle negative reviews of their films but they will not be blamed for the violent tendencies of lonely college students. The actor and director both responded to an op-ed published in the Washington Post over the weekend placing partial blame for the shooting at the University of California, Santa Barbara on the entertainment industry and the frat comedies made by Rogen and Apatow.

Ann Hornaday

Film critic Ann Hornaday wrote, "As important as it is to understand Rodger’s actions within the context of the mental illness he clearly suffered, it’s just as clear that his delusions were inflated, if not created, by the entertainment industry he grew up in." She later elaborated on that idea by adding, "How many students watch outsized frat-boy fantasies like Neighbors and feel, as Rodger did, unjustly shut out of college life that should be full of 'sex and fun and pleasure'? How many men, raised on a steady diet of Judd Apatow comedies in which the shlubby arrested adolescent always gets the girl, find that those happy endings constantly elude them and conclude, 'It's not fair'?" Ann goes on to say, "If our cinematic grammar is one of violence, sexual conquest and macho swagger -- thanks to male studio executives who green-light projects according to their own pathetic predilections -- no one should be surprised when those impulses take luridly literal form in the culture at large."

Seth responded on Twitter on Monday (May 26th) writing, ".@AnnHornaday I find your article horribly insulting and misinformed. how dare you imply that me getting girls in movies caused a lunatic to go on a rampage."

.@AnnHornaday how dare you imply that me getting girls in movies caused a lunatic to go on a rampage.
— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) May 26, 2014

Apatow added, "She uses tragedy to promote herself with idiotic thoughts." He went on to suggest that she was just trying to use shock value to sell papers and wrote, "Remember everyone - ads next to articles generate money. They say something shocking and uninformed & get you to click on it to profit. Most of Earth can't find a mate -- someone to love.  People who commit murder of numerous people have mental health issues of some type."

“@melissa5001: @Sethrogen @marshallsheldon @AnnHornaday why is it always everything but mental illness?” Because that doesn't sell papers.
— Judd Apatow (@JuddApatow) May 27, 2014

Hornaday in today's Washington Post responded:

"I was not using the grievous episode in Isla Vista to make myself more famous; nor was I casting blame on the movies for Rodger’s actions. Rather, in my capacity as a movie critic, I was looking at the video as a lens through which to examine questions about sexism, insecurity and entitlement, how they’ve threaded their way through an entertainment culture historically dominated by men and how they’ve shaped our own expectations as individuals and a culture. At a time when women account for less than 20 percent of filmmakers behind the camera and protagonists in front of it, I suggested that it’s long past time to expand and diversify the stories we tell ourselves."