VIDEO: Seth Rogen Talks New Project ‘The Studio’ and Directing Martin Scorsese in Stern Show Return

On “The Studio,” actor and filmmaker Seth Rogen stars as Matt Remick, the brand-new head of a major entertainment company. In one scene of the series – out now on Apple TV+ — his character asks actress Zoë Kravitz to thank him in her Golden Globes acceptance speech. “That is very based on real life,” the comedian told Howard Wednesday morning in his Stern Show return. “We interviewed almost every head of every studio kind of past and present … and it was one of the most consistent things that was said to us: ‘You just want to be thanked at an award show — by first and last name.’”

Rogen saw a similar scenario unfold at the actual Golden Globes earlier this year when actress Zoe Saldaña accepted an acting award and waited until the final few seconds of her speech to thank Netflix head Ted Sarandos. “She thanked him at the very end of the speech, and he literally looked backwards at me and was like, ‘Just got it!’” Seth told Howard with a laugh.

Sarandos makes his acting debut on “The Studio,” but as Seth told Howard on Wednesday, he’s far from the only Hollywood heavyweight to make a cameo appearance. Legendary director Martin Scorsese also appears on an episode of the show. “It was one of those things where we wanted Martin Scorsese, he was our ideal guy, we got Martin Scorsese, we couldn’t fucking believe it, and then it dawned on me and Evan [Goldberg], my partner, ‘Oh, now we have to direct Martin Scorsese,’” Seth revealed, adding, “It was one of the scariest things I’ve ever had to do in like my professional career.”

A likely less stressful moment of the production was shooting a trailer for a fake Johnny Knoxville movie about zombies who spread a virus with radioactive feces. “We really came alive that day on set,” Rogen laughed before joking it was in the wheelhouse of what he and Evan do best. “[We were like], ‘We should be doing this. We’ve taken a swing at elevated television, but I think at the end of the day our calling is making projectile zombie diarrhea movies.’”

Seth, a well-known marijuana enthusiast turned entrepreneur, was also candid about both his own cannabis use and one rare occasion when he didn’t partake. “I was in Singapore once — you can’t smoke weed there,” he noted of the country with famously strict rules on illicit substances. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve flown places and then got there and opened a pocket or something and been like, ‘Oh shit, there’s a fucking roach in my pocket.’ So, that was a scary walk through the airport in Singapore.”

Check out more of Rogen’s expansive chat with Howard — where they discussed everything from the current state of show business to that one time a still up-and-coming Seth panicked after learning he’d need to split an expensive restaurant bill with comedy legends Judd Apatow and Garry Shandling — below.

Is Hollywood Dead?

Splitting the Check with Judd Apatow and Garry Shandling

Front and Center at Adele

“The Studio” is out now on Apple TV+.