“I told [Smith] I’m not going to change everything, but if everyone just knows they can change things, I find that it makes all the actors seem more real, like it’s actually a conversation that’s happening,” Rogen remembered of his early discussions with the man whose screenplays have been nominated for three Independent Spirit Awards. “So, he was actually not strict at all with the dialogue. We improvised a lot, we changed the words around, and [he hired] guys like Craig Robinson, who is an amazing improviser.”

Now, as long as the MPAA gives “Zack and Miri” an R rating, Rogen claims that audiences will find a new voice from Smith come October 31st. “I’ve seen the movie, and there’s a lot of improvised stuff in it, and it gives it that less-stilted feel. It feels more like a naturalistic movie,” he explained. “[In some comedies] you can just see the guy behind the keyboard writing it, you feel as though you see the guys reading it and memorizing it, and I don’t like that all…If it’s a movie that’s supposed to be real and take place in the real world, I need to feel like the characters are actually having these conversations.”