This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

"Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising" sounds like a pretty obvious sequel to the comedy hit of 2014 starring Seth Rogen, Zac Efron and Rose Byrne. Just replace the fraternity bros from the first film with some girls gone wild to drive the reluctantly aging, 30-something couple next door nuts.

Well, some college women do something like that to Rogen and Byrne's new parents Mac and Kelly in the sequel, with Efron's now school-and-career-less, 25-year-old Teddy floating between the warring factions. But even at their wildest, the rogue Greek sisters of Kappa Nu, led by Chloe Grace Moretz's Shelby, keep their bikinis on and consider a good party group-watching "The Fault in Our Stars" in their PJs.

In other words, it's a politically correct raunchy comedy, with five credited writers — including producer Rogen, his longtime creative partner Evan Goldberg and the director of both films, Nicholas Stoller — all of them male.

We asked Efron, Moretz and Rogen how this possibly turned into the ultimate girl-power gross-out comedy.

What's a nice girl like you . . .

Moretz • I wanted to venture into comedy, and I knew that Seth and the boys were interested in me. I went for a "Neighbors 2" meeting and they told me, "We want to do it about sororities, but we don't want to make it objectify women. We want to make it cool and fun for you guys and a movie you'll be proud of, and we want to bring in female writers" and, you know, be fem-positive.

Was that always the idea?

Rogen • That wasn't, like, our prime directive by any means, but it became an idea that we did like very much. We really approach these things ... from an emotional standpoint. When we came up with the sorority idea, one of the people in our office who was in a sorority said, "You know they can't party, so it wouldn't be so bad if there was a sorority next to you." That kind of blew our minds. That's when this theme of social consciousness became a part of the movie.

Efron • A lot of fraternities are going to hate us, because the Greek system is unfair, and girls aren't going to come to their parties now.

So, the Kappa Nus express their independence and feminist party instincts in the movie and all, but they also do some really stupid, thoughtless things. Were you down with that?

Moretz • Yes! All the pro-fem things going around now, they were working for a while and now they're going in a direction where they're putting women on such a pedestal; it's a lot to live up to. What's great about this movie is it shows that girls can be idiots, too! We can make superdumb decisions, but we can also be progressive and proactive and want to do what we want to do, though we don't have all of the education and everything to go about everything the right way.

You writers came up with all of that, huh?

Rogen • We really looked to the actresses for their input. As you can see, the movie is credited as being written by five men, so it was crazy for us to think that we had the best insight on how a group of 18-year-old women relate to one another in any way, shape or form.

Efron • It was very fun to witness on set, watching Nick's attempts to do that. They would spitball ideas that were very funny.

Rogen • The movie had this theme of young women fighting for their rights, and we very quickly realized that we should hire women writers and get as much of their insight into this as possible. During the writing process we had a lot of women read the script and give notes, and on set at all times we had Amanda Blund and Maria Blasucci. And they did not just contribute to the female-related parts of the movie; they're amazing comedy writers.

Speaking of comedy, you did some "30 Rock" episodes, but most of your movie roles — even Hit Girl in the "Kick-Ass" satires — have been deadly serious. What was this like for you?

Moretz • It was a different experience. I had dealt with some forms of improv, but in drama your improv is very limited to scenes involving anger or intense emotion. This was 16-hour days — double the amount of time you work on a drama — and your intensity level has to be at 10 the whole time, and you have to think on your feet. You're thinking about your lines, how you want to flip it and make it different, how to differentiate yourself from the group. And you're being thrown different lines of improv every take you do, not just making them up. It's a macabre thing that takes a lot of confidence, which I quickly gained in the first few days. It was cool — flipped me on my head.

Conversely, Teddy shifts from ultimate party guy to directionless post-nongraduate in the sequel.

Efron • This quarter-life crisis thing happening to more and more people; it's real. Figuring out who you are at a younger age is becoming more important, and Teddy's really struggling with that. He struggles with virtually everything except being a leader, a lover and a protector. If he can't be any of those things, he really doesn't fit in, and that's the fun part about Teddy. He's searching for any kind of real relationship, and he finds it with Mac and Kelly. Which is really beautiful and a little weird.

Rogen • Superweird. He's like our adopted 25-year-old son.

Efron • People refer to Mac and Kelly in the movie as the Old People — even Teddy does — but that wasn't really the case on set. I thought I would relate more to the younger crowd on this movie; I was really excited to work with them. But I found myself running back to Seth and Rose to, like, get on a real level of sanity.

Rogen• You actually went through the same arc that you do in the movie. You had a moment when you realized that you were an old person!

Efron • They know how to use phones and new technology in ways that I don't and can't relate to! I would show up and realized that I had virtually nothing to add to this scenario, couldn't make them laugh or do anything.

You're 19 now and, like Seth and Zac, haven't been to college. Any vicarious fulfillment from making this movie?

Moretz • Not really. Growing up in Hollywood and L.A., I've been to enough events and stuff my whole life that I have no need to go to a frat party. Going to these fake ones made me realize that, for sure, I don't need to go to a frat party. There was no sullen Chloe in a corner wishing it was real life.

Tell us about the new TV series you produced, "Preacher," starring Dominic Cooper.

Rogen • In the '90s, it was a very subversive comic book, and I've been a fan of it for a really long time and been trying to get it made for 10 years. It comes to AMC on May 22. Me, Evan and Sam Catlin, who was one of the writers on "Breaking Bad," he's the showrunner. And it's turning out awesome. It's about a preacher in Texas who has a dark past. It has a huge, crazy story that involves angels and demons and vampires and villains and cowboys. It's massive.

And your animated feature coming out in August, "Sausage Party" — like "Neighbors 2," not what the title may imply, but a film about anthropomorphized food.

Rogen • Yeah, but . . . It's been years and years and years of, like, a lot of work, and even still when I watch it I cannot believe that it is a movie that people allowed us to make. In "This Is the End," there were moments when you could tell audiences were thinking, "How were they allowed to do this?" "Sausage Party" is kind of that for almost the entire movie.

And they let you make it at Sony, the studio that got hacked and all screwed up because of your movie "The Interview." What's been the fallout from that?

Rogen • I don't know. We got moved to a much worse office; that was like the immediate reaction. But we still work very well with them, and we're producing a movie with (former Sony exec) Amy Pascal. I'm sure it sucked for everyone for a while, but what's bizarre is now it's, what, like a year-and-a-half later, and everyone has just kept working.

Contact Bob Strauss at bob.strauss@langnews.com or

@bscritic on Twitter.