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In the first few minutes of his Apple TV+ comedy “The Studio,” Seth Rogen’s character Matt Remick is promoted to the head of a major movie studio. His first order of business in the new role is to fast-track a “Kool-Aid” movie — the studio’s next billion-dollar bet — and Matt, a starry-eyed cinephile, thinks he can get an auteur director to helm it.
He has a meeting with Martin Scorsese (played by none other than Martin Scorsese), who coincidentally pitches an original movie about Jonestown, the mass murder-suicide orchestrated by cult leader Jim Jones in which 900 people died by drinking laced… Kool-Aid. So, Matt attempts to reverse-engineer his auteur “Kool-Aid” movie by making Scorsese think it was his idea in the in the first place.
Of course, this rogue plan falls apart almost immediately. The studio can’t spin $1 billion out of a Steve Buscemi-led cult drama, nor would Kool-Aid be thrilled with a branded movie in which its product is associated with a massacre. So, Matt must deliver the bad news to Scorsese: He can’t make the movie. But not only that — because he bought the screenplay, no one can make the movie. At first, Scorsese berates Matt, a “talentless, spineless suit,” but then, upon realizing his movie is dead, the “Goodfellas” director weeps.
Rogen and “The Studio” co-creator Evan Goldberg wrote the part, which is pivotal to setting up the stakes of the series, specifically for Scorsese.
“The cameos had to all be people that served a very specific role in the stories,” Rogen tells Variety. “For Scorsese, the role was someone my character would fucking do anything to work with, who would pound this puzzle piece into a shape that it clearly doesn’t belong in just for the opportunity to work with. At the same time, it had to be a person you would believe would make a Jonestown movie. Scorsese was literally the first person [we thought of]. If you’re around my age and you grew up loving movies, he’s the guy.”
Rogen did not previously have a personal relationship with Scorsese, so he and Goldberg sent the script to his manager and crossed their fingers. They were “shocked” to hear back a few days later. “The first time I met him was when he showed up on set to shoot,” Rogen says. “It was crazy. It was a surreal and bizarre and amazing gift he gave us.”
Then came time for Rogen and Goldberg to direct one of the world’s greatest directors. Rogen didn’t tell Scorsese ahead of time that the entire series would be shot in “oners” — long, continuous takes with no cuts.
“It was really scary,” Rogen says. “Not only were we putting ourselves in a position where we had to direct Scorsese, but also we’re shooting him in a very specific way, which is one of the hardest ways to perform. You can’t reset the line if you bumble it. If you mess up a line, you have to stop and start over from the beginning.”
“We were nervous he wouldn’t like it, so we actually had a second camera crew,” Rogen adds. “It was the only day of the whole shoot we had two cameras, and they were literally hiding in another hotel room just in case he was like, ‘You don’t have a second camera?’ I wanted to be like, ‘I do have a second camera actually!’”
Rogen says, “I still don’t know how I would have creatively reconciled shooting those scenes differently than all the other scenes. But at that moment, it was more important that Martin Scorsese wasn’t mad at me.”
Luckily, Scorsese was game and excelled in the format. “He was so funny, and I feel like he gave me a very unwarranted gift,” Rogen says, “but I’m grateful for it nonetheless.”
“The Studio” also stars Catherine O’Hara, Kathryn Hahn, Ike Barinholtz and Chase Sui Wonders, and it has an impressive roster of guest stars that is too long to include here. The series premiered March 26 on Apple TV+.
