‘Is that about me?' Seth Rogen loves how ‘The Studio' keeps Hollywood guessing
'The people who it's actually based on don't think it's based on them, and the people who it's not based on want to think it's based on them!' Rogen told Gold Derby at Apple TV+'s FYC celebration at the Hollywood Athletic Club, erupting into his signature chuckle. 'It's a funny pattern.'
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'When someone thinks it's based on them, it's best to let them,' Goldberg added.
'So many people have been like, 'I know where you got that idea!'' laughed costar and writer-producer Ike Barinholtz. 'Because I don't want to offend anyone. I'm like, 'Yeah, that's a lot of different ideas...' But I'm very touched when people see a little bit of themselves or something they recognize. To me it makes it resonate more with them.'
Eric Charbonneau/Apple TV+ via Getty Images
It's just one of the increasingly familiar aftereffects rippling toward Rogen, Goldberg, and their cast and creative team ever since The Studio found an appreciative mass audience and became required viewing for anyone working in Hollywood — both for the guessing game of Who inspired that? and the shock of recognition when the seemingly outrageous, high-stress behind-the-scenes scenarios hit a little too close to home. Some of it can be a little PTSD-triggering — or as Goldberg suggested, without the 'post,' because many of them 'are living it right now, every day.'
Discovering the show was leaving showbiz insiders more than a little shook has actually been validating for Rogen. "A real fear I had was, 'The people we are truly discussing and analyzing — will it resonate with them? Will they think it's bullshit? Will they think we missed it?' But no! I'm actually friends with a few executives, who after every episode — I get several texts from them, literally, where they were just like, 'I can't believe you went there. How dare you? How dare you go there?''
'I was on a call not too long ago with a friend of mine who works in casting, and it was right after the casting episode came out,' said Barinholtz, recalling the episode that depicted the constant, culturally sensitive landmines the show's film execs kept nearly stepping on while casting the Kool-Aid movie. 'She was like, 'I feel a little weird talking to you right now,' just because of that. It was too meta.'
Barinholtz's beleaguered film executive Sal Saperstein has emerged as something of a cult hero following the uproarious Golden Globes episode in which he's repeatedly, unexpectedly thanked from the awards show stage as a running gag — something that's coming to life as Barinholtz is getting strangers offering shout-outs of 'Thank you, Sal Saperstein!' in his everyday life.
Even Questlove quoted the line on social media, to the actor's disbelief. "If and when Adam Scott wins Best Actor for Severance, I hope he thanks Sal Saperstein," he said. "I'm trying to will that to happen, but it has definitely exploded a little bit. And whether it's Instagram commentators or people at a function I'm at, people want to come up and thank Sal Saperstein, and I'm here for it.'
During the rollicking panel discussion — moderated by Gold Derby editor-in-chief Debra Birnbaum — Rogen, Goldberg, Barinholtz were joined by costars Catherine O'Hara, Chase Sui Wonders, Dewayne Perkins, and Keyla Monterroso Mejia.
Goldberg revealed that the creators have actually received unsolicited 'studio notes' from seemingly helpful executives.
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'We got a note that the Matt character doesn't understand responsibility enough and tries to be liked too much,' said Goldberg. 'And we were like, 'Yeah — that's his character. That's the point of the show!''
He chalked up the blind spot in their thinking to over-identifying with Rogen's character, Matt Remick. 'I think these executives see themselves in him and think, 'I don't do that, so he can't do that!' ... They're trying to 'solve' the show.'
'Yeah, they're trying to fix it — to fix my guy,' laughed Rogen. 'The show's not funny anymore if you fix my guy.'
''He should be more likable,'' Rogen quoted the execs' criticism. 'So should you!'
One executive who showed a sense of humor was Netflix co-CEO and Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos. He made a cameo in the Golden Globes episode and, when asked to react from his table as if he had just been thanked on stage, displayed just how well-practiced he is in real life. As for the confrontational scene in the men's room at the urinals, Rogen says the Hollywood titan was just as unfazed.
'He didn't blink at that — actually, he wanted it,' Rogen (maybe) quipped.
Currently planning the second season of the show, Rogen and Goldberg told Gold Derby they're 'very much' looking to find ways to employ more distinctive cinematic techniques and technical toolkits, in the way the episode The Oner utilized the long, masterful one-shot takes made legendary in films like The Player and Goodfellas. 'There's all sorts of technical things we want to play with,' said Goldberg.
'We've also actually geared our thinking more towards real-time episodes,' Rogen added, 'because I think those are the ones that people seem to sort of engage with the most, and the more condensed timeline, the more people seem to enjoy it. That's something that we've also talked a lot about.'
Apple TV+
But what matters most to the duo is that, underneath all the comedy and beyond all the weary and frustrating professional war stories, their unabashed love of the industry comes shining through.
'The show's written from our perspective, and that is how we approach every episode: as people who genuinely have faith overall that this industry is one that can provide great work and has people in it who are pursuing that,' said Rogen. 'We have amazing lives from this industry, and in general, we've gotten to do what we want. I look back to the things we've made and we're very proud of it. So we write from a place of appreciation and hope for the industry.'
'At times we've been beaten down by it and disappointed in it and aggravated by it, but at the end of the day, then we got to make a show about all that!' he added. 'So it's hard to be too down on it overall.'
Goldberg hopes their enthusiasm is contagious. 'If I was in the audience at the end of the last episode,' he said, 'I would get up and chant 'Movies!''
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