Seth Rogen Didn't Give Bill Hader A Choice About Signing On To Superbad

The teen coming-of-age comedy "Superbad" was released in 2007, featuring one of the greatest fake ID stories ever committed to film. Debate it all you like, but if anyone says, "McLovin," you immediately know what they're referencing. 

"Superbad" stars Jonah Hill as Seth and Michael Cera as Evan, high school best friends who are about to graduate and go to different colleges. They hatch a plan to lose their virginity at a big house party, and, along with their friend Fogell (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), try to get alcohol. Fogell's fake ID, which lists him as a 25-year-old man simply named "McLovin," gets him noticed by the cops after a robbery at the liquor store. It also starts an adventure that involves police officers Michaels (co-writer Seth Rogen) and Slater (Bill Hader) throwing Molotov cocktails at their own vehicle. 

The cop scenes with Fogell are some of the best in the film, which boasts a whole lot of funny moments. Officers Michaels and Slater are very, very bad cops ... unless you're a teenager with a fake ID. According to a cast interview with Vanity Fair about the history of "Superbad," Bill Hader didn't have any choice about playing Slater, at the insistence of Seth Rogen.  

Hader told the outlet that he had to shoot a few days of the film "You, Me, and Dupree" in Hawaii (oddly enough, where the fictional McLovin's license originates). Rogen and his co-writer Goldberg — who based the story on their own high school experiences — were there at the time and mentioned having a script. Rogen knew that he wanted to work with Hader, because they had "the same understanding of timing and tone and rhythm, we love all the same movies. We just hit it off right away," he said in the interview. 

It seems that Rogen and Goldberg decided that Hader was going to play Officer Slater and that was that. Hader told the outlet:

"I met with Judd Apatow and he said, 'So Seth and Evan said they met you and they enjoyed meeting you. They wrote this movie called Superbad, and there's a part for a cop that you're going to play.' I remember he didn't ask if I would play it. He said, 'You're gonna play this.'"

Hader mentions later in the article that he went to pick up his daughter from sixth grade once, and one of her friends was wearing a shirt with McLovin's ID on it. He might not have chosen to play the role, but there's no doubt that "Superbad" has stood the test of time. 

Michaels and Slater are some of the best/worst cops in big screen history, and as Rogen told Vanity Fair, their characters attitudes were all based off of someone real. 

To prepare for the roles of the officers that befriend McLovin, making him think they believe he's a 25-year-old with one name from Hawaii, Rogen and Hader went on a ride-along in South Los Angeles. Rogen called it "truly one of the most terrifying experiences of my life because of the cop," calling him "the worst cop on Earth." That does seem to fit the sort of policemen that Michaels and Slater are. Rogen said:

"A lot of the attitude honestly that we had in the movie was based off of this guy. He didn't seem to give a f*** about anything. He was antagonizing people, bothering people. He saw it as funny. Everything we do in the movie was within the capabilities of how this guy we went on a ride-along with would potentially act."

That is both funny and a little bit chilling, though I supposed your reaction depends on whether you are a kid trying not to get in trouble with the law, or a grown person who thinks that's maybe not the best way for cops to act. They pretend to arrest Fogell so he looks cool in front of his friends, shoot a stop sign, and blow up their own car. In the film though, it's absolutely hysterical.