Seth Rogen may have solved the mystery of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last month. Rogen may have hid Kim away to promote his new film "The Interview" with James Franco.
"It's all a marketing ploy," "The Neighbors" star joked in a joint interview with his wife Lauren Miller. "We've hid him somewhere, and he'll be released one week before the movie."
The North Korean dictator made no public appearances from Sept. 3 to Oct. 14. The Korean Central News Agency finally released images of Kim, and the supreme leader came out walking with a cane.
North Korea has been critical of "The Interview" in which the CIA tasks Rogen and Franco's characters to assassinate Kim. Franco plays a talk show host whose producer, played by Rogen, wants to do more serious interviews and they land the sit-down with Kim.
An official spokesman for the leader called the storyline a "desperation of the U.S. government and American society." Rogen thinks these sound bites and Kim's disappearance only help promote film before its release on Christmas.
"It is amazing," he said. "It's almost as if we gave [Kim] a list of, 'Here's what you can do that would help promote our film.' And he's doing pretty much all of it."
Rogen and Franco have collaborated frequently in movies, videos and other projects since they first co-starred together on the short-lived TV series "Freaks & Geeks." Franco posted photos of the two running around naked on his Instagram a couple weeks ago, and may have filmed a spoof of the popular reality series "Naked and Afraid."
"I don't want to ruin it yet," Rogen said. "But we may have filmed something with the Discovery Channel involving 'Naked and Afraid.'"
