Among the true-to-life Hollywood experiences that Rogen reflects in the show, which he co-created with childhood Hebrew school friend and Superbad collaborator Evan Goldberg, is Jewishness: his own and that of the industry writ large.
“There’s a lot of jokes about it in the show,” Rogen says. “It’s an industry largely founded by Jewish people; I think almost all the original heads of all the major studios were Jewish people because Jews were not allowed to work in other industries and movies were really looked down upon and viewed as a kind of garbage industry that was kind of fit for Jews, and we did great with it, so, you know – thank god.”
In The Studio, Remick’s Jewishness – and that of his closest friend and fellow Continental Studios executive Sal Saperstein, played by Jewish actor Ike Barinholtz – gets a few honourable mentions, always in joke form.
“And they say there are no more Jews working in Hollywood,” a talent agent named Mitch Weitz says during a meeting with Remick and Saperstein in episode one, exclaiming: “Look at us, we’re almost a minyan.”
Ike Barinholtz and Seth Rogen as Sal Saperstein and Matt Remick in 'The Studio', premiering on Apple TV+ on 26 March 2025. (Photo: Apple TV+)[Missing Credit]
“It’s something that we poke fun at and something that is not lost on us,” Rogen says. “It’s more fodder for jokes than some deep messaged agenda that we had to express about the industry.”
But the ten-episode debut season, released by Apple TV+ and produced by Rogen’s own company Point Grey Studios, is not really about the Jewish prevalence in Hollywood, even if Rogen’s and Goldberg’s spearheading of the project – writing and directing almost all the episodes – incidentally exemplifies it.
As a Hollywood veteran and former child star, Rogen pulled from his own wealth of experience in the industry to create some of the show’s most cringe-worthy moments, of which there are many.
In one episode, his character goes to preposterous lengths to get Zoë Kravitz – playing herself - to thank him in her acceptance speech at the Golden Globes.
“That is very much based on a thing that happened to me where a film that won a Golden Globe, one of the executives was in tears afterwards because they weren’t thanked during the speech, so I've seen firsthand how important it is to people,” Rogen says. “You’d think a moment like that we’d completely concocted on our own but that’s very real, and that was not the first time in Hollywood that that’s happened and will not be the last.”
Seth Rogen as new head of Continental Studios, Matt Remick, in 'The Studio.' (Photo: Apple TV+)[Missing Credit]
Kravitz is not the only famous face to appear in The Studio. Alongside a strong cast of regulars, the series features a formidable lineup of celebrity cameos, with Hollywood greats like Martin Scorsese, Olivia Wilde, Ron Howard, Zac Efron, and Steve Buscemi popping up as exaggerated versions of themselves. Even Ted Sarandos, the CEO of Netflix, makes an unforgettable appearance in one episode, standing side by side with Remick at a urinal.
But more than the cult of celebrity, the glamour of awards shows or even the magic of a good film, The Studio explores the inner conflict industry professionals have between pleasing their corporate overlords and championing creative works of cinema.
“A lot of the people who are villainised as being ‘suits’ are people who genuinely love films and that’s what got them to where they are, and you wouldn’t become the head of a studio if you didn’t love movies,” Rogen says. “So, as frustrating as a lot of the decisions that these people make are, I see that they are incredibly conflicted people, and in a way that is very dramatically interesting in that they are constantly faced with this decision: do I do what I know I should do as someone who loves film and wants to make great movies, or do I do the thing that will maybe make it so that I don’t get fired, and maybe if I don’t get fired I can make more good movies?
“There are some people who work in Hollywood who genuinely don’t give a s*** about movies, but they are vastly outnumbered by people who really care about movies and are constantly making agonising decisions over whether or not to do the right thing when it comes to these movies,” says Rogen.
In short, there is still plenty of soul to be found in Hollywood.
“I think the magic of movies is very much alive,” Rogen says. “It's a very frustrating environment sometimes and the people involved at times make decisions that are aggravating and confounding and confusing, but as a whole there’s a lot of amazing things that happen in Hollywood all the time.”
