Seth Rogen Lands The 'Tragic' Job Of Studio Head

Fresh Air

NPR

Tv & Film, Arts, Society & Culture, Books

4.4 • 34.4K Ratings

🗓️ 18 March 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In his new Apple TV+ series The Studio, Seth Rogen plays an anxious Hollywood executive desperate to not get fired. Studio heads are charged with deciding which projects get greenlit, and which get scrapped. They also give notes to creatives that are supposed to help their films become better — or, more specifically, be financially successful. Rogen reflects on this funny dynamic and the research he did for the series. The Studio drops on March 26.

Also, John Powers reviews the series Long Bright River on Peacock.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This message comes from Penguin Random House with Everything is Tuberculosis.
0:05.9	Bestselling author John Green tells the story of a young TB patient in Sierra Leone and systems of injustice fueling the world's deadliest infectious disease.
0:15.1	Available where books and audiobooks are sold.
0:18.1	This is Fresh Air. I'm Tanya Mosley. Let's go back to the year 2000. A young Seth
0:23.8	Rogan and his writing partner, Evan Goldberg, have arrived from Canada and they're meeting with a
0:29.3	studio executive to go over screenplay they've written together. During the meeting, the executive
0:34.3	makes a cynical confession. I got into this job because I love movies, he says, and now I feel like it's my job to ruin them.
0:43.1	Rogan and Goldberg never forgot what that executive said, and 25 years later, they've made it the basis of a new satirical comedy series called The Studio.
0:52.2	Rogan plays Matt Rimmick, a Hollywood executive who gets an unexpected promotion as the head
0:57.4	of the fictional continental studios after his boss is fired.
1:01.8	In this scene, the CEO of the studio, played by Brian Cranston, offers Matt the job, but
1:07.4	asks if Matt really has what it takes to do it the Continental way.
1:13.6	Patty's time has come and gone, and I'm seriously considering you to replace her.
1:19.3	Oh my God, yes, yes. I'm the guy. I'm the guy for the job.
1:23.3	Tell me that. Why are you the guy? Well, um, I've worked at Continental for 22 years.
1:29.3	I bought the original spec script for MK Ultra, which, as I'm sure you know, spawned a franchise that's made us over $3 billion for the...
1:35.3	Hey, Renee! Where the f*** is my green juice?
1:37.3	You want a green juice?
1:39.3	Uh, yeah, I'd love one.
1:40.3	Two green juices. Now!
1:43.3	Yes, sir. Sorry.
1:45.0	Continue.
	...

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