Seth Rogen was stunned to be approached by Steven Spielberg to star in 'The Fabelmans'.

The 40-year-old actor features in the coming-of-age film loosely based on the legendary director's formative years as Bennie Loewy – a family friend to lead character Sammy Fabelman (Gabriel LaBelle) – and reflected on the moment he was approached by the 'Jaws' filmmaker.

Speaking to Collider, Seth said: "It was crazy. A zoom was arranged. I heard he wanted to Zoom with me. It was in the midst of the pandemic. I didn't know what it was about, honestly at all.

"I thought maybe it was about writing something, maybe potentially, rewriting something. I'm brought into fix comedies that are not doing as well as they could, things like that."

The 'Knocked Up' star added: "He said that he had written a movie with Tony Kushner, and there was a role in it that they kept talking about me for as they were working on it, and that he wanted to read the script, and then we should talk.

"I was like, 'I'm going to want to do it. I don't know if I need to read the script'. He was like, 'Just read it'. I read it, and lo and behold, I wanted to do it. I was like, 'Yeah, I'm in'.

"Then he was like, 'Great, I'll put the rest of the movie together, I'll let you know what's happening'. Then over the next few months, I would talk to him periodically as he filled out the rest of the cast and filled out the shooting plan. It was just this lovely thing I knew was going to happen months in the future. Yeah, I was just so excited, honestly."