Seth Rogen Reveals Why He Had to Scrap 1 Episode of ‘The Studio’

Seth Rogen revealed that he had to skip a planned episode of his series The Studio when a celebrity cameo fell through. 

The Apple TV+ comedy, which stars Rogen as movie studio head Matt Remick, has successfully featured a long list of guest stars that includes Martin Scorsese, Charlize Theron, Zac Efron, Olivia Wilde, and Ron Howard. But one episode was guest star specific enough that it couldn’t be reworked when the cameo didn’t work out.

“There were a lot of people who, if they said no, we’d have to reimagine the whole episode to some degree,” Rogen said on the Filmmaker Toolkit podcast, per IndieWire. “The only people we didn’t get were a couple scheduling issues, and then there were two people who just fundamentally were not interested in playing themselves. None of them could do it when we needed them. So we literally didn’t shoot the episode.”

Rogen didn’t elaborate on who the mystery guest, or guests, would have been. He has said that he has heard from “almost every” Hollywood bigwig since The Studio premiered in March. 

One famed movie producer who was more than game to poke fun at Hollywood moviemaking was Ron Howard. The Oscar-winning producer, who got his start as a child actor in the 1960s, put back on his acting hat for The Studio episode “The Note,” but his daughter was worried about it.

During a Q&A with fans, Bryce Dallas Howard admitted she was "so nervous” for her dad's role on The Studio because he hadn’t acted in a long time— and  he also wasn't used to filming in one long take.

"He's done some cameos here and there, but [this was] a real part, with, like, dialogue. And they are shooting it all with 'oners', you cannot mess up!" she explained. "I was very nervous for him, so I went with him. I was like a 'momager.’”

Related: Seth Rogen Admits 1 Major Change Was Made Early in 'The Studio'