Movie-making is a wild business. Every actor has countless stories of the strange confluence of art and commerce that creating film and television in Hollywood creates. Creative people try to make entertainment while the studio executives behind them try to make it as successful as possible. It’s led to some strange situations, including Seth Rogen having to convince people to let him cast the likes of Emma Stone.
Seth Rogen plays a studio head in his new series, The Studio, available with an Apple TV+ subscription. In doing so, he becomes the guy who finds himself giving the dreaded studio notes that so many filmmakers hate. Speaking with THR, Rogen admits he’s had some bad notes over the years, including having to convince somebody to let him cast certain actors, including two-time Oscar winner Emma Stone. Rogen said:
We’ve gotten some very bad notes over the years. Sometimes it comes in the form of, like, you genuinely feel as though you’ve found a movie star and the studio’s just like, ‘No, that person’s not funny.’ We’re trying to put, like, Michael Cera and Jonah Hill in something, and we’re like, “We think these guys have a future,” and they’re like, ‘We don’t see it.’ Or like Emma Stone, that took some convincing and it’s shocking in retrospect. But truthfully, notes used to really stress me out, and I used to get bent out of shape about them, but I now feel no pressure to even… Acknowledge them. I assume if one’s important, it’ll make its way to me eventually.
While Rogen doesn’t mention any movie by name here, back in 2007, Seth Rogen wrote and produced Superbad. The raunchy comedy was one of Rogen’s earliest efforts, and it was also the first major film role for Emma Stone. Being largely unknown at the time, it’s perhaps understandable why some might have had reservations about casting her.
Except that, you know, basically the entire cast of Superbad was unknown at the time, including the other actors Rogen mentions here.
In retrospect, it absolutely is shocking that somebody would take issue with casting Emma Stone. She’s as funny as anybody in Superbad, and that honestly should have been obvious to anybody paying attention. One can only imagine if Rogen had acquiesced to the request and not cast Stone. She certainly would have still gone on to be a major star, and the fact that somebody fought against casting her might have been quite a career stain.
Rogen admits that today, he largely doesn’t acknowledge studio notes. To be fair, there have been times when studio notes improved movies. It's been known to happen. Having said that, it doesn't sound like Seth rogen will be giving them much attention.
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