- Seth Rogen told "The Tonight Show" that he shaved back his hairline for his role in "The Fabelmans."
- He plays a character inspired by Steven Spielberg's uncle, who had a "very receding hairline."
Seth Rogen said that he thought shaving back his hairline for his role in Steven Spielberg's new biographical film, "The Fabelmans," was a huge deal — until he realized that no one had noticed.
Appearing on "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon" Tuesday, Rogen opened up about changes he made to his physical appearance to better portray Bennie, a character inspired by the director's real uncle, in the upcoming film, which also stars Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, and newcomer Gabriel LaBelle.
Spielberg told the "Pineapple Express" star that his real-life counterpart had a "very receding hairline" and so came to him a few days before shooting began and said: "I want you to cut back your hairline so it looks like you're going much more bald than you are."
"I was like, 'Okay, this is a big thing for me, but how do you say no to Steven Spielberg?' So obviously, I go back and I do it, and to me, it's very drastic," Rogen said.
"I'm like, 'Oh, my God, it's all everyone's going to talk about.' I'm going to see everyone and they'll be like, 'Oh, my God.'"
However, it turns out that Rogen's family and friends weren't too fazed by the change and either didn't notice or chose not to comment on it to spare his feelings.
"Instead, I kept running into people I know and seeing them, and no one said anything and that made me realize, to them, I'm balding!" the "Pam & Tommy" actor said. "I was already balding! It wasn't a shift."
"So then I realized I am a balding guy. So that was a big moment for me," he added.
Rogen went on to say he was left conflicted about how to feel about his new status as a "balding guy," noting that "a lot of actors do something about it."
"I work with a lot of actors who, now in their career, they have more hair than when they started," he said. "It's a stressful double life they have as a balding actor who is pretending not to be balding."
Rogen was quick to point to the stars of Marvel Cinematic Universe as an example of this, noting that the cast has more hair in "Avengers: Endgame" (2019) than they do in the franchise's earlier installment, "Avengers Assemble" (2012).
"They all have more hair in 'Endgame,'" he joked. "Every single one of them. With the snap, 50 percent of their hair came back."