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Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso

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

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso

Lemonada Media

Society & Culture, Film Interviews, Tv & Film

4.81.2K Ratings

🗓️ 30 March 2025

⏱️ 72 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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

On the heels of the series’ premiere, Rogen joins us to discuss its key influences (6:15), from Robert Altman’s The Player to The Larry Sanders Show (13:25), the evolving state of “show business” (15:36), and a life-changing piece of advice from director and producer Judd Apatow (25:00).

On the back-half, we dive into his early years writing comedy in Vancouver (25:57), formative memories making Freaks and Geeks (33:19), and how This Is the End, the meta-comedy from 2013, was a precursor to this latest project (43:18) and solidified his enduring creative partnership with Evan Goldberg (58:30).

Thoughts or future guest ideas? Email us at [email protected].

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Lemonada.

0:02.0

This is Talk Easy. I'm San Francisco.

0:07.0

This is Talk Easy. I'm Sam Forgo, so welcome to the show.

0:42.4

Today, actor, writer, producer, Seth Rogen.

0:49.0

Rogan came of age in an era of abundance, a Hollywood that made big budget comedies that did real box office, 40-year-old virgin, knocked up, super bad, pineapple express. For a time, roughly between

0:57.3

2005 and 2014, he represented something of a growing contingent in American life, the self-aware,

1:04.9

self-medicated man-child, stunted or stoned enough to still act like a boy, yet just aware enough to know that someday soon, he'll have to become a man.

1:16.0

If the aughts turn Rogan into an emblem for arrested development, his next decade was one of lifted productivity.

1:22.9

The slack-jawed stoner turned prolific producer.

1:26.6

Even his pension for pot became a profitable business called

1:30.4

Houseplant. When he wasn't working behind the scenes on shows like The Boys and Preacher, he was in front of

1:36.3

the camera, becoming a really talented, versatile actor. He played Steve Wozniak in Danny Boyle's

1:42.6

biopic of Steve Jobs, a lovelorn uncle in Stephen Spielberg's deeply personal film, The Fableman's.

1:50.7

Rogan's latest project, however, is the culmination of his experiences with Hollywood at large.

1:56.8

The show is called The Studio, and in it, Rogan plays Matt Remick, the newly appointed head of Continental Studios.

2:05.0

It's a dream job he's been pursuing his whole life, and has now finally, and rather unexpectedly, landed at his doorstep for better or worse.

2:15.9

Here's a clip from the trailer.

2:19.2

Prestige Films and box office hits, those are not mutually exclusive.

2:23.6

We can do both and we will do both.

2:26.7

Matt, I get it.

2:27.8

You want to make great art and make a billion dollars doing it.

2:30.3

Well, guess what?

...

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