‘This Is The End’ directors Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg dish on their apocalyptic filmmaking debut

With hit comedies like “Superbad” and “Pineapple Express” under their collective belts as screenwriters, it was only a matter of time before funnyman Seth Rogen and long-time comedy partner Evan Goldberg found themselves behind the camera, directing their first feature film.

That moviemaking debut is “This Is The End,” an apocalyptic comedy based on a mock trailer that Rogen and fellow Canadian Jay Baruchel (“Tropic Thunder”) produced and starred in while making “Knocked Up” back in 2006. The film stars Rogen, along with real-life Hollywood pals Jonah Hill, James Franco, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, and Craig Robinson, as fictional versions of themselves faced with the biblical apocalypse.

So, why did the two Vancouver natives choose the biblical fire-and-brimstone apocalypse over, say, any number of other possible fictional finalities for the human race? (See: zombies, aliens, nuclear war, environmental disaster, etc.) While in Toronto to promote “This Is The End,” Rogen and Goldberg admitted that their Jewish heritage may have played some part in making the all-star comedy about the Rapture.

“The original joke in the movie was ‘What happens to the Jews?’" Rogen said of the apoc-com, emitting one of his trademark chuckles.

“And the answer is: 'You get f---ed,” Goldberg quickly added. “We had this one conversation where we were like, ‘People actually think that as Jews, we’re going to be stuck here. We started talking about what we would do if that happened. They just sort of say all these people get left behind, but what happens to all these Jews? It started from a Jewish thing.”

Asked if the duo had ever considered other end of the world scenarios for the movie, Rogen replied, "We always wanted it to be the Christian apocalypse. We just thought it was funny."

Despite that potentially touchy religious subject matter, Goldberg believes that though things are being played for laughs, their depiction of the fire-and-brimstone apocalypse is faithful to Biblical descriptions of the end of the world.

“No one can get mad at us for what we’ve done here,” Goldberg said with a laugh. “People who think this is going to happen, like, yeah, we’re just doing what you think is going to happen!”

In terms of the film’s comedic tone, Rogen and Goldberg confessed that their Jewish-Canadian background also played a major role in crafting “This Is The End.”

“It’s pretty self-deprecating,” Rogen said of the movie’s oft-times harsh, roast-like brand of comedy.

“Canadians have a great sense of humour because they’re willing to self-deprecate, and no one self-deprecates like a Jew,” Goldberg added. The film required all of its actors to get in that ridiculing mood, tossing insults at one another (or at least the fictional versions of one another) and absorbing hurtful barbs about their own real-life careers.

“We got the ball rolling in the script and really let the actors take it further,” Rogen explained.

“If anything the guys were more antagonistic with each other than we wanted,” Goldberg recalled. “We’d often have to stop Jonah and Franco from going at each other, we'd be like ‘You guys like each other in this movie! We get it; you can make "Moneyball" jokes all day. In this movie though, you guys wouldn’t be doing that!’”

Rogen said that the entire cast, including himself and Goldberg, became hilariously “wrapped up” in being able to slam their friends’ movies while filming “This Is The End,” but recognized James Franco as the member of the cast with the thickest skin.

“The more you think it might be something that insults him, the more entertained he is by it," Rogen said, throwing his head back to laugh. "I went up to him and was like 'I want to do an art project with you: Let’s do an art project about how stupid your art projects are.' And he was like 'Great! I love it!'" Goldberg recalled, smirking. "You can’t faze the guy!"

"This Is The End" is in theatres June 12.