Seth Rogen recently was a guest at Jimmy Kimmel Live!, where he discussed various aspects of his career and life. In the interview, the actor also recalled the memory of a phone call with Meat Loaf and how he frustrated the rock singer in 2016.
Seth Rogen co-wrote ‘Sausage Party,’ a 2016 comedy animation movie that features food with conscious and human-like qualities. In one scene, a meatloaf in Meat Loaf’s image is seen singing the singer’s hit song ‘I’d Do Anything for Love.’ During his recent interview, Rogen revealed the background story behind this scene, which resulted in a humorous exchange between him and the musician.
The actor first recounted how they came up with the idea and stated that the association between talking food, Meat Loaf, and his song led them to it. However, they needed the singer’s permission to execute their idea, which Rogen was willing to ask for.
He started his story as follows:
“I had a funny Meat Loaf story… I made this movie’ Sausage Party’ years ago. In it, there is a scene where ‘I’d Do Anything for Love’ is playing, and we realize like, ‘Oh! The meatloaf sings ‘I’d Do Anything for Love,’ it’s a movie about food that talks; we should have there be a meatloaf you cut to singing ‘I’d Do Anything for Love.” In order to do that, we had to get the legal sign-off of Meat Loaf, the guy, to do a cartoon representation of him as a meatloaf. So, the question became, ‘How are we going to pitch this to Meat Loaf?’ I was like, ‘I’ll just call Meat Loaf and explain it to him.'”
Afterward, Seth Rogen called Meat Loaf to open up the idea to him, but things did not go as he expected. The musician woke up because of the actor’s calls in bad mood, and a comical dialogue that ended without a definite answer developed between the two.
Recalling the interaction, Rogen said:
“So, I got Meat Loaf’s number. There was a time I was supposed to call: 2.30 on a Friday. And I called him—the phone’s ringing, ringing, and ringing. I call like ten times because I’m supposed to call it. Finally, Meat Loaf answers. He’s like, ‘Huh!? What? Huh?’ I’m like, ‘Meat Loaf! It’s Seth Rogen.’ He goes, ‘You woke me up from a nap!’ So, I’m like, ‘Bad start!‘ Then, he goes, ‘Why you called, Seth?’ And I’m like, ‘Look, Meat Loaf –’ Maybe you heard this, he goes, ‘Call me Meat,’ which is a weird thing to be commanded. I was like, ‘Okay, Meat.’ ‘Why [are] you calling?’ So, I explained, ‘Look, Meat. I have this film called ‘Sausage Party,’ and in it, food talks, and there is a scene where we’re using one of your songs, and we thought it’d be funny if we cut to a meatloaf singing this song as your name is Meat Loaf. The food meatloaf is also called meatloaf.’ Then, there was like 30 seconds of silence, and then, he just goes, ‘Yeah, I get it!’ And he hung up.”
Though Seth Rogen only wanted Meat Loaf’s permission to use his image for a scene where his song is used, he ended up with a funny memory. Thankfully, the scene was executed as planned, and Meat Loaf’s cameo was included in the film, ‘Sausage Party.’