Vintage jacket from Raggedy Threads. Vintage shirt and jeans from Gator’s Vintage. Eyewear (throughout) by Jacques Marie Mage. Vintage ring (on left middle finger) from FD Gallery. Ring (on left ring finger, throughout), his own. Vintage rings (on left and right pinkie, throughout) from Foundwell.
The Emmys ceremony basically could’ve been an episode of the show—which is a loving portrait of the town, but it’s also a portrayal of an industry driven by fear and greed that routinely crushes the souls of the artists who make it go. And the reaction from all the people you’re portraying was like: You really saw us, man.
It really is true. It’s funny, I think people outside the industry think it’s very exaggerated and people in the industry think it’s very real, and that, I think, shows how heightened the industry is and how unhinged it is behind the scenes, even in comparison to how people project it might be. We obviously bring things to pretty comedic climaxes that maybe have a step outside of day-to-day realities of the industry, but [are] the general plots and conundrums and conflicts very much based on real things? Yeah.
On your show, Hollywood is in crisis. You actually work in this industry. In 2025, how fucked is this business, actually?
It’s been better, but it’s a constantly evolving industry and it’s a very volatile industry by nature. And to me that has always been what’s interesting about it and what’s exciting about it and what is, at times, incredibly aggravating. But, in other times, incredibly inspiring is how fast it can change and how on a dime the whole industry can shift into a new direction. And I’ve always kind of tried to ride that wave as opposed to fight it.
This is a nice, abstract answer.
But the answer is: I don’t know. Many people have very bleak views of the industry. It’s hard for me to have too bleak a view of the industry. I’m on two television shows that I’m very proud of. I am able to make movies that are in theaters. Ninja Turtles is a good example. It’s based on IP. We made the exact movie we wanted to make, we took some huge creative swings and it did very well and got very good reviews. So it’s hard for me to look at that and be cynical about that experience. But if I ran a movie studio, I would probably have a much different view. If I was responsible for billions of dollars in revenue every year, and if the seismic shifts in the industry were really affecting my entire business strategy, then that would be a much scarier place to be, I would imagine.
Your show is full of cameos from real Hollywood people—have you heard from anyone who turned you down and now regrets it?
I had a few people come up to me at the Emmys saying they regret it, which was very meaningful to me. [Laughs.]That’s all I want—for people to regret not working with me.
The day that I visited the set, you guys were shooting a scene where your character falls down and you break your pinkie. You must have done 25 takes of that scene, reacting to your own broken finger, and all of them were different, and all of them were funny. Can you describe to me how and what you’re doing there?
I mean, not necessarily. The way we shoot the show, like, a million things have to come together in order to make the scene work. And so sometimes the acting is good and the performance is good, but something else went wrong and so we have to do it again. And so something like that, it was probably a combination of my own performance not being what it needed to be and a million other things not being what they need to be. And then eventually we get one that’s good. It’s usually around take 16. And then once it’s good, you want to keep going to try to get a few good ones, and then the wave crests and you feel them getting worse and worse and worse. And then you always end on a down note, which is always a bummer. You’re always walking away feeling, Yeah, we should have stopped a few takes ago.
The Studio is made by your production company, Point Grey, and most of what you do lives under that umbrella, but occasionally you’ll go outside and do a dramatic role in a movie, like Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs or Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans. When do you decide when to go do that?
When they offer it to me. It’s not like I’m getting offered tons of these movies that I’m turning down. I get offered one every five or six years and then I’m in it. I’m not turning down David Fincher movies to go produce Blockers.
You’ve turned out to be a very talented dramatic actor. I’ve found myself wondering why when you go back and make your own stuff, it’s almost always comedy.
To me it’s more fun and more challenging in a lot of ways, honestly. I find there’s few things people want to do less than proclaim that they are trying to be funny. I think that a lot of people are just very uncomfortable doing that, and a lot of filmmakers are very uncomfortable stepping into those waters. And I don’t view dramatic things as harder or more meaningful or things that people are taking more seriously as they’re making them or putting more thought into them as they’re making them. To me, to make a great comedy is making a great drama, but then also making it funny, which is harder. And so I view making a great comedy, honestly, as much harder than making a great drama.
You write and direct with your business partner, Evan Goldberg. I’m curious: How did you become the actor and he become the behind-the-scenes guy?
It was sort of based on desire. It’s funny because when we were young and we made little movies with a video camera, he would be the one on camera, and I was the one shooting them. But I was inherently more interested in performing, always. I took acting classes as a kid. I did stand-up comedy. And so for me, performing was a part of the creative expression that I was interested in. And for him, performing was just not a part of the creative expression he was interested in. Which worked out very well for us, ’cause I think the fact [is] that he has no interest in doing that part of the job and there’s no resentment or jealousy, or there’s none of him that wishes he was getting this attention that I’m getting. And if anything, he rejoices in days like today where I’m taking pictures and doing interviews and he’s sitting at home with his family. That, to him, is a very great trade-off.