Seth Rogen‘s Apple TV+ comedy “The Studio” has already been making waves in the industry for its biting satire on Hollywood moviemaking.
“I think I’ve been reached out to by almost every head of every major studio throughout the day to day, and it’s a lot of like, ‘This is great, but very traumatic to watch,’” Rogen said at a screening and Q&A for “The Studio” at the Museum of Modern Art moderated by Variety’s Jenelle Riley.
Based on “disturbingly” real experiences that Rogen and his co-creators have gone through, “The Studio” follows newly appointed studio head Matt Remick (Rogen) at Continental Studios as he is torn between making great art and the studio’s bottom line of generating easy money with IP.
“It’s genuinely an industry we love,” Rogen said. “It’s written from the perspective of people who can’t deny that our dreams have come true because of this industry in many ways, but it’s also so fucking frustrating and aggravating. You’re constantly seeing people make choices that are confounding and contrary to their own love of film.”
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“Bodies Bodies Bodies” actor Chase Sui Wonders plays Quinn Hackett, an assistant who quickly has to learn the ropes after getting promoted to creative executive.
“When I was doing Quinn’s character of yelling and screaming at Ike and Seth’s characters, the women on set, a lot of them would come up to me and say, ‘You’re talking like I wish I could talk to my boss,’” Wonders said. “And I’m like, ‘Your boss is Seth.’”
Ike Barinholtz, who plays Matt’s right-hand man Sal Saperstein, described how “there’s something irresistible about doing stuff in this world.”
“I really do love ‘Larry Sanders’ and I love ‘The Player,’” Barinholtz said. “And every conversation I had with [Seth], it would get crazier and crazier.”
The show features multiple long-takes, notably in Episode 2, which was all shot in one take. Rogen described how “we were always balancing the rigidity of the long take with this spontaneity of improv. I would tell people if you think of something, say it, just if it’s bad, it’s going to fuck up the whole take.”
“Agatha All Along” star Kathryn Hahn, who plays head of marketing Maya Mason, improvised the line: “Steve Buscemi is the worst-case scen-ario.”
“Once we knew where the camera was, then you knew how much time you had,” Hahn said. “You could try to slip something in there.”
Rogen also mentioned that Bryan Cranston, who plays Griffin Mill (named after Tim Robbins’ movie exec in “The Player”), pitched the line “plastic tits of a pussy-less doll” during a scene when executives discuss Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie.”
“I’m not proud of that, but that’s an indication of how free it was when you create an atmosphere where you’re encouraging your artists to be able to say anything,” Cranston said. “Maybe it’s an age thing, but at a certain point in your career, I just don’t want to work with assholes anymore. I just don’t. I don’t have time for them.”
