What ties all of Seth Rogen’s films together? The This is the End star and writer says it’s friendship in this “Big Ideas” video from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The actor and filmmaker says that he has a couple of hopes about a Seth Rogen movie: that it’s “generally emotionally relatable.” But more than that, his collaborations with co-writer and director Evan Goldberg have involved the theme of friendship (often with James Franco).

“It’s just funny to have friends yelling at each other, basically,” Rogen jokes. He says that not only can audiences connect with friendships in movies (who doesn’t have or want friends?), these relationships offset some of the raunchier or more subversive elements in the movie (it’s easier to side with the two heroes of Superbad when the story is less about two horny teens trying to get laid and more about two horny friends trying to get laid as they drift apart – or something).

Side note: did you remember that he was in Donnie Darko? The last time I saw it, it was like that Rudy moment where you see young and not-yet-famous Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn. Think, in another, weird timeline, between that and his character in Freaks and Geeks, Rogen could have been relegated to a career of playing bullies and bad guys.

Rogen’s currently in post-production on his next collaboration with Franco, The Interview, which will likely have even more bromance between the two actors as they attempt to kill Kim Jong-un in the movie (and avoid the wrath of North Korean security in real life).

[Source: Filmmaker IQ via Movies.com]