# Seth Rogen's best advice: less semen, more emotion

> The kid who wrote Superbad at 13 built a career of 40-plus movies, and the best note he ever got was four words long.
- Title: Seth Rogen's best advice: less semen, more emotion · Variety
- Summary: The kid who wrote Superbad at 13 built a career of 40-plus movies, and the best note he ever got was four words long. Start young, keep shipping, and take…
- Keywords: seth rogen, tiff, comedy, filmmaking, hollywood, entertainment, culture, Seth, Rogen's, best, advice, less
- Source: Variety — https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/seth-rogen-tiff-best-advice-semen-emotion-the-studio-judd-apatow-1236860532
- Author: Marlow Stern
- Published: 2026-09-13T16:58:16+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: seth rogen, tiff, comedy, filmmaking, hollywood, entertainment, culture
## Four words, one career note
Asked at TIFF for the best advice he has ever been given, Rogen offered a line that works as a whole creative philosophy: get past the easy gag and reach the feeling underneath it.

> Less semen, more emotion!
## The volume is the story
Before any single title, the striking thing about Rogen is how much he has made and how many jobs he has done it in.

> It's extraordinary just how prolific Seth Rogen has been.
## Stand-up at thirteen
He was working Vancouver comedy clubs at 13. Around that same stretch, he and his friend Evan Goldberg wrote the first draft of Superbad.
## Apatow, before he turned twenty
Freaks and Geeks put him on television, then Undeclared, where he was in the writers room as well as on camera. All of it landed before his 20th birthday.
## The tally is absurd
Actor in more than 40 films, writer on 10, director of two, creator of four TV series. That is roughly three careers running at once.

> he's starred in over 40 movies, written 10 and directed two, while creating four TV series
## Not just stoner comedies
He is the name behind Superbad, Pineapple Express, This Is the End and The Studio, and he also shows up in Donnie Darko, Knocked Up, Steve Jobs and The Invite.
## Key takeaway

Start young, keep shipping, and take the note that pushes a joke toward a feeling.