Good or Bad Neighbor? Zac Efron, Seth Rogen & Cast of 'Neighbors' Speak Out
On May 9, Universal will release the raunchy comedy "Neighbors" starring Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne, Zac Efron, and Dave Franco.
The film tells the story of a couple with a newborn baby who are forced to live next to a rowdy fraternity.
Andrew J. Cohen and Brendan O'Brien wrote the film and, while it was not inspired by their actual real life story, the writers brought in some inspiration from some situations they had as neighbors.
During a press conference in New York, producer Evan Goldberg recalled O'Brien and his wife telling him that they wanted to call the police when they saw a couple of kids skateboarding around their house.
"Brendan's wife saw some kids skateboarding outside at her house one day and she said to Brendan those kids are up to no good, we should call the cops. And he said, did you just say those kids are up to no good, what happened to us, we're old." said Goldberg.
Goldberg also recalled some bad neighbor experiences he had with his neighbor Clint Culpepper. He said, "I recently had the cops called on me by Clint Culpepper. He called the cops on me because Seth [Rogen] was laughing too loud at two in the morning in my backyard. And there was a bunch of people but no one was being loud; it was just Seth. Then we confronted [Culpepper] and told him he should have called us instead."
When asked what happened after, Goldberg said Culpepper had moved a week ago.
Director Nick Stoller also revealed his experiences and admitted that he was not a very good neighbor during his student years.
"I was really cool in college and one of the cool things that my roommates and I did was blast the Star Wars films at all times of the day," he stated. "Our down stairs neighbors complained all the time."
Meanwhile, producer James Weaver, who was the only former frat boy involved in the film, admitted that being in a fraternity got him into trouble.
"In college we were doing a pledge of some kind and they were shooting fireworks and that resulted in the cops coming in and us running," he revealed. "And one of our pledges got arrested and pretty much our fraternity was on probation for the rest of the year."
Rogen admitted that he understood his character better because of his own firsthand knowledge.
"My current neighbor I don't like. He's been building his house for the past two years and he starts at 7:30 in the morning every day and he is very nasty about it," he narrated. "He knows I don't like it and we argue a lot. My method of dealing with it is I scream at him every three months and it makes me feel a little better.
"But it does nothing as far as the progress of the house goes."
Meanwhile, young actor Jerrod Carmichael described himself as a good neighbor who did not actually know any of the people living near him.
"I'm a good neighbor. I go home and I don't bother introducing myself to anyone. I don't know a single one of my neighbor's names and no one complains."
Actor Dave Franco also admitted he was a very good neighbor and characterized himself as "boring."
"I'm pretty fantastic neighbor. I realized recently I'm basically the grandmother with two cats who would prefer to stay in and watch ‘The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel' then go out and party," he admitted. "I'm pretty boring."
However, Christopher Mintz-Plasse described himself as a bad neighbor and explained that his involvement in a band was once a great displeasure for the neighborhood.
"We would jam all day with no way to soundproof it. So my neighbors would feel the vibrations with the bass and the drums and they would get really angry," he stated before noting that the animosity has not endured. "But now I built a little soundproof studio and now they love me."