Hollywood Plays Itself in Seth Rogen’s ‘The Studio’

2025-03-30

Actor, writer, director, and producer Seth Rogen came up in an age of abundance—a Hollywood that made big-budget comedies with box office success: The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Superbad, Pineapple Express. That era also guided his new Apple TV+ show The Studio. On the heels of the series’ premiere, Rogen joins us to discuss its key influences (4:00), from Robert Altman’s The Player to The Larry Sanders Show (10:00), the evolving state of “show business” (17:00), and a life-chan...

Actor, writer, director, and producer Seth Rogen came up in an age of abundance—a Hollywood that made big-budget comedies with box office success: The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Superbad, Pineapple Express. That era also guided his new Apple TV+ show The Studio.

On the heels of the series’ premiere, Rogen joins us to discuss its key influences (4:00), from Robert Altman’s The Player to The Larry Sanders Show (10:00), the evolving state of “show business” (17:00), and a life-changing piece of advice from director and producer Judd Apatow (23:00).

On the back-half, we dive into his early years writing comedy in Vancouver (27:00), formative memories making Freaks and Geeks (30:00), the challenges of working inside the studio system itself (40:00), and how This Is the End, the meta-comedy from 2013, was a precursor to this latest project (50:00).

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