DIRECTOR RON HOWARD IMPROVISED THROWING HIS HAT AT SETH ROGEN ON ‘THE STUDIO': ‘HE IMMEDIATELY WENT INTO THE SETH LAUGH'

Throughout Apple TV+'s "The Studio," numerous actors, writers and directors waltz through the halls of Continental Studios, demanding that their full creative vision makes it onto the big theatrical screen. Despite the guest cameos and various outlandish situations that the Continental group experience in an ever-changing Hollywood, no one knocks newly appointed studio head Matt Remick (Seth Rogen) off his feet (literally) until he comes face-to-face with one of his favorite directors, Ron Howard. 

"Wouldn't it be like the most petty, humiliating yet startling thing if I just fired my hat at him?" said Howard in an episode of Variety's Making A Scene. "I didn't tell anybody this, I just did it. I just fired my hat right in Seth [Rogen]'s face and he kind of went back, didn't do the fall in rehearsal, but he immediately went into the Seth laugh. That led to him getting a hat in the face maybe 12 or 14 times. But they liked it and they kept it. That was the Ron Howard original."

Episode 3 of "The Studio" follows the execs struggling to give a fictionalized version of Howard a note about his latest film titled "Alphabet City," a crime drama set to be released under Continental Studios' new lineup of films. When the movie has an extended final sequence that everyone agrees should be cut, all eyes are on Matt to give the dreaded final note in an attempt to salvage the film. Matt, who looks up to Howard, reveals that the reason why he is too scared to give the note directly is because he once gave a wrong note for "A Beautiful Mind" in front of an entire room of Howard's close friends and family. 

Howard, a Hollywood veteran, found himself intrigued by what Rogen and co-creators Evan Goldberg, Peter Huyck, Alex Gregory, and Frida Perez had to offer. "We talked through the script just so I understood the tone and their approach. They told me about the oners, which was daunting and exciting, but I just loved the writing. It's heightened to be as funny as it can be, but it's all grounded in plausibility because people get pissed off. This stuff's emotional, everyone's got a lot at stake. That's just the way this business works."

"The Studio" utilizes its long one-take shots in every episode to create an immersive experience, putting audiences headfirst into what it takes to run a legacy studio in an IP-driven landscape. "When I met with Seth and Evan, the first thing they said is they wanted to shoot everything in one shot," explained cinematographer Adam Newport-Berrera. "I think they were both sort of tired of shooting standard coverage, and they really wanted to do something that felt alive and really dynamic and really pushed everyone to be firing on all cylinders."  

During a meeting to discuss "Alphabet City's" marketing, the fictionalized version of Howard reveals that he remembers Matt's studio note for "A Beautiful Mind," proceeding to embarrass him at the meeting table in front of his fellow executives. As Howard begins to humiliate Matt, the camera follows all angles of the table, making sure to showcase everyone's reactions. 

"Shooting in the conference room was actually one of the more challenging sets on the show because it's so confined. It's surrounded by glass, so we're always dealing with reflections. Seth and Evan really wanted to make sure that we could float over the table and float in between people, and we tested a lot of different ideas and rigs, and Seth actually had the brilliant idea of cutting a hole on the table and replacing it in post," revealed Newport-Berra. "We were able to have the edge of the table in the set and then move the camera in and out. We had little movable leafs that we could take out so Mark [Goellnicht], our camera operator, could move inside the table." 

While the camera moves swiftly throughout the wooden table, work needed to be done to hide the window reflections in the Continental Studios meeting room. "Instead of being mounted on the four corners or along the sides, the windows were actually mounted in the middle on the top and bottom so the panel could swing left or right. We were able to angle the window in a certain direction so that we wouldn't see our own reflection."

Even if "The Studio" takes shots at Hollywood, the show is a love letter to the voices behind your favorite films and franchises. "Seth and Evan really wanted to honor this nostalgic version of Hollywood that we all love, the golden age of Hollywood. And I think for us, that felt very warm and very glowing," Newport-Berra elaborated. "I really wanted to do something that felt real, rich and lived in. I think they wanted to do something comedic that also felt like real world building and felt really immersive."

While the series pokes fun at auteurs, Howard revealed what it felt like to step into playing a heightened version of himself. "It was a version of me, but I also love that it was kind of an asshole version. It's fun to play a jerk who does jerky things once in a while. I love seeing [Seth and Evan] shine a bright light on some of the foibles and some of the petty, crazy neurotic thinking in every corner of this business. I had a blast."