Anne Hathaway Quit This 2008 Romantic Comedy — and Seth Rogen Explains Why

Before Katherine Heigl, there was Anne Hathaway booked as the “knocked up” lead opposite Seth Rogen back in the 2000s.

Judd Apatow‘s acclaimed rom-com features a rather graphic sequence once it’s time for the main characters of Knocked Up (2008) to welcome their baby girl. And Rogen, 44, just indicated that said sequence might have been what steered the Devil Wears Prada star, 43, away from sticking with the role ultimately.

“It could have been a hundred million things. That was what I remember being told,” Rogen tells Olivia Wilde in a new episode of The A24 Podcast — given that Wilde, 42, had auditioned for the part that ultimately went to Heigl, 47. “Crowning is a tough one. [Hathaway] didn’t want the crowning of the baby to be visually representative. Even though it wasn’t going to be hers…”

Rogen continues, per Variety Australia, “It’s obviously not real. But she didn’t even want…she felt that it was not her brand. Part of me also… we had started rehearsing the movie… maybe she was just like, ‘I don’t know if this is for me.’ I don’t know. I will take what she said at face value, which was the crowning.”

A24 paired up Wilde with Rogen for its latest podcast episode they star together in The Invite, which the company distributes. Fans of The Studio might recall that the Don’t Worry Darling helmer also guest-starred in a standout episode of the Apple TV series, which was co-created by Rogen and will return for a second season.

Per A24, other topics covered in the episode include:​

• saying bad things about famous people
• first meeting at Wilde’s table read for Knocked Up
• G-rated bisexuality on The O.C.
• the craziest audition of Rogen’s life
• constantly being mistaken for a courier, anti-gravity
• The Invite’s origins as a play