Seth Rogen on Creating His Own Cannabis Line, and the Satisfaction of Ceramics 

There are a select few celebrities that come to mind when you think about weed, and Seth Rogen is likely among them. The actor, producer, screenwriter, and director has practically been a spokesperson for the substance since the early days of his expansive career, casually shifting perceptions about stoners through his cinematic work over the past two decades. But in the not-so-distant future, he very well might become more recognizable for his off-screen impact on cannabis and ceramics.

In 2019, Rogen introduced the weed world to Houseplant, created in partnership with his longtime friend and collaborator Evan Goldberg. This week, the brand has rolled out a refined collection of home goods alongside the launch of their own strains named Diablo Wind, Pancake Ice (both sativas), and Pink Moon (indica).

But what’s perhaps most exciting for those who have been keeping an eye on Rogen’s budding passion for pottery is that Houseplant is selling ceramics: Rogen spearheaded the design for the ashtray set whose release is accompanied by a block table lighter and vinyl box set. (You can actually watch him wedge, throw, trim, fire, and glaze the clay by hand to make the ashtray in this step-by-step tutorial.) All of the limited edition pieces toe the line between affordable and accessible with a vibe that feels down-to-earth, which is exactly what you’d expect from Rogen.

“Something we talk so much about is all this weed shit lives under your coffee table in a shoebox or in your desk drawer in the back of it for so long,” Rogen tells Vogue. “It deserves to be on your shelf, on your mantle, or on your coffee table. In a world where I'm looking at a decanter of whiskey and my martini shaker, it's commonplace to have that displayed in your home. Why shouldn't your ashtrays and your lighters be put on the same kind of plane?”

Between the strains and the tools, it’s safe to say that we’re all in good hands with Houseplant. Plus, you can trust that Rogen rigorously tests every product and integrates them into his own lifestyle. The brand is also working directly with organizations like Marijuana Policy Project, Cannabis Amnesty, and Cage-Free Cannabis to further advance marijuana legalization legislation in the United States.

Vogue recently spoke to Rogen about his experience with crossing over into the cannabis space, coping with plants, and using white privilege as a weapon in the war on drugs.

How would you describe your relationship with cannabis?

I mean, I smoke weed all day every day and have for probably around 20 years at this point. I would say I have a very unique relationship with weed in that I require it to function and I have always been in a place or position to use it as much as I want basically with no repercussions [laughs]. Which is part of the reason I've been able to integrate it into my life to the degree that I have. For me, it is as intrinsic to my functionality as shoes or glasses or any other thing that I use to help make my journey through my day-to-day life a more manageable one.

Given that it’s been present in your life for so long, was there a specific moment where you realized that you should pursue your own weed company?

Part of it was seeing how Pineapple Express was received and how it continued to be loved by people who smoked weed for years and years and years after it came out. How there started to be strains of weed called Pineapple Express and it was almost like in a way we started our own line of weed without even meaning to [laughs]. Parallel to that we had a ton of opinions on what a weed company could be and what we felt like we could contribute to that world in general. So it was one of those things where, I do think it was maybe 2011 or 2012 was the first time we were like “Okay, we've already kind of started this...” We made a weed film that's one of the more popular weed films ever made and has become a cultural touchpoint for people who love weed in a lot of ways. We can just see as creative people we’re able to make products that clearly connect with people who smoke weed because we ourselves are people who smoke weed [laughs].

And then as weed started becoming more legal, more culturally acceptable, and some of the stigmas around it started to be shed and people started to understand more why it was illegal in the first place and things like that—the war on drugs was reframed, thank god, and it became a thing like “Oh, it seems like it's there will be a time where we could infuse our own sensibilities and creativities into a weed company so why don't we start thinking about how to do that?”

It’s been really interesting to see how the market has shifted perceptions. I remember, when I was a lot younger, watching Pineapple Express for the first time and that movie made me more open-minded about weed. The stigmas around weed and the stoner stereotype were in a very different place during the early 2010s.

Yeah, it for sure was. It was very much like you were a stupid, lazy person if you smoked weed. I think why Pineapple Express resonated with people is it is kind of about stupid lazy people, but it was clearly made by stoners and you cannot make a movie like that if you are a stupid, lazy person [laughs]. That's why it really resonated to people because like we unabashedly would talk about that we smoked weed all the time. It was very clear that it was made by people who smoke weed. The subtext of the movie itself was like “You can be stoned and make a movie.” For me, that was always a cathartic thing because I smoked weed from when I was 12 so in 1994 it was a much heavier stigmatized thing. I'm lucky to be from Vancouver where it was probably one of the least stigmatized places in regards to weed that you could have, but even still the idea of being like a successful, productive member of society and talking about the fact that you smoked weed all the time was like not something a lot of people did.

When I moved to Hollywood, I remember hearing rumors like “Oh, Jack Nicholson smokes weed. Harrison Ford smokes weed…” I remember thinking, “That's amazing, thank god! You can do it! I'm not doomed to failure because I smoke weed all the time, there are people out there who are doing what I want to do and they smoke weed all the time!” And then when I started to get successful and people wanted to interview me I always felt like I should be really honest about it because it made me feel better, honestly.

I know that you’re an advocate for cannabis reform, but what steps is Houseplant taking to build equity for BIPOC in the cannabis space?

I personally have done PSAs supporting expungement. Houseplant has sponsored National Expungement Week and we've worked with Cage-Free Cannabis in the past. It's incredibly important to me personally and to the company to bring as much attention as we can to the fact that the only reason weed is illegal is for racist reasons. That is it. There's a guy named Harry Anslinger who fucking hated jazz and Black people and that's why weed is illegal. The more people understand that and the more that we can start to repair the damage that has been done by the war on drugs… I was literally just talking today about petitioning the government to expunge all people who are currently facing charges for nonviolent crimes. We have in the past and I plan on continuing to use whatever sway I have to move the needle towards a more just cause. The partnerships we're making with dispensaries and our growing partners, it's very important for us to make sure that we're working with a diverse group of people in that way as well.

There are still more people arrested for weed every year than anything else. I think there's more people arrested for weed every year than rape and murder combined. It's all they arrest people for, it's insane. It makes no fucking sense, it's 100% just to serve the prison industrial complex and to target Black people. It’s so obvious at this point that it has to end and now that it seems as though there's perhaps hopefully an administration in place that has some sense of logic and justice that it will end soon.

Switching gears, at what point when you were in the process of establishing Houseplant were you like I have to include homeware?

That was something that I would say maybe four years ago became a big part of what we were talking about and it all came from my personal desire to have nice things around as someone who smokes weed [laughs]. I like design and I started buying vintage ashtrays because that was the closest thing I could find to a well-designed home good that was designed with smoking of some sort in mind. There was a time when brilliant designers would make ashtrays and it drew creative energy, but very rightfully smoking cigarettes went out of style and the thought behind that kind of lifestyle went out of style as well. But I found myself repurposing these old things and then started to think like, “What if we just made new versions of these things?” It's not something that I don't think a lot of other people are putting thought into, and it's something that I personally know I would really want.

With our films, that's what we're always talking about, like, “What's the movie that if we saw the trailer we'd be like ‘Fuck, why didn't we make that shit?’” That's the same thing with this. “What are the products we can make that we'd be like ‘Oh shit, I want that. That really speaks to me.’” It became a really fun creative exercise. Then I started doing ceramics and being able to design things myself, which was not something I ever expected to be able to do really, but I found myself being able to do it and started collaborating with engineers and people in the design world.

It’s been insanely gratifying. I never thought that it was a field I would get into or something I would feel so passionately about or something that I thought I could express myself so clearly through. Like any other piece of art I'm proud of, I think you can look at the stuff we're making and know who I am in some way and that's always what we're like striving for. It's simple, but if you look at our lighters you know a lot about me [laughs]. It really says a lot about who I am and what I'm interested in.

Throughout quarantine, did you find yourself becoming more obsessive about interior design like so many of us?

I've always been a collector of things, so I'd say yeah. I have a very personal relationship to my decorum and design. Comic books were probably the first thing I collected and it spun out from there. I collect art, vinyl figures, ceramics… I have plants, I have all sorts of stuff. I really like having things that reflect my sensibilities and who I am. When I find something that does that but is also highly functional, I really like it. We started making our own things like my wife made this mug that I drink out of. She made all of our plates and bowls that we use every day. I made almost every ashtray in our house that we use all the time. I made the thing that our toothpaste sits in, she made like the cups that are toothbrushes are in. It's become incredibly rewarding to be able to create the things that we use every day. Throughout a given day, I get to interact with a dozen things that me or my wife actually made and it's lovely.

Were you surprised by all the attention when you started sharing your ceramics? I saw it blowing up on TikTok.

It's funny, that's not even me, I’m not on TikTok. A few people have reached out to me like “I think there’s a fake you on TikTok who actually is very popular.” It is weird and it's funny because me and my wife talk about how as a creative person you want there to be a proportional response to the amount of energy you put into something and the reception you get for that thing and there rarely is. What's funny is I've spent years working on films that less people pay attention to and seem to give me praise for than vases that I literally spent 25 minutes making. As a person who's dedicated their life to a creative pursuit, it's incredibly fascinating honestly and really makes me reassess a lot of notions I had about creativity and what I would ascribe to the success of a creative endeavor. They are such different mediums and it's interesting also to make physical things.

Movies by nature are accessible, like pretty much if you want to watch a movie you can eventually. But now I'm making things that there's one of and that is something I'd never experienced before. Creating art that no one can have and the different energy associated with it as a result of that and almost how it’s more interesting to people as a result of it in some ways...All that has been really fascinating to me and it's interesting because I've been writing films since I was 13 years old basically and I kind of thought that was gonna be the thing I was known for as far as creative outlets go, and I don't know if it is anymore. It's something that is very fascinating to me and I don't think I know how to contextualize it yet. It’s really weird.

What was the thought process behind the vinyl box set?

It was really a creative conversation about how could we bring the lifestyle of someone who smokes weed into fruition in ways that no one has before. This idea of mixtapes is something that is very old for us and we grew up with it like we would sit by the radio and record the songs we liked. In my car I always have the same mixtape, I was just explaining to someone like I had a great party mixtape that whenever there was a house party it was like The Roots and A Tribe Called Quest and that's what everyone wanted to listen to in 1995. The idea was like, “What if we essentially make a mixtape for the different strains of weed?” So it’s a mellow mixtape for indica, a super upbeat mixtape for sativa, and an in-between mixtape for the hybrid.

Now, people don’t listen to tapes anymore, but they do like things. Something that I’ve reconciled with over the years is I do like things! I like to have physical things that I feel represent my taste and sensibilities so this idea of a vinyl box set with these mixtapes housed in it ticked the box and that’s 99% of our decision-making process. We picked the songs and we hired the guy who does our films and licenses the music. We just started putting together mixes of songs and reaching out to licensing houses and assembling these mixes. It was honestly so much fun.

What is your favorite word for smoking weed?

It's funny because cannabis is a word that is used a lot, but I always will say weed. I can't not say weed [laughs]. I always am asking my wife, “Should we smoke some weed?” And then she always goes “I like weed.” And then we go smoke some weed. I always see people online saying “Smoking doinks” as a phrase which is not for me, but it's hilarious and I respect the choice to use the phrase. I can't subscribe to the formalities of it all, I've been smoking weed for too long to ingest “cannabis” at this point.