Actors, Seth Rogen says, are probably the least prepared group to survive the end of the world. “We can’t do s – – t,” he jokes.
True enough. When the apocalypse does come, skills such as speaking with a passable Cockney accent or being able to land a prime table at Spago will likely be worthless.
The premise is explored in Wednesday’s “This Is the End,” a comedic riff on Judgment Day. While at a party at James Franco’s house, Los Angeles suddenly becomes hell on earth, as fires break out, monsters appear and earthquakes rattle the city.
Rogen and his friends, including Jay Baruchel, Craig Robinson, Jonah Hill and Danny McBride, desperately try to survive while shut inside the house.
The fun twist here is that all the actors go by their real names, and generally play exaggerated versions of themselves.
“We grew up on that kind of meta-humor. ‘Seinfeld’ did it. ‘Larry Sanders’ was something we watched a lot. More recently, ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ did it,” Rogen says. “It was just something we always found funny.”
Rogen and his co-writer, co-director and longtime friend Evan Goldberg admit it could be a bit touchy crafting on-screen personas for their friends.
“A bunch of the guys at one point or another were like, ‘Do I really do this thing that they wrote?’ ” Goldberg says. “But for the most part, they were pretty cool.”
“Actors are more aware of how they’re perceived than most people think they are,” Goldberg continues. “Like, Franco is well aware that people think his art stuff is silly sometimes, and his sexuality gets questioned by some people. He knows exactly how bizarre he is and how he’s perceived by society. He had a great time playing with it.”
The co-writers worked with their actors to develop the “characters” and the script. Robinson, Rogen and Baruchel were the easiest to create, Hill and Franco the most difficult.
The party setting also grew out of real life.
“It’s kind of based on our parties,” Rogen says. “I’ve had parties where tons of random people showed up. One time, I overheard someone saying, ‘Holy s – – t! Seth Rogen is at this party!’ That’s when I kicked everyone out.”
“Sometimes you get a famous person that you’re not friends with who gets too drunk,” Goldberg says. “People in Hollywood all have a connection. We all have the same job, and sometimes people misread that as an invitation to come to my house and touch all my stuff.”
Here’s how Rogen and Goldberg tackled each of the famous characters in “This Is the End.”
James Franco
“In the first version, we wrote him as very douchey and materialistic,” Rogen says. “It was much more about the Gucci model stuff, and that was something where he was like, ‘Am I like that? Do I come across like that?’ ”
“And we were kind of wrong,” Goldberg says. “People don’t perceive him like that. People perceive him as artsy, so we rerouted it to that.”
In the film version, Franco lives in a well-designed modern house littered with experimental art and full of expensive amenities, such as a TV that rises out of the floor.
The character of “James Franco” is also more excitable than the real thing.
“In real life, he’s a super-calm guy,” Goldberg says. “In the movie, everything he says is so loud, it’s crazy. In real life, we yell ‘Cut,’ he goes to the find the most comfortable chair he can, quietly sits down and reads a book until it’s time to start filming again.”
Jonah Hill
“He was the one we botched the most at first,” Goldberg says. “We wrote him originally to play off his ‘Superbad’ persona — this smart aleck who you sympathize with because he’s kind of vulnerable.”
Hill, however, had another idea.
“He came in and said, ‘How about we do something that no one would expect, and that’s that I’m the nicest guy in the world?’ ” Goldberg says.
The actor was simply looking to play something he hadn’t before, and the writers says the nice-guy character has nothing to do with sending up Hill’s public image, which took a hit last November when CNN anchor Don Lemon accused him of being rude.
Seth Rogen
His character is portrayed as a laid-back weed smoker (true), and has some jokes about his laugh and “The Green Hornet” made at his expense.
“I’m pretty aware of how our stuff has been perceived. I don’t live in a bubble, you know? I’m more than happy to make fun of it,” Rogen says. “We read reviews. We get it. It’s more fun to be in on the joke than pissed off about it.”
Jay Baruchel
“Jay and Seth were tackled in a similar manner,” Goldberg says. “We decided to keep them similar to how they actually are, but just make them unfathomably dumber and less moral.”
A subplot in which Baruchel, whose character is visiting Rogen’s in LA, feels out of place in Hollywood is based in reality.
“He doesn’t live in LA,” Rogen says of his old friend. “He stayed in Canada. He seemed to have some resentment towards LA as a place and doesn’t love it.”
Craig Robinson
“The Office” actor is portrayed in the film as a smooth operator who serenades ladies at the party and walks around with a white towel over his shoulder.
“That’s true. He does walk around with a towel, and he sweats a lot,” Goldberg says. “And he absolutely has played ‘Take Yo’ Panties Off’ at parties at my house, while we all sing along.”
Danny McBride
The actor plays a heightened version of his redneck character from “Eastbound & Down.”
“He’s not really like that at all, but he’s so good at it that we thought we could bring it to a new level that he hasn’t done before,” Rogen says. “It’s f – – ked up that we’re watching Danny McBride and we think, ‘He’s really not pushing it far enough.’ ”
Michael Cera
The spindly geek from “Arrested Development” totally upends his image by playing a crazed cokehead who gets serviced by two women at the party.
“He didn’t even know he was making a movie,” Rogen jokes.
reed.tucker@nypost.com