The Studio is Apple TV+'s latest comedy that makes fun of the film industry and those in its complex hierarchy—and according to the co-showrunner, they hope to keep it going for quite some time.
Seth Rogen stars in the show as Matt Remick, newly promoted head of the fictional major movie studio, Continental Studios. Thrown into the deep end, Matt is forced to contend with the harsh, and oftentimes outrageous, realities of the industry.
The Studio co-showrunner Alex Gregory sat down with The Direct's Russ Milheim to talk all about the new series.
The Studio Could Go on Endlessly
"I Don't Think There Are Any Plans for An End..."
- The Direct: "Now the concept of this show lends itself to nearly endless amounts of stories. What is your long-term plan for the show? How long do you see it potentially running for?"
Alex Gregory: I think we'd like to keep doing it indefinitely... Put it this way, I don't think there are any plans for an end... I am hopeful [for a Season 2].
- The Direct: "What are some of those aspects—I know you can't like confirm this is what we're doing in the future, if we get renewed—but hypothetically, what are some aspects of the film industry that you'd still love to tackle, that maybe were in the cards for Season 1, but just didn't make it this time around. But what are some of those high-priority topics or questions that you really want to tackle going forward?"
Alex Gregory: I think we might like to go overseas for something. I mean, there are all sorts of things to do, and there were full episodes written that got shelved in favor of other episodes. It's, yeah, it is a business that has a lot of stories to tell, so we're excited to see where we can take it.
How They Got Away With Those Big References In The Studio
"Everything Gets Run Through Legal."
- The Direct: "Obviously, there are a lot of references in the show about the real world and whatnot. What exactly did those parameters look like, regarding what you are allowed to directly mention or poke fun at, and where maybe you had to pull back and like, maybe don't do that."
Alex Gregory: I think everything gets run through legal. So, there are things we can and cannot say. I know that, just as a group, we didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings or cause anyone pain. So the show is not like a takedown of like, Hey, we're going to do our hot takes and all that shit.
It was more, just like, we want to create the most accurate portrayal of Hollywood. So it's like, what would people in this position be talking about? What would their agendas be?
And so what was cool was like you would do stuff like you would have a young executive know filmmakers like Owen Kline, which is really cool that you get, okay, so Owen Kline gets a shout out, and then you have Martin Scorsese.
And so we just sort of did, like, what would they really be talking about? Who would they care about? And so some of it was just like the creator's own pet favorites and stuff. But I don't think we were in any way trying to pick fights with anybody, yeah, so I don't think we said, hey, that sucks, or anything like that.
- The Direct: "There's a ton of cameos, obviously, who are some of the stars or filmmakers that you kind of wanted to get into the series, but then, for just whatever reason it didn't work out, maybe they weren't available, or they just couldn't do it well."
Alex Gregory: The way it worked out was we reached out to people, and the people who said yes were wonderful. So, we really tailored a lot of what we did to those people like Zoe Kravitz had a very specific take she wanted to do for the Golden Globes, as to, like, what her thing would be like, what her joke was, which is, I want to be totally phony about it and then really care about it, like, pretend to not really care.
And so that was her bit. So I don't feel like there was—I can't name anyone that was like, Oh, I wish we had gotten that person. Because each person we got sort of became the role and ended up being perfect because it was completely tailored.
So if the season works, a lot of it is due to the collaboration with the actors and their input as to what they wanted to do. So, I think I'm hopeful that next year we'll get even more cool cameos. But I don't really feel like we didn't get anybody we wanted.
The Use of One-Takes and Extended Shows In The Studio
"They Wanted to Make Each Episode Feel Like a Movie."
- The Direct: "Obviously, there's the one-take episode, but overall, the show really loves, you know, not just one-takes but extended moving shots in general. Can you just talk about the decision to include lots of those and how the series is filmed throughout the whole season?"
Alex Gregory: Yes, Seth [Rogen] and Evan [Goldberg] are both cinephiles, and they wanted to make each episode feel like a movie. So it's a strange blend of, I come from more of like a TV background.
And so they really wanted it to feel contained, self-contained, and they wanted to bring all of the tricks of movie making into television. And so, I mean, it's got a movie-level production design, it's very cinematic, and they just wanted it to feel like each thing looks beautiful, from the wardrobe to the sets to the music.
They just wanted it to feel cinematic. You could put it on a big screen, and it could live fine there.
- The Direct: "I know you probably talked about that one-shot episode a lot, which is, it's a crazy episode, and the challenges that you guys must have faced putting that together must have been insane. But I wanted to ask about, what were some of the challenges you faced during the actual making of that episode that were kind of crazy enough that it could have been in the story itself?"
Alex Gregory: The finale shot where they're running out of light. We were running out of light in real life. So Seth [Rogen] and Ike [Barinholtz] in the car. That was the real light. It was about to go away, and they're dealing with the timing of the song, of the driving of the car. It was a lot.
And that was one where it was like, Oh, shit, did we get it? We got it. So it was the opposite of the show where it was like, we didn't get it. Yeah, that was wild, because they had to calculate when magic hour would be every day of that week, and adjust which scenes are being filmed outside to magic hour.
So, it really looked like it was the same hour the whole time, even though it was different days of shooting. That was, I mean, that was a triumph of not just like direction, but also like ADs, first ADs, second ADs, and like making all of the logistics happen.
The Studio is now streaming on Apple TV+.
Be sure to check out The Direct's interview with show star Dewayne Perkins!
