We inadvertently see them in shopping malls lurking about for purse snatchers and unruly teens on the cusp of causing trouble, all the while trying to seem more important than most people think of them as. Mall security guards aren’t really taken that seriously, but that’s about to change. Well, maybe.
In Warner Bros. Pictures’ new comedy Observe and Report, Seth Rogen heads up the security guard team at the local mall where a pervert has fully exposed himself several times and Rogen is on a mission to catch him after he flashes the girl at the cosmetics counter who just so happens to be the girl of his delusional dreams.
The mall employee is played by Anna Farris and he somehow believes the flasher is going to murder her and after she hears his crazy notion, Farris now thinks that’s going to happen and chaos ensues.
That’s just the beginning of Rogen’s troubles, however. There are a string of robberies in the stores, so the management office alerts the police and a detective (Ray Liotta) is sent in to help the egomaniac mall cop.
Rogen, who secretly wants to be a cop himself, tangles with the detective and wages war on the Goodfellas star. He is furious that Liotta is there and makes it well known, but Liotta isn’t putting up with any kind of attitude from Rogen and gives it back to him a lot worse, which makes him cry.
The idea came from writer and director Jody Hill, whose first film The Foot Fist Way was released last May. The movie was shot at a near deserted mall in Albuquerque, New Mexico and Comingsoon.net was on the set watching Rogen unleash his comedic talents and seriously annoy the hell out of Liotta’s character. We got an upfront view of the scene (watch the completed, restricted scene!) with Rogen and Liotta as they questioned a kiosk owner (Aziz Ansari) about the incidents because we were an extra in the film as well.
For our scene we pretended like we were shopping at the Oasis Lotions and Shower Gels kiosk while the owner was inappropriately rubbing lotion on a shopper’s back. He said hilarious and dirty things to the girl which we can’t repeat, but it was something along the lines of how the lotion makes him feel and what he would like to do with it.
The girl was in such shock she had no expression and didn’t say a word. She just stood there holding her hair back letting this guy seductively demonstrate how wonderful his lotion products are on her, which in itself was funny and we had to really refrain from cracking up since we were in the background.
A couple of minutes later, Rogen and Liotta approach the kiosk owner to ask him questions about the recent break-ins and see if he has seen or heard anything suspicious that might help their case. Rogen already has it in his mind that the guy is the flasher and is incredibly hostel.
“Hello Saddamn,” he says as they walk up.
Liotta looks annoyed with Rogen and begins to routinely ask about the burglaries.
“You fit the profile,” Rogen heatedly says.
Liotta is now just irritated with Rogen for the way he’s acting and walks away, but Rogen isn’t quite finished harassing the owner just yet.
“I know you did this. You might have fooled that rookie, but you did not fool me,” Rogen screams in his face.
The owner. now pissed off. yells back at Rogen.
“F**k you! F**k you!”
Hill then shouted cut and we all laughed.
We did the scene a few times and each time Rogen came up with new funny lines like, “Why don’t you go f**k Rascal Flatts.”
Ansari wasn’t so bad at improv either and during one take, he becomes so mad at Rogen for the way he’s been treated, he starts throwing bottles of lotion and shower gel at him as he walks away. Rogen keeps walking and doesn’t look back, but the owner is seriously irate and throws the products with such a vengeance that it again was hard not to burst into laughter.
Michael Pena co-stars in the film as Rogen’s right-hand man and while we did interview him, he was not shooting when we were on set.
Danny McBride also appears in the movie briefly as a drug dealer who beats up Rogen when he tries to arrest his son for selling drugs while he’s on a ride along with Liotta. Apparently, the detective has had enough of his wanna be cop and drops him off in a seedy neighborhood and that’s when he sees a drug deal go down. He attempts to make a citizen’s arrest, but that didn’t go so well for him.
As you may know, McBride went to college with Hill and starred in The Foot Fist Way. The director actually pays his friend a little tribute to his friend and if you look closely, in one of the store windows there’s a t-shirt with him on the front sporting the “Foot Fist Way” name and logo.
You can read our interviews with Rogen, Liotta, Pena and Hill using the links below!
Seth Rogen on playing Ronnie Barnhardt
Ray Liotta on playing Detective Harrison
Michael Pena on playing Dennis
Observe and Report opens in theaters on April 10, 2009.
