Hollywood loves a good "meta" joke, but usually, it’s just a wink at the camera. When Jay Baruchel and Seth Rogen released This Is the End in 2013, it wasn’t just a wink. It was a full-on, aggressive headbutt. Most people watch that movie and think, "Oh, look at these funny friends having a blast playing themselves."
That's actually the first thing people get wrong.
Honestly, the dynamic you see on screen—the tension, the awkwardness, the "I don't really want to be here" energy from Jay—wasn't just great acting. It was based on a very real, very complicated friction between childhood friends and the monster that is Los Angeles.
The Reality Behind the "Jay Baruchel This Is the End" Dynamic
The movie centers on the relationship between Jay and Seth. In the film, Jay is the Canadian outsider who hates L.A. and can’t stand Seth’s "new" friends. Specifically, he has a visceral, skin-crawling distaste for Jonah Hill.
In real life? It wasn't that far off.
Baruchel has been candid in years since about the fact that he and Jonah Hill didn't—and still don't—really get along. He told The Last Laugh podcast that the hatred was "mined from real personal s**t." While the movie frames it as a hilarious rivalry involving a Milky Way bar and an exorcism, the root was a genuine clash of personalities. Jay felt like an outsider in the Hollywood bubble, and that discomfort became the heartbeat of the film.
It’s easy to forget that this whole $126 million blockbuster started as a tiny, gritty short film called Jay and Seth vs. the Apocalypse. Back then, it was just two guys in a dirty apartment. Expanding it into a star-studded mansion party changed the stakes. It turned a story about two friends into a story about loss of identity.
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Why the "Hate" Worked for the Movie
- Authenticity: You can't fake that specific type of "polite" Canadian annoyance Jay brings to the table.
- The L.A. Factor: Jay Baruchel really does live in Montreal. He really does find L.A. to be, in his words, "not my cup of tea."
- The "Pretentious" Jonah: Jonah Hill played a version of himself that was "over-the-top nice" to hide a supposed ego. Jay’s character was the only one who saw through it, which mirrored their actual off-screen distance.
Behind the Scenes: It Wasn't All Parties
You might think filming a comedy with your best friends is a 24/7 riot. It wasn't. They shot in New Orleans, not L.A., because it was cheaper to build a fake Melrose Avenue in a parking lot than to actually film in California.
Danny McBride was the undisputed king of breaking people. There’s a rumor that one scene took 18 takes because nobody could keep a straight face while McBride was riffing. But for Jay, it was a "scrappy" and "exhausting" shoot. He’s a massive horror fan—he loves Fangoria and practical effects—so working with KNB Effects on the monsters was a highlight. But the interpersonal "mining" of their real-life baggage was, as he put it, "not for catharsis." They were just turning their real problems into a product.
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The Backstreet Boys Surprise
The ending of the movie is iconic. The Backstreet Boys in Heaven.
Most people think this was a random pop-culture gag. Actually, Seth and Jay grew up in Canada during the "Golden Age" of boy bands. The Backstreet Boys actually blew up in Canada a full year before they hit it big in the U.S. For Jay and Seth, that music was the soundtrack of their actual childhood. When Evan Goldberg told Jay they could get the real band for the finale, Jay's reaction was pure, unironic joy.
The Legacy of the "Real" Jay Baruchel
Jay Baruchel often plays the "sad sack" or the "holier-than-thou" introvert. In This Is the End, he leaned into that persona hard. He was the "in" for the audience—the guy looking at the absurdity of celebrity culture and saying, "This is all kind of stupid, right?"
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But don't mistake his onscreen grumpiness for a lack of passion. He views the film as a "Frankenstein's monster of genres." It’s an action movie, a horror flick, and a friendship breakup story all rolled into one.
What you should do next:
If you want to see where the raw energy of this movie actually came from, go find the original 2007 trailer for Jay and Seth vs. the Apocalypse. It’s much darker, much smaller, and shows the specific chemistry that made the duo famous before the Hollywood glitter (and the demons) got involved.
After that, re-watch the "Milky Way" scene in This Is the End. Now that you know Jay and Jonah actually weren't fans of each other, the way Jay looks at him isn't just "funny"—it's a masterclass in channeled frustration.