Seth Rogen Says Apple Wanted Ted Sarandos’ ‘the Studio’ Cameo to Be Tim Cook

“The Studio,” Seth Rogen’s new Apple TV+ comedy, is stuffed with cameo appearances from real famous people playing themselves. But one guest star is more surprising than the others: Ted Sarandos, the co-CEO of Apple TV+’s streaming rival, Netflix.

Apparently, Apple had some notes on that casting, but Rogen didn’t take them.

“They asked if we could use Tim Cook instead, and we said no,” Rogen told Business Insider at the red carpet premiere for “The Studio” at the SXSW Film & TV Festival in March. Reps for Apple TV+ did not respond to a request for comment.

Sarandos appears in episode eight, which aired Wednesday. In the episode, Rogen’s beleaguered studio head Matt Remick attends the Golden Globes, where a film he greenlit is nominated. Matt is stressed about the idea of not getting a shout-out in the acceptance speech — an ongoing bit is that every winner from a Netflix project effusively thanks Sarandos in their speech without fail.

In the end, Matt has an encounter with Sarandos, who reveals he puts it in artists’ contracts that they have to thank him in acceptance speeches. He also forces Matt to reckon with the fact that neither of them are artists — they’re the “bean counters” supporting the real artists.

The fictional world of “The Studio” seems to closely mirror the real world, where Netflix is dominating the streaming game while the streamer actually airing “The Studio” is struggling. Apple is losing over $1 billion a year on its streaming service and has roughly 45 million subscribers. For comparison, Netflix also lost money its first few years in streaming, but it’s now extraordinarily profitable and reportedly had over 300 million subscribers by the end of 2024.

‘The Studio’ is inspired by many of Rogen’s personal experiences in Hollywood

Rogen created, directs, and stars in “The Studio,” a loving send-up of the flawed movie industry. The show follows his character Matt Remick, a newly appointed studio head at the fictional Continental Studios, as he struggles to simultaneously make good art and make his company money.

The story’s central theme of art versus commerce hit close to home for Rogen, and that’s by design, as he and his producing partner Evan Goldberg incorporated their own experiences into the show.

In fact, at least one memorable line in the pilot is lifted directly from Rogen’s real life: Matt saying he got into all this because he loves movies, but now he fears it’s his job to ruin them.

Rogen remembers an executive telling him those same words as he reluctantly gave notes to him and Goldberg early in their career — and yes, the exec in question is still a major player in the industry.

“I saw him the other day. He’s Steve Asbell. He runs Fox,” Rogen said, laughing.

“The Studio” airs Wednesdays on Apple TV+.