As fans await The Studio’s return for Season 2, the obvious sticking point hindering some of the excitement is the loss of Hollywood great Catherine O’Hara, whose death on January 30 came as a complete shock to the industry at large. The actress had a huge 2025, with a key role in The Last of Us preceding her comedic wins in Seth Rogen’s award-amassing satire, but it doesn’t sound like that stopped her from being the same generous and charitable person she’s been for her entire career.
Case in point, The Studio’s costume designer Kameron Lennox was on hand at the 28th Costume Designers Guild Awards, where she won the honor for Excellence in Contemporary Television, and spoke with People about her favorite behind-the-scenes moment involving O’Hara. Lennox addressed a point during Season 1’s production when the cast and crew were hunkered down in a Las Vegas casino for a stretch, saying:
We were shooting for two weeks, living inside a casino, filming inside of a casino. Nobody left the casino. It was like 110 degrees outside. And so we would all kind of find each other at different restaurants. A group of us went to dinner one night, and she was at another table with other crew members having dinner. And then she saw us, spotted us, came over, said hello, and then they left. And then when we went to go get the bill, she had paid our bill.
The actions that tend to really matter are the ones that draw the least amount of attention, without anyone seeking to gain credit for it. Surely, O’Hara could have made a big deal at the table about treating everyone to a free lunch, and that’s absolutely the way a lot of other celebrities might have handled it. But despite some of her best characters being over-the-top and attention-hungry, the actress herself needs no such perceived glory.
Lennox continued, making it seem like Catherine O’Hara benevolent actions were as natural to the actress as her hair and eye colors.
I'm like, ‘You're so sneaky and sweet.’ But just that gesture alone, it's like she really understood everybody's role and was just a very kind-hearted person.
To that end, in the year before her death, O’Hara opened up about how lucky she felt to still be working on high-profile projects, such as the long-awaited sequel Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, and that she’d made a point of reflecting on those positive feelings whenever she started to complain or feel anxious about anything. If everyone in the world followed along with that line of thinking, it would be a vastly different orb to live on.
The actress' family and friends gathered together to celebrate and honor her life on Valentine's Day weekend, when her funeral was held. Though she may be gone, her winning spirit and generosity will no doubt live on in her absence.
Kameron Lennox shared that O'Hara's death complicated the crew's feelings about returning for Season 2, saying on the one hand, there's the excitement about getting back to work on such a successful and beloved show. But on the other, there's the heaviness of knowing that the Patty Leigh portrayer will no longer be part of it all.
With months to go before we hear anything concrete about when Season 2 will be ready for eyeballs, all episodes ofThe Studio Season 1 are available to stream via Apple TV subscription.
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