New TransLink Guest Voice Will Be Seth Rogen to Replace Morgan Freeman

TransLink originally announced Morgan Freeman would be used to help spread the word of tap payments for fares along SkyTrain and the Canada Line. However, after Freeman was accused of sexual harassment, TransLink quickly decided to “pause” his voice announcements as part of a Visa ad campaign.

After Vancouver Sun digital reporter, Stephanie Ip, suggested Vancouverite Seth Rogen should be the alternate voice, the actor and comedian jumped on the opportunity to be involved.

Today, it became official as Rogen and TransLink announced his voice would be used on public transit in Vancouver.

According to Rogen, “any opportunity to enrich the lives of the Canadian people is an opportunity I will take,” adding he was “thrilled” when he said he had a chance to participate.

The following examples of Rogen’s voice clips were shared, describing appropriate transit etiquette:

• “Hey Vancouver—It’s Seth. Here’s a tip to make your transit ride even more awesome. I know your bag is probably very nice and you keep care deeply for it. But that doesn’t mean it needs its own seat.”
• “Those are very sneakers, but kind of a horror show on the sole, so get those feet off the seat. My mom might be sitting there one day. Come on!”

The Vancouver actor, who went to Point Grey Secondary, says he lives downtown and takes transit often, such as going on the Canada Line to head to the Richmond Night Market “a lot” (for bubble waffles?).

pic.twitter.com/qvmCBwYhkl

— TransLink BC (@TransLink) July 26, 2018

Freeman’s voice was originally slated to help advertise Visa Canada’s debut of their Global Transit Solutions program in Canada with TransLink, which allows contactless payments for fares, including support for mobile wallets like Apple Pay. There’s no word whether Rogen will be pushing Visa’s tap and pay transit program, but we’ll update this post when we find out.