Seth Rogen said the new comedy-drama “Babies,” directed by his wife Lauren Miller Rogen and premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival, draws more directly from his own life than any project he has previously starred in.
Speaking Saturday at The Hollywood Reporter’s studio at TIFF, Rogen said the film reflects real conversations he and Miller Rogen had while deciding not to have children. “I think this movie is much more personal and much more reflective of my actual experiences,” he said, adding that watching the finished film left him struck by how closely it tracked their actual thought process as a couple. He called his wife’s willingness to put that material on screen an act of bravery, saying it takes courage to write about the most private parts of a relationship and share it publicly.
“Babies” stars Rogen and Anna Kendrick as a married couple weighing whether parenthood is right for them, with the characters named Aaron and Annie after the couple’s own middle names. The plot turns when the pair take in a friend, played by Kate Berlant, and her young daughter after the friend separates from her husband, forcing the couple to confront parenting up close.
A secondary storyline follows Annie caring for a mother with Alzheimer’s disease, a detail drawn from Miller Rogen’s own life. Her mother, Adele Miller, died in 2020 from complications of early-onset Alzheimer’s, an experience that led Miller Rogen and Rogen to found the nonprofit Hilarity for Charity, which funds Alzheimer’s research and caregiver support.
This marks Miller Rogen’s third feature as a writer-director, following “For a Good Time, Call…” in 2012 and “Like Father” in 2018, both of which drew on her own experiences and relationships. She and Rogen met in 2004, married in 2011, and have collaborated on screen intermittently since, including her writing credit on “The Studio,” Rogen’s recent series. Kendrick has said publicly that appearing in a film built so closely around someone else’s marriage gave her pause, joking that the exposure would leave her needing therapy of her own.
