Superbad, released in 2007, stars Jonah Hill and Michael Cera as high school friends Seth and Evan, who set out to impress their respective crushes by supplying them with alcohol for a party. They do so in the hope that they’ll be able to lose their virginities before graduation, but things end up going poorly for them every step of the way. Co-written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the idea for the film was conceived while the pair were still teenagers. The initial screenplay eventually made its way into the hands of Judd Apatow, who went on to produce it, but not before some significant changes were made.

For one thing, Rogen originally planned on playing Hill’s role, but was too old to pass for a teenager by the time the movie got made. The executives at Sony Pictures also had very specific notes about the Seth character using one of their products. While appearing on the red carpet for the premiere of his Apple TV+ series The Studio at SXSW last year, Rogen told Rotten Tomatoes that the Sony people found Hill’s character so “reprehensible” that a scene in which he was supposed to be shown playing a PlayStation 2 game had to be rewritten. 

According to Rogen, the studio made it very clear to him that Hill wasn’t allowed to touch a PlayStation console at any point in the movie. To clarify, they said that they couldn’t have him interact with one of their products because of how “vile” his character was. “It’s based on me, that’s very insulting,” Rogen jokingly told them in response. But at the end of the day, they complied with the studio’s wishes, and only Cera’s character was seen playing a video game in the final version of the film.

In one draft of the script written just before shooting began in 2006, Evan is said to be playing a Grand Theft Auto game while Seth tries on clothes at his house. Frustrated that he can’t find the dirt bike he’s looking for in the game, he gives up and says, “Ah, screw it, I’m just gonna kill everyone.” Clearly whatever Seth’s involvement was supposed to be with that was already changed by then, but some things would still be altered prior to the film’s release. The video game Evan plays in the actual scene is 2004’s The Getaway: Black Monday, which he spends a lot more time trying to discuss. Most notably, Hill’s character is very dismissive of what Evan’s playing, responding to his game commentary by saying, “Oh, really? Cuz, yeah, that’s what we should be talking about right now.”