Actor and producer Seth Rogen says he isn’t surprised by his movie 50/50’s lack of Academy Award nominations. For those that don’t remember 50/50, the movie stars Rogen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Hilarious, but serious, the drama centers on Rogen’s friend and his battle with cancer. With funny scenes of shaving heads and picking up girls in the hopes that his sick friend would get lucky, Rogen defended his movie’s take on cancer, and the humor in the film that he says appalled some people. “You see movies where people who have cancer never talk about it. But we found it to be the exact opposite. It was all we talked about it when Will had it. And sometimes we talked about it very seriously, and other times we’d be at a bar and he’d be thinking of ways it could help his single friends get laid,” he told Entertainment Weekly recently.

Rogen also went on to explain his thought process behind making 50/50 as a comedy, rather than a sad movie. “I think it must be people who have very, very personal connections to the subject matter and just can’t emotionally disconnect from their own experience.” Adding that he can “respect that. But what we found for the most part is that people like to laugh at tragedy. It makes them feel better.” While 50/50 may not have managed to grab any Academy love, the film that follows the real life of producer Will Reiser did score some attention at the Golden Globes, as well as a prize for best Original Screenplay from the National Board of reviews.