King of the Slackers: It's a Full-Time Job

Seth Rogen has come to embody a certain type of modern-day male: aimless and irresponsible, like an unkempt Peter Pan perpetually hovered over a big glass bong, marking time with video-game triumphs.

It's the type of life he'd probably choose if it weren't for all this work. Right now Rogen is publicizing one movie ("Zack and Miri Make a Porno"), shooting another (Judd Apatow's "Funny People") and writing a third (a remake of "The Green Hornet").

"I feel like it would be nice to slow things down for a bit," he says during a Sunday afternoon phone interview from a hotel room in Los Angeles. "And in about a year and a half I'll be able to."

Since moving to Hollywood from Vancouver, B.C., nine years ago, Rogen, now 26, who got his start in the TV cult favorite "Freaks and Geeks," has appeared in 15 movies, written three and served as a producer on four. And while he could probably still pass unrecognized in a crowd of baby boomers -- though some might pause to tell him to tuck in that shirt and go find a razor-- to younger generations, he has become a comic icon.

Hits such as "Superbad" and "Pineapple Express," both of which he co-wrote and produced with longtime creative partner Evan Goldberg, have earned huge box office numbers, making him the antihero for the underachieving set. (He also starred in "Pineapple Express" as the schlubby, pot-smoking process server, and appeared in "Superbad" as a schlubby slacker cop.)

It's a funny thing, to be the workaholic king of the slackers.

"Yeah, productivity-wise we're all very different from our characters," he says, referring to the listless gang that writer-director Apatow has assembled. "But the sentiment behind them is all very similar to how we feel in real life. I'm not a process server who can just smoke weed in my car all day -- but sometimes I wish I was."

As it stands, he doesn't even get weekends off to loaf. "When I'm not acting, I'm writing pretty much. . . . I shoot all day, come home for a few hours, write for a couple hours after work and write a bit on the weekends sometimes," he says. "Yeah, so, it's quite a lot."

But maybe even the most unambitious would get up off the couch for the kind of opportunities Rogen has been given. "Zack and Miri," a small-town romp touching on friendship, love and amateur porn, was conceived and directed by Kevin Smith, a hero of Rogen's and the slightly deranged mind behind "Clerks," "Mallrats" and "Dogma."

"I got an e-mail one day from Kevin, kind of out of the blue, saying, 'I wrote a movie for you,' " Rogen recalls. "And then I read it and I liked it, and I said, 'Okay, I'll be in this.' And it was pretty much as simple as that."

Yeah. Isn't that always the way?

Once again, Rogen appears as a witty but shiftless 20-something, this time working at a coffee shop and burning utility bills for heat once the electricity in his apartment is shut off. It's a near-replica of his previous roles, but Rogen says he isn't concerned about boxing himself in.