Though fingers have pointed to North Korea over the 2014 Sony hack instigated by the satire “The Interview”, Seth Rogen doesn’t quite believe the country was behind the cyberattack that derailed the film’s release and shook up Hollywood.
“Honestly, I really don’t think North Korea hacked Sony,” the Canadian actor tells Vulture in a new interview, explaining that the timeline of events and details don’t exactly add up.
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“When the trailer for ‘The Interview’ came out we were called into a meeting at Sony, where they told us that North Korea had probably already hacked into their system and seen the movie and that the statements they’d put out was their response,” he recalls. “Then, months later, when the movie itself finally came out, all this hacking s*** happened. This was months after North Korea had probably already seen the movie. Why would they wait?”
Rogen furthers his suspicions, adding, “They never did anything like that before and haven’t done anything like it since.”
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The actor even hired a cybersecurity expert who said evidence pointed to a physical act from the inside — something that couldn’t have been done remotely from North Korea.
Rogen, 36, believes it was a former Sony employee with a grudge.
“The hack also seemed weirdly targeted at [Chairperson] Amy [Pascal], which seems fishy. Of all the people to target? Why not me? Why not [Sony Pictures CEO] Michael Lynton?”
While all Sony employees had their emails on public display, Pascal seemed to take the brunt of the hack, with everything from her personal Amazon purchase history to some racist emails suggesting Barack Obama would enjoy “Django Unchained” and “The Butler” leaked online.
“I’ve heard that it was a disgruntled Sony employee. I’ve also heard people say that they think someone was hired to do the hack as a way of getting Amy Pascal fired,” Rogen says. “I don’t know if I subscribe to those theories, but I kind of don’t think it was North Korea.”
Rogen starred alongside good friend James Franco in the movie. Rogen has been silent about the sexual harassment allegation facing his friend, but tells Vulture he’d continue to work with the actor.
“The truth is that my perspective on this is the least relevant perspective,” Rogen says, explaining his silence. “I’m friends with these people and I’m a dude. All that combined makes me the last person who should be talking about this. There are so many people with real things to contribute to the #MeToo discussion that anything I say is not going to add anything useful.”
