Seth Rogen Is ‘Very Worried’ That Real Hollywood Execs Will Recognize Themselves in ‘The Studio’

Seth Rogen knows that his satirical Apple TV+ series “The Studio” will resonant with Hollywood insiders, for better or worse.

Rogen, who leads the series as a fictional studio executive, told Esquire in the below video that “The Studio” was inspired by real interactions with creatives across his career. Rogen co-wrote the series with his collaborator Evan Goldberg; “The Studio” is opening SXSW 2025.

“The crux of the show is my character really loves movies but is afraid he is going to make them worse, which is a fear I often have in real life,” Rogen said. “That actually came to me and Evan from a meeting we had with an executive very early on in our careers. We were getting terrible notes from an executive and he kind of hung his head as he was giving us notes and looked up at us and was like, ‘You know, I got into this job because I love movies and now it’s my job to ruin them.’ We thought, ‘Wow. That is sad…and pretty funny, in a lot of ways.'”

Rogen continued, “Yes, I am very worried that real-life people will recognize themselves in the show. We’ve already shown the show to a few people that have inspired some of the moments and storylines of the episodes. People are mostly flattered.”

And it’s not just the satirical choices that could ruffle some feathers but also the sartorial ones, too: Rogen said that controversial Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav‘s more bombastic clothing style changed how Bryan Cranston’s “The Studio” character dressed.

“[The role] was written much more kind of straight and more like a blue suit kind of person,” Rogen said, “and then I had met with David Zaslav and he was in like a suede cowboy jacket with big flashy glasses with gold on them. I was like, ‘If David Zaslav dresses like this, then we’re being a little too conservative in our choices with Bryan Cranston’s character.’ So, we let him go to town.”

He added, “But as crazy as Bryan is on the show, he very much fits into the realm of what these guys are actually like, for better or worse.”

Rogen also reflected on how starring in “The Studio” changed his own approach as a writer/director/producer when dealing with real executives.

“It made me understand and be more sympathetic in many ways to studio people, but also in some ways, much less sympathetic because I see now they could also just do the right thing,” Rogen said. “Like, a thing they say a lot in Hollywood is, ‘It’s show business, there’s a reason they call it show business because it’s equal parts show and business.’ And studio executives really are the inflection point between the show and the business and between art and commerce.”

Rogen continued, “They are almost daily put in a position where they have to choose between enabling and encouraging some bold creative act or being [in a] self-preservation [mode] and mitigating their risks of things going wrong, which usually makes them think that they should discourage bold acts of creativity. I think the good studio executive encourages it. Bad ones are more self-preservation.”