This Is the End, a 2013 comedy hit featuring Seth Rogenand Jonah Hill, will be removed from Netflix’s streaming library next month. The supporting cast roster includes several other renowned comedy actors, playing fictionalized versions of themselves during a Biblical apocalypse.
This Is the End leaves Netflix in March
The popular apocalyptic horror comedy will not be a part of Netflix’s library soon.
As per What’s on Netflix, This Is the End will be exiting the streaming platform on Sunday, March 1, 2026.
Directed by longtime collaborators Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen, the movie is a feature-length version of their 2007 short film, Jay and Seth Versus the Apocalypse. The movie features Rogen, Jonah Hill, James Franco, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Michael Cera, and Emma Watson, among others.
This Is the End follows a group of celebrities as fictionalized versions of themselves as they navigate a Biblical apocalypse. The story kicks off when a Rapture suddenly appears at a convenience store where Seth and Jay are. They later flee back to Franco’s housewarming party, where a massive earthquake strikes, swallowing most of the partygoers. The surviving group then faces increasingly bizarre and supernatural events, including demonic creatures and Jonah Hill becoming possessed.
Released on June 12, 2013, the movie received a positive reception from both critics and audiences. It currently has a 82% Tomatometer score and 71% Popcornmeter score on Rotten Tomatoes. Moreover, This Is the End earned more than $126 million worldwide by the end of its theatrical run (via Box Office Mojo).
The movie’s original title was reportedly The End of the World. However, Simon Pegg reached out to the filmmakers to change the title. This was because it was similar to his then-upcoming movie, The World’s End (via Vulture). Subsequently, Rogen announced the new title with a post on X (formerly Twitter).
Interestingly, This Is the End’s first trailer and poster were released on December 20, 2012. It was one day before the supposed December 21, 2012, apocalypse associated with the Mayan Long Count calendar.
Read on for the full list of DGA Awards 2026 winners below:
Theatrical Feature Film
WINNER: Paul Thomas Anderson – One Battle After Another
Ryan Coogler – Sinners Guillermo Del Toro – Frankenstein Josh Safdie – Marty Supreme Chloé Zhao – Hamnet
Michael Apted First Time Directorial Feature
WINNER: Charlie Polinger – The Plague
Hasan Hadi – The President’s Cake Harry Lighton – Pillion Alex Russell – Lurker Eva Victor – Sorry, Baby
Documentary Film
WINNER: Mstyslav Chernov – 2000 Meters to Andriivka
Geeta Gandbhir – The Perfect Neighbor Sara Khaki and Mohammadreza Eyni – Cutting Through Rocks Elizabeth Lo – Mistress Dispeller Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus – Cover-Up
Dramatic Series
WINNER: Amanda Marsallis – The Pitt, “6:00 PM”
Liza Johnson – The Diplomat, “Amagansett” Janus Metz – Andor, “Who Are You?” Ben Stiller – Severance, “Cold Harbor” John Wells – The Pitt, “7:00 A.M.”
Comedy Series
WINNER: Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg – The Studio, “The Oner”
Lucia Aniello – Hacks, “A Slippery Slope” Janicza Bravo – The Bear, “Worms” Christopher Storer – The Bear, “Bears” Mike White – The White Lotus, “Denials”
Limited & Anthology Series
WINNER: Shannon Murphy- Dying for Sex, “It’s Not That Serious”
Jason Bateman – Black Rabbit, “The Black Rabbits” Antonio Campos – The Beast in Me, “Sick Puppy” Lesli Linka Glatter – Zero Day, “Episode 6” Ally Pankiw – Black Mirror, “Common People”
Movies for Television
WINNER: Stephen Chbosky – Nonnas
Jesse Armstrong – Mountainhead Scott Derrickson – The Gorge Michael Morris – Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy Kyle Newacheck – Happy Gilmore 2
Variety
WINNER: Liz Patrick – SNL50: The Anniversary Special
Yvonne De Mare – The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, “Julia Roberts; Sam Smith” Andy Fisher – Jimmy Kimmel Live!, “Stephen Colbert; Kumail Nanjiani; Reneé Rapp” Beth McCarthy-Miller – SNL50: The Homecoming Concert Paul Pennolino- Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, “Public Media”
Sports
WINNER: Matthew Gangl – 2025 World Series – Game 7
Steve Milton – 2025 Masters Tournament Rich Russo – Super Bowl LIX
Reality/Quiz and Game
WINNER: Mike Sweeney – Conan O’Brien Must Go, “Austria”
Lucinda M. Margolis – Jeopardy!, “Ep. 9341” Adam Sandler – The Price is Right, “10,000th Episode”
Documentary Series/News
WINNER: Rebecca Miller – Mr. Scorsese, “All This Filming Isn’t Healthy”
Marshall Curry – SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night, “Written By: A Week Inside the SNL Writers Room” Susan Lacy and Jessica Levin – Billy Joel: And So It Goes, “Part Two” Alexandra Stapleton – Sean Combs: The Reckoning, “Official Girl” Matt Wolf – Pee-Wee as Himself, “Part 1”
The Friend’s House Is Here was covertly filmed in the streets of Tehran amidst violent government crackdowns against citizens. Courtesy of Sundance Institute
There is a scene about halfway through first-time writer-director Stephanie Ahn’s romantic drama Bedford Park—which premiered in the U.S. Dramatic Competition in last week’s Sundance Film Festival—where the lead characters are stuck in New Jersey traffic, fiddling with the radio. “Keep it here,” says reluctant passenger Eli (South Korean actor Son Suk-ku) when he hears Bill Conti’s Rocky theme Gonna Fly Now. While Eli—whose cauliflower ears speak to his high school wrestling days and whose furtive and combative manner suggests he has never stopped fighting—bobs his head and shakes his fists, Irene (a devastating Moon Choi), an on-leave physical therapist in an emotional free fall, stares ahead, saying nothing, her eyes silently filling with tears.
Sitting in a Press & Industry screening at the Holiday Village Theaters in Park City, so did mine. Of course, it had much to do with the authenticity and masterfully observational patience of Ahn’s film. But the film served as a powerful metaphor for the festival itself, which was also uniting a bunch of broken people around their shared and largely nostalgic love of movies. A dense cloud of wistfulness threatened to overtake the festival every time audiences watched Robert Redford, its late founder and spiritual guide, reflect on the power of storytelling in gauzy footage projected onscreen.
While Bedford Park was my favorite film I saw at the festival, it didn’t pick up one of the big awards. (Beth de Araújo’s Channing Tatum–starring drama about an 8-year-old crime witness Josephine swept both the Jury and Audience awards, while Bedford Park received a Special Jury Award for Debut Feature.)
What Ahn’s film brought home instead was something even more valuable: a distribution deal. Sony Pictures Classics—whose co-presidents and founders Michael Barker and Tom Bernard were battling for good movies and ethical distribution against the indie movie dark lord Harvey Weinstein back in Sundance’s buy-happy ’90s heyday—made the film its second acquisition of the festival behind director Josef Kubota Wladyka’s crowd-pleasing Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! It was an anachronistically bullish stand by the 34-year-old specialty arm in what has been a largely bearish acquisition market.
The relatively quiet marketplace, Redford’s passing and the immutability of 2026 being the end of the festival’s Utah run (Main Street’s iconic Egyptian Theater being unavailable for festival programming felt like a don’t-let-the-door-hit-you statement from both city and state) combined to give this outing a bit of a Dance of Death feeling. Respite from this sense of gloom came from the most unlikely of places: documentaries on seemingly depressing topics.
Joybubbles in his living room. Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
Joybubbles, the effervescent directorial debut from longtime archival producer Rachael J. Morrison, tells the story of Joe Engrassia, a man who copes with his blindness and the cruelty he experiences as a result of his visual impairment through his relationship with that great relic of the 20th Century: the telephone. As a child, he found comfort in its steady tone when his parents fought; as a young man, he learned to manipulate its system to make calls across the world with his pitch-perfect whistling; as an adult, he entertains strangers through a prerecorded “fun line,” telling jokes and stories from his life. In one scene, Morrison captures a caller recollecting taking Joe—who late in life legally changed his name to Joybubbles to reflect his commitment to living life as a child—to Penny Marshall’s 1988 movie Big, and describing it to him in the back of the theater; the moment moved me as deeply as the Rocky interlude from Bedford Park.
The setup of Sam Green’s The Oldest Person in the World seems high concept: a globe-spanning chronicle of the various holders of that dubious Guinness World Record title over the course of a decade. But in the hands of Green, a Sundance vet who has premiered a dozen films at the festival dating back to 1997, what would be rote instead blossoms into a consistently surprising, deeply personal and strangely exhilarating exploration of what it means to be alive.
Ghost in the Machine delivers a thought-provoking takedown of Techno-Fascism. Courtesy of Sundance Institute
Ghost in the Machine,Valerie Vatach’s exploration of the eugenicist roots and colonial and anti-environmental reality of the A.I. arms race, had the exact opposite effect. It tells the tale of a society that has lost its moral and humanitarian bearing at the behest of techno-oligarchs, amalgamating our own labor to keep us divided. The film’s denouement—showing ways we as a society can still fight back—was the only unconvincing part of Vatach’s film essay.
Meanwhile, the miles-deep societal pessimism of Ghost in the Machine was being tragically echoed by real events. Indeed, the most shocking and vital clip of the weekend was the footage of the Minneapolis murder of protester and ICU nurse Alex Pretti at the hands of federal agents that festivalgoers watched on their phones in stunned silence while waiting in lines. A day earlier, U.S. Congressman Max Frost was physically assaulted at the festival in an attack that was both politically and racially motivated.
It all made for a tense mood for one of the more anxious events of the festival: that Sunday’s premiere of Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie, from Alex Gibney, another longtime Sundance veteran. Culled from footage shot by Rachel Eliza Griffiths (Rushdie’s wife) of the novelist’s recovery from the 2022 attack on his life and adapted from his memoir of that event, the film was most effective when Gibney recounted the since-rescinded 1989 fatwa against Rushdie, an example of, as the author told the theater audience, “how violence unleashed by an irresponsible leader can spread out of control.” (Security measures for the event included a full pat-down, metal detectors, and bomb-sniffing dogs.)
As trenchant as it felt in that moment, Knife was also an example of a documentary where the subject may have been a bit too in control of the final product; in addition to providing the footage, Griffiths served as executive producer and Gibney was her and Rushdie’s handpicked director.
American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez, which premiered in the U.S. Documentary Competition and took home the Audience Award, also drifted toward hagiography. But in telling the story of Valdez, the Chicano arts trailblazer who founded El Teatro Campesino to inform and entertain newly unionized farmworkers, the film powerfully demonstrates how politically and socially engaged arts serve both as a morale booster and a clarion call in the fight against oppression.
Nowhere was this idea better expressed than in my second favorite fiction film in the festival: The Friend’s House Is Here. Directed by the New York–based husband and wife team of Hossein Keshavarz and Maryam Ataei and covertly filmed in the streets of Tehran amidst violent government crackdowns against citizens, House is at its heart a joyful “hangout” movie about two close but very different friends pushing the limits of their creative expression in current-day Iran. The film—whose cast includes Iranian Instagram star Hana Mana, theater actor Mahshad Bahraminejad, and a troupe of actors from a local improvisational theater company—rightfully took home the Special Jury Award for its ensemble cast.
Maria Petrova in Myrsini Aristidou’s Hold Onto Me. Courtesy of Sundance Institute
Aside from The Friend’s House Is Here crew, the best performances in Sundance films were given by children. This includes Maria Petrova as a dour 11-year-old beach rat reconnecting with her estranged conman father in Myrsini Aristidou’s Hold Onto Me, which won the World Cinema-Dramatic Audience Award. Mason Reeves’ complex and nervy turn as an 8-year-old who witnesses a rape in Golden Gate Park during an early morning run with her fitness-obsessed dad (Channing Tatum) is by far the best thing about Josephine, writer-director Beth de Araújo’s multiple award winner; the film’s narrative and emotional force are deeply undercut by the abject cluelessness shown by the child’s parents, played by Channing Tatum and Eternals stunner Gemma Chan.
Not all of the films at this year’s festival were engaged with our fraught political moment. Longtime Sundance mainstay Gregg Araki’s I Want Your Sex (the programmers’ fixation on inviting old hands felt like a combination of sentimentality and branding) was born of the kind of sassy, candy-colored provocations the director helped pioneer in the 90s in its telling of Cooper Hoffman’s art intern embarking on a Dom/Sub relationship with his boss, played with preening relish by Olivia Wilde.
Cooper Hoffman and Olivia Wilde in Gregg Araki’s I Want Your Sex. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Lacey Terrell
Along with her Sex costar Charli XCX, whose premiere of her mockumentary The Moment created the closest thing the 2026 fest had to a media scrum, Wilde became the celebrity face of the festival. The bidding war to acquire The Invite—the middle-age sex comedy she directed and stars in alongside Seth Rogen, Edward Norton and Penélope Cruz—was eventually won by A24 and provided one of the few pieces of red meat that kept the trade reporters engaged.
Otherwise, the festival overall seemed much more focused on its past than its present or even its future. (That said, Colorado Governor Jared Polis showing up to premieres in his trademark cowboy hat—in anticipation of Sundance’s move next year to Boulder—did feel like the ultimate Rocky Mountain flex.)
In addition to its reliance on programming new films by filmmakers who had movies in previous festivals, this year’s festival also featured special screenings of films from its illustrious past, among them Barbara Kopple’s American Dream,Lynn Shelton’s Humpday, and James Wan’s Saw. Still, the festival’s most potent dose of uncut nostalgia was Tamra Davis’ The Best Summer. A stitched-together chronicle of a 1994 Australian indie rock festival that featured the Beastie Boys, Bikini Kill, Pavement, Foo Fighters and Sonic Youth, Davis’ film felt like the ultimate in Gen X hipster home movies.
But did all of this chronic looking backwards sap the festival of its vitality? Maybe a little. But despite the sentimentality that covered Park City more heartily than the snow, films like The Friend’s House Is Here reminded us how remarkable good films can be at discovering and celebrating humanity, even as Ghost in the Machine showed us that the moment to do something about it may have passed.
A24 has bagged the distribution rights to Olivia Wilde and Seth Rogen‘s new film, The Invite. The company secured the rights after a tense bidding battle with rivals. A remake of Cesc Gay’s 2020 Spanish feature, The People Upstairs, the film recently premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. It also garnered positive reviews from critics. Apart from Wilde and Rogen, the movie stars Edward Norton and Penélope Cruz.
A24 wins Sundance bidding war over Olivia Wilde’s The Invite
Following a lengthy bidding battle, where the production company found itself locked in a three-way competition with Focus Features and Warner Bros. Pictures’ new contemporary film label, A24 secured the rights to Olivia Wilde’s The Invite for reportedly over $10-12 million.
Apart from A24, Focus Features, and WB’s new label, Netflix, Neon, Apple, Searchlight, Black Bear, and Sony participated in the auction.
The Invite marks Wilde’s third feature directorial effort, following 2019’s Booksmart and 2022’s Don’t Worry Darling. It is also her second collaboration with Annapurna Pictures and Megan Ellison, who previously produced Booksmart. Meanwhile, Parks and Recreation star Rashida Jones and Celeste and Jesse Forever scribe Will McCormack wrote the film’s screenplay. Wilde reportedly wants a theatrical release for the film.
The story follows a couple, Joe and Angela (Seth Rogen and Wilde), who are facing marital problems. Their life takes an unexpected and twisted turn after a dinner with their neighbors, another couple named Hawk and Pina (Norton and Cruz).
As of writing, on Rotten Tomatoes, the film, reportedly dedicated to the late Diane Keaton, holds an impressive fresh score of 90%.
The film has received positive reviews from critics. Variety‘s Owen Gleiberman called the film “marvelously entertaining.” He said it “[lived up to expectations]” in a manner that’s “so original, so brimming with surprise, so fresh and up-to-the-minute in its perceptions of how relationships work (or don’t), that you watch it in a state of rapt immersion and delight.”
Meanwhile, Nick Schager of The Daily Beast called the film “A hysterical, insightful, and ultimately moving portrait of the difficulties of keeping long-term relationships alive.”
Further, The Hollywood Reporter‘s David Rooney shared, “After the disproportionate bashing Wilde took on Don’t Worry Darling, her new movie should silence the doubters. At this point, it’s hard to deny she’s the real deal as a director.”
Photo: The Invite/All photos are copyrighted and may be used by press only for the purpose of news or editorial coverage of Sundance Institute programs. Photos must be accompanied by a credit to the photographer and/or ‘Courtesy of Sundance Institute.’ Unauthorized use, alteration, reproduction or sale of logos and/or photos is strictly prohibited.
It makes perfect sense that, as a director, Olivia Wilde would want to follow the extravagant, ambitious disaster of Don’t Worry Darling with a four-character chamber piece confined to one location. The Invite, based on the Spanish director Cesc Gay’s 2020 movie The People Upstairs (which was itself based on an earlier play by Gay), features an unhappy couple inviting their upstairs neighbors for a dinner party that quickly goes to some strange places; it’s the kind of supposedly focused character study that probably felt nourishing after all the off-camera craziness of Wilde’s previous directorial outing.
We can sense the theatrical origins of the story right from the start, with downcast music teacher Joe (Seth Rogen) arriving home one evening only to find that his fussy, anxious wife Angela (Wilde) is in the middle of preparing for a dinner party for their upstairs neighbors. Joe is not only unprepared for this, he doesn’t even like these neighbors, who weird them out and keep them up at all hours having extremely loud sex. Joe and Angela’s incessant bickering early on — every observation prompting an objection or a counter-observation — telegraphs that their neighbors will probably turn out to be a lot better adjusted than they are. Sure enough, when Hawk (Edward Norton) and Pina (Penelope Cruz) arrive, they seem both relaxed and all-knowing: They confess that they heard Joe and Angela arguing loudly before they even rang the doorbell. He’s a retired firefighter, she’s a sexologist, and suddenly the upstairs neighbors have the upper hand, psychologically speaking.
The Invite is primarily a comedy, and it does have some solid laughs, though the character interactions can also feel so manufactured that our bullshit detectors start going off fairly early. Angela, we’re told, is hypervigilant and neurotic — their daughter is at a sleepover and Angela tells Joe she called beforehand to ensure that there will be no men or weapons present in the friend’s house — and she’s apparently also on top of current mores and attitudes from days spent listening to podcasts. Funny, sure, but somehow, Angela also manages to organize an entire meal based on meat and cheese without ever checking to make sure her neighbors can eat such things. (It turns out, of course, that Pina can’t.) This is minor stuff, meant to add to an accumulation of interpersonal awkwardness, but such inconsistencies add up and deflate the characters’ believability. If in something like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf the characters’ inadequacies and resentments fuel their increasingly erratic behavior, here these people feel like grab bags of punchlines, their actions there primarily to get laughs.
More worryingly, the film’s stylized, theatrical dialogue only really works onscreen if there’s a musicality to the words and a rhythm to the back and forth. Wilde manages to undermine that through aggressive, insistent music cues that flatten everything out — almost as if she doesn’t trust the script, credited to Rashida Jones and Will McCormack, to do the trick. Still, these are good actors, and each brings their unique style. As a comic performer, Wilde (who also gives a tremendous performance in another Sundance movie this year, Gregg Araki’s I Want Your Sex) excels at going big — precise in her timing, unafraid to exaggerate for comic effect — while Rogen deploys his usual goofy, improv-style cadences — stumbling over words, anxiously repeating himself, swallowing punchlines.
When Norton and Cruz show up, they bring their own vibes: He’s soft-spoken and even keeled, she’s a bit of a flower child. This is all intentional, surely. You don’t go with a cast like this if you don’t want these actors to do their own individual things. And it does pay off, occasionally: Entering the apartment, Hawk and Pina talk a lot about the décor and the energy in the room, and Joe responds, snarkily, “We talked a lot about capturing energy, as if it’s a thing we could actually do.” But it takes seriously sharp writing and directorial control to make all these people feel like they exist in the same movie, and the truth is that the performances don’t really cohere.
Wilde leans into the comedy as much as possible, often framing shots for maximum visual humor. At its best, The Invite uses the spaces of this apartment well, putting dead air between its alienated characters and bringing them physically closer over the course of the film. But even here, the tonal whipsawing can backfire. As I noted earlier, The Invite goes to some odd places, but with each new turn in these relationships, the picture loses steam, perhaps because they’ve never come across as real people and these emotional twists don’t feel fully earned. Meanwhile, the shticky humor of the first hour makes for a disappointing mismatch with the awkward earnestness of the finale, as the characters all get their sentimental, tedious monologues, now complete with soft music on the soundtrack. (The movie is, frankly, a clinic in how not to use a score.)
Wilde’s directorial debut Booksmart, released in 2019 to great acclaim, worked in large part because she brought so much inventiveness to a familiar and chaotic coming-of-age tale, using technique to overcome the story’s tonal challenges. Don’t Worry Darling, by contrast, felt too stilted and controlled, too programmed and predictable, almost as if the director felt obligated to rein in her stylistic impulses against a supposedly more complicated story. The Invite feels at times like a film that could have benefited from more control. It’s too baggy to really work as a chamber piece. (It’s not a particularly long movie, but it drags considerably after a while.) But it also doesn’t really give Wilde any real opportunities to cut loose and demonstrate her strengths as a director, which once seemed so considerable.
With production on Season 2 of The Studio officially underway and Hollywood going through a rollercoaster of changes, the industry can expect many more laughs at its expense.
Chase Sui Wonders, who plays junior studio exec Quinn Hackett in the Apple TV+ series, teased to Deadline that co-creators Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg “are definitely pushing the needle” with the sophomore season of their Golden Globe-winning satire.
“It’s definitely a level up,” she said at Sundance Film Festival. “We’ve already started filming, and I think everyone is laughing harder and louder than they did last season, even in our first week.”
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Wonders continued, “I can’t say much, but there are some familiar faces that you’ll be very excited to see making fun of themselves.”
After the show won the Golden Globe for Best Television Series — Musical or Comedy this month, as well as Best Actor for Rogen, he told press there were “a few people we roped in tonight” for cameos, adding, “This is a good poaching ground for us.”
(L-R) Chase Sui Wonders, Seth Rogen, Kathryn Hahn and Ike Barinholtz in ‘The Studio’
Apple TV
“Several things happened today and leading up to this event that we’ve written directly into the show,” noted Rogen, adding that production would begin the following week.
Pamela Anderson had a disappointing time at the Golden Globe Awards. She says that sitting near Seth Rogen was awkward for her. And it is understandble why. The beloved comedian helped produce Pam & Tommy a couple of years ago, and those wounds have not healed.
Anderson attended the ceremony to present the award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. But, she also told Andy Cohen about how awkward she felt being close to someone who, in her eyes, never made amends for putting her story out there again.
“Seth Rogen, he did that [series] without talking to me, you know Pam & Tommy, and that was another — I just felt like, ‘Eh.’ You know?” Anderson told the host. “Like how can someone make a TV series out of the difficult times in your life, and ‘I’m a living, breathing human being over here. Hello.’ ”
“I may have just felt like, ’I’m not chopped liver over here,’ ” Anderson shared. “I felt a little bit weird about it. And I felt like you know — I’ve been so busy working. I’ve done five movies in the last year. So, I’ve just been busy but sometimes it hits you and you feel kind of down.”
Pamela Anderson hasn’t forgotten Pam & Tommy
(Netflix)
Anderson has been super vulnerable talking about how the series made her feel. Back in 2023, she told Entertainment Tonight that there was no desire to watch the Hulu series. The Baywatch star said, “I never watched the tape, I’m never going to watch this.” All of this is frankly very relatable. Anderson had the worst moment of her life put out into the ether and then has to relive it all over again anytime someone boots up Hulu. It’s a lot to handle. But, thankfully, her kids have been helping her through it.
Our girl is booked and busy these days. She’s made 5 movies in recent months, so there are things that keep all this drama off her mind. But, even for a mega-star like Anderson, it doesn’t take much for your mind to wander.But, the actress is quite aware that her problems aren’t the biggest in the grand scheme. Anderson mused, “I mean there’s worse things going on in the world.” She would expand on how the dynamic changes for her being in a room full of contemporaries.
“I mean you’re kind of already tip-toeing around it. It’s so uncomfortable being around everybody there,” Anderson recalled. “I mean a lot of those people [are] even from Malibu days, so I still don’t feel like I belong in those rooms. I feel like, you know, uncomfortable.”
Teresia Gray (She/Her) is a writer here at the Mary Sue. She’s been writing professionally since 2016, but felt the allure of a TV screen for her entire upbringing. As a sponge for Cable Television debate shows and a survivor of “Peak Thinkpiece,” she has interests across the entire geek spectrum. Want to know why that politician you saw on TV said that thing, and why it matters? She’s got it for you. Yes, mainlining that much news probably isn’t healthy. Her work at the Mary Sue often includes political news, breaking stories, and general analysis of current events.
NEW YORK (AP) — You don’t need to major in astrophysics at Harvard to become an actor — but it doesn’t necessarily hurt, either.
“I thought that’s what you go there to do. It’s like why are you paying all this money to go to this fancy school if you’re not going to study a hard science to try to save the world? … But I was quickly humbled,” chuckled Chase Sui Wonders, who began failing classes within her first few weeks. Her college application essay had been about making movies, so she decided she “might as well just pivot back to what I know best.”
That calculated redirection paid off for the magna cum laude graduate who’s now a standout cast member of the Emmy-winning comedy “The Studio,” a cynical and satirical take on the film industry.
Chase Sui Wonders always thought she was “kind of funny,” but it was confirmed when she booked “The Studio” after just one audition. It’s been an eventful year for the AP Breakthrough Entertainer who plays the ambitious assistant-turned-creative executive Quinn Hackett on the Emmy-winning comedy. (Dec. 10)
“The attention’s definitely weird, but can feel good,” said the 29-year-old, flashing her warm smile throughout the interview. “The most energizing thing about the whole thing is when you get recognition, the phone starts ringing more, and these other avenues are opening up that I always kind of dreamed about.”
“The Studio” amassed an astounding 23 Emmy nominations in its debut season, taking home a record-breaking 13 wins. But Wonders may not have seemed like an obvious choice for comedy with her past roles, including the 2022 film “Bodies Bodies Bodies” and her breakout role, the teen-themed series “Genera+ion,” which was canceled by HBO Max after one season. But all it took was one virtual video audition to land the role of Quinn Hackett, the hyper-ambitious, cutthroat assistant-turned-creative executive under studio head Matt Remick, played by the show’s co-creator and co-executive producer Seth Rogen.
“I had always … felt like, ‘I think I’m kind of funny,’” she laughed, acknowledging feeling she had to prove herself working alongside comedic heavyweights like Rogen, Catherine O’Hara, Kathryn Hahn and Ike Barinholtz. “That pressure felt really daunting and scary. But I think, hopefully, I rose to the occasion.”
This image released by Apple TV shows Chase Sui Wonders in a scene from “The Studio.” (Apple TV via AP)
This image released by Apple TV shows Chase Sui Wonders in a scene from “The Studio.” (Apple TV via AP)
Despite mere degrees of separation from Hollywood as the niece of fashion designer Anna Sui, an acting career seemed unattainable growing up in Bloomfield Township, a Detroit suburb. Born to a father of Chinese descent and a white mother, Wonders and her siblings were primarily raised by their mom after their parents divorced.
GET TO KNOW CHASE SUI WONDERS
AGE: 29
HOMETOWN: Detroit suburbs
FIRST ROLE: Technically, 2009’s “A Trivial Exclusion,” a feature-length film made with her family. Otherwise, let’s go with the 2019 horror film “Daniel Isn’t Real.”
YOU MIGHT KNOW HER FROM: “Bodies Bodies Bodies,” “Genera+ion” and her character’s climactic love of quesaritos in “The Studio”
2025 IN REVIEW: The “I Know What You Did Last Summer” reboot and “The Studio”
WHAT’S NEXT: The films “I Want Your Sex” and “October,” as well as a “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” reboot series
HER HARVARD MAJOR: Film studies and production. In the end, she did graduate magna cum laude.
Want to know more about Chase and our other Breakthrough Entertainers of 2025? Read our survey.
An extremely shy child and self-described tomboy, she developed a love for sports — she won high school state championships in both ice hockey and golf — and spent much of her childhood making videos with her siblings. Thanks to her mother encouraging her to take performance arts classes, she was able to break out of her shell. But coming from an achievement-driven family, all signs pointed to a career in business.
A corporate track nearly began after struggling to break into the industry, and she even considered taking a job in Beijing to begin her adult life in the business world. But with only a week to decide on the job offer, she decided to give Hollywood one more shot. Three months later, she booked “Genera+ion.”
Photo by Matt Licari/Invision/AP
Photo by Matt Licari/Invision/AP
“There have been different moments in my life where I’ve been seriously humbled,” said Wonders, who has aspirations of directing. “It just has taught me just not to take it all too seriously. … I do feel absurdly lucky that I get to be on set with all my friends and telling a bunch of jokes and being a weirdo on screen.”
Next up for Wonders is the Gregg Araki-directed “I Want Your Sex,” starring Olivia Wilde, and she’ll star in A24’s horror thriller “October.” She’ll also appear in the upcoming “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” reboot, with Oscar-winning filmmaker Chloé Zhao directing the pilot. And of course, a second season for “The Studio” is in the works.
Gary Gerard Hamilton’s previous Breakthrough Entertainer profiles include Megan Thee Stallion, Sadie Sink, Simu Liu, Tobe Nwigwe and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. His own media breakthrough came in third grade, after recording a PSA about endangered animals for a Houston TV station.
Red carpets and magazine covers couldn’t be a more antithetical life for the girl who assumed she’d climb the executive ranks at one of the major car companies headquartered in Detroit. Instead, she’s climbing the Hollywood ladder — and she wouldn’t tell her younger self to speed up the process.
“It’s so fun how life surprises you,” said Wonders. “I wouldn’t tell her anything. I would tell her it’s all going to make sense in the rearview mirror — but no spoilers.”
I felt like our connection was this cynicism we had. I always thought that was interesting—you create an alliance, whether it be with a best friend or a family member, that you have this viewpoint on something, but it’s not always forever. So Joanne and Morgan shared philosophies until Joanne kind of grew out of it, and it just felt really right that that would kind of piss Morgan off. When I paired off with my husband, Simon—
Sara: What is this “paired off”? I’ve never heard you use this term.
Erin: Really? [Shrugs] I don’t know. But when Simon and I got together, Sara was very supportive and connected to him, and we didn’t have that issue.
Sara: But in life it’s hard when you’re accustomed to a certain dynamic and that dynamic shifts. Like, Erin hasn’t been to my house in two years. Normally, she’d be done with work like, “I’m coming over.” She’ll cook me dinner, she’ll put my kids to bed. She’s literally not been in my house for a year and that’s an adjustment—
Erin: Because I had a baby.
You both have been creative partners for most of your adult lives, but do obstacles in your dynamic still arise?
Sara: There’s no push-and-pull power dynamic. We both have pretty clear lanes. There’s no part of me that wants to be a writer. Erin has such an innate talent that is so specific to her. I would say she has the most important comedic voice in TV right now. She can’t say that about herself, but I can and I’m so proud of her.
Erin: Yeah, but it’s taken many years for it to fall into this natural rhythm. There’s a lot that I’m not as passionate about, like the business side of things is not as exciting to me as the creative side, but you have to have both. And it’s hard for me to have a lot of different plates spinning. I get overwhelmed. I’m good at focusing on the thing in front of me, and I think Sara’s really great at reminding us to diversify and keep the train on the tracks. The writers room monopolizes a lot of my time, so I’m really unable to be in a ton of meetings and fittings for Favorite Daughter and even development stuff for other shows. So she’s really great about being able to lead the charge on that and be understanding when I have to be in the writers room.
For those who had been anticipating some grand denouement based on the buildup to the finale of Platonic’s second season, they were likely disappointed by the somewhat lackluster delivery/“wrapping up in a neat bow” of things. Because, for all that “slow-burn tension” with regard to Sylvia (Rose Byrne) and her husband, Charlie (Luke Macfarlane), it landed with all the rushedness of a premature ejaculator.
The tease of some inevitable separation or divorce between Sylvia and Charlie all started when Will Zysman (Seth Rogen), Sylvia’s long-time bestie (hence, the name of the show), encouraged Charlie to quit his job in episode five, “Jeopardy.” Titled as such not only because Charlie fulfills a lifelong dream of appearing on said show, but because, all of the sudden his reputation is in jeopardy as a result of how disastrous his ability to “be” in front of a live audience is (not to mention his entire sense of sanity also being in jeopardy).
Soon after the taping, Charlie goes out with Will for a drink, during which the latter ruminates on how he wishes he could be solid like Charlie. To this, Charlie replies, “I’m ‘solid’ because I have to be. I have a wife and three kids to support. I, I don’t have a choice… And you know what? I think I thought that after I was on Jeopardy!, everything would be different in my life.” He then adds, “[My life] has been exactly the same for a very, very long time. Sometimes I feel…boxed in. I guess I just wish I could blow shit up.” Will then gives him a pep talk that includes the advice, “So fucking quit dude. Blow it all up, start a new chapter.”
Charlie, surprisingly, takes the advice to heart. His sudden attack of “brashness” also hitting when he leads Will unknowingly to the house of the Head of Business Affairs at King World Media in an unhinged bid to plead with him not to air the episode of Jeopardy! that he was on so as to spare him the embarrassment. Determined to break in with no ostensible plan other than that, Charlie realizes the huge mistake he’s made after already crossing the threshold of entering (ergo, breaking). Injuring his foot in the process of then making his escape (while a gaggle of teenage youths look on with mild, slack-jawed interest) before something truly terrible happens, it’s now completely apparent that he’s having some kind of crack-up. A midlife crisis would be too easy of a phrase to use for it. No, for Charlie, it’s the realization that he’s been suffocated by a blanket of sameness all these years.
While Sylvia, in contrast, has been given the luxury of being much more “loose” and “la-di-da.” Or so she herself would also like to believe. But it’s in the episode following “Jeopardy,” “Road Trip,” that Sylvia is forced to reckon with her own “basicness” with regard to the shackles of her domestic life. It all starts when Will forces his way on the so-called road trip Sylvia is taking, which starts out as driving her daughter, Frances (Sophie Leonard), to Palm Desert for a debate tournament. But when Will secures a seat, followed by Sylvia’s other best friend, Katie Fields (Carla Gallo), when she calls Sylvia in tears over finding out that her first ex-husband’s new wife is pregnant, it does turn into a “whole thing” with road trip cachet. Much to Frances’ irritation more than Sylvia’s.
And, at first, Will and Katie don’t exactly gel, until he starts warming to the rather generic tenets of her Breaking the Glass Ceiling podcast (as poorly made as it is)—“part of the Boss Mama Industries Network.” Then, by the time they all stop at a tavern (namely, Red’s Tavern) that Will insists on going to along the way (after already dropping off Frances), it starts to become clear that Sylvia is turning into the third wheel. Especially after she tells them, “My life is a little bit different to both of yours.”
When they express offense and outrage over her comment, she doubles down, “My life is stable and predictable.” Will balks, “Are you kidding me right now? You fucking think you’re better than us?” Katie chimes in, “You’re just as fucked up as we are.” Sylvia continues to claim no, and that everything about her life and Charlie—recent “light breakdown” and all—is fine. Katie then counters, “Also, we are the two most interesting people in your life.” Apparently, as the two most interesting people, they feel it’s their responsibility to fully “team up” by the end of the episode, insisting that Sylvia goes home to Charlie during his overt emotional time of need (having just hallucinated someone was humming the Jeopardy! theme song in the bathroom at work and then leaving early as a result).
Reluctantly, Sylvia agrees, already afraid of what’s coming with Charlie after she talked to him on the phone to try and get his help with some shysters at a mechanic shop. Realizing the full weight of his existential crisis, she laments to Will and Katie, “He’s always been the rock” and “I need him to be the rock.”
But for those who thought the tension was actually meant to be between Sylvia and Charlie this season, the truth is, as usual, it’s between Sylvia and Will, whose fraught dynamic anchors the series. And it’s because Sylvia blames Will for “breaking” Charlie (as she puts in the finale), in addition to his sudden pivot toward spending more time with Katie (who evidently “just gets it” because she’s divorced and freaky too), that they start to experience another rift as the season draws to a close. This prompting Will to lean more and more on Katie, especially after Sylvia kicks him out of her guest house/would-be office in the penultimate episode of season two, “Boundaries.” He then starts to “crash” at Katie’s, promising her it’s only “temporary” (as he promised Sylvia).
But by the next episode (the finale), she’s already grown sick of his presence in her house, telling Sylvia outside their kids’ school, “He’s been living with me for weeks. I don’t know how this guy became my problem. I barely know him… [oh, now she barely knows him, even though they’ve been acting like besties for a minute]. I get why you dumped him on me. The only trouble is, now I don’t know how to get rid of him.” Sylvia confirms, “He is impossible to get rid of.” Even though that certainly wasn’t the case in season one, when it started out with the two of them having not spoken for years because Sylvia didn’t much care for Will’s now ex-wife. Katie gets a devious look on her face all of the sudden and says, “Well, there is one thing I don’t think you tried.” There’s then an immediate cut to Katie and Will together in bed after having had sex. Once again proving what Vickie Miner in Reality Bites declared: “Sex is the quickest way to ruin a friendship.” Or at least the quickest way to make everything too awkward to continue living with that person anymore. So it is that Katie gets him to leave with the power of a few thrusts.
Consequently, Will gets sent back to his “one true north,” Sylvia—only she isn’t so willing to “take him back,” as it were. In fact, her giving in to helping him move all the beer equipment he left in her backyard leads to a big argument that prompts the old Friends chestnut, “We need to take a break.” Interestingly enough, Friends, too, proved that platonic relationships between men and women were always either 1) prone to giving way to the romantic or 2) more trouble than they were worth—especially if one friend had romantic feelings for another that weren’t reciprocated (ultimately, Joey and Rachel).
Naturally, the “break” between them doesn’t hold, with Sylvia giving in to overhearing Will’s pained reaction to a noncompete letter he gets from his former fiancée Jenna’s (Rachel Rosenbloom) company, Johnny 66, informing him he can’t open up Shitty Little Bar, even though he’s just weeks away from doing it—from at last opening his own place. And yes, Jenna is one of many people in the series who end up being vexed by Sylvia and Will’s closeness, this having been an early part of what was going to doom the relationship in season two.
In the meantime, Charlie continues to “find himself” through the book he’s writing about Brett Coyote (though he only ends up finding himself right back in the corporate sector after self-publishing it). In point of fact, calling the episode, “Brett Coyote’s Last Stand” made it seem as though this finale would be about Charlie finally losing all patience for Sylvia and her general disinterest in him or his life, instead constantly mired in Will’s latest dramas and issues. Making most of Sylvia’s energy go into helping and catering to him, rather than her own husband.
So while Harry Burns said in When Harry Met Sally, “Men and women can’t be friends because the sex part always gets in the way,” for Will and Sylvia, just as it was in season one, that still hasn’t technically become a factor. And yet, there’s no doubt that, with their plans to become even more intertwined by going into business together, their friendship will only wreak more havoc on everyone around them, Charlie and Katie included. So yes, maybe Sylvia actually should take a page from Katie’s book and sleep with Will if she really wants to “get rid of him” for good. After all, such a method is a cliché for a reason: it usually works.
Lionsgate has released a brand new trailer for Good Fortune, its newest comedy from Master of None star Aziz Ansari. Following its world premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, the movie is now scheduled to arrive in theaters on October 17.
“In the film, a well-meaning but rather inept angel named Gabriel meddles in the lives of a struggling gig worker and a wealthy venture capitalist,” reads the official synopsis.
The video features John Wick star Keanu Reeves as an angel who tries to show Ansari’s Arj that money won’t solve his problems. However, this ultimately fails, leading Reeves’ Angel Gabriel to lose his wings and turn into a human. The trailer highlights how Gabriel must navigate his new life as a human with the help of Seth Rogen‘s Jeff, whose life changes after Gabriel mistakenly switches Arj’s life with Jeff’s. Additional cast includes Keke Palmer as Elena, Sandra Oh as Martha, Stephen McKinley Henderson as Azrael, and more.
Good Fortune is written, directed, and produced by Ansari in his feature directorial debut. The movie is produced by Anthony Katagas and Alan Yang, with Aniz Adam Ansari, Jonathan McCoy, Christopher Woodrow, and Connor DiGregorio serving as executive producers. The creative team also includes director of photography Adam Newport-Berra and composer Carter Burwell. It is a production by Lionsgate.
Variety has learned that the streamer has greenlit a one-off “Muppet Show” event special that will air in 2026 to coincide with the original show’s 50th anniversary. In the special, the Muppets will return to the Muppet Theatre to produce a variety show. Sabrina Carpenter will guest star.
According to an individual with knowledge of the situation, the special could serve as a backdoor pilot that would help launch a new iteration of the iconic series.
Veteran Muppet performers Bill Barretta, Dave Goelz, Eric Jacobson, Peter Linz, David Rudman and Matt Vogel will perform the majority of the Muppet characters in the special, supported by a team of additional performers. Goelz, who has performed with The Muppets for over 50 years, was one of the performers on the original “The Muppet Show” and originated the characters Gonzo and Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, among others.
Albertina Rizzo will serve as writer and executive producer. Alex Timbers will direct the episode and serve as an executive producer. Carpenter also serves as executive producer on this variety show installment. Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, James Weaver and Alex McAtee are executive producers via Point Grey Pictures along with David Lightbody, Leigh Slaughter and Michael Steinbach from the Muppets Studio. Matt Vogel and Eric Jacobson are also executive producers. 20th Television, Disney Branded Television, The Muppets Studio, and Point Grey produce.
“The Muppet Show” was created by Jim Henson and originally aired in the U.K. and in first run syndication in the U.S. The show attracted a wide range of A-list stars throughout its run, including Elton John, Johnny Cash, Diana Ross, Debbie Harry, Gladys Knight, Liza Minelli, and Paul Simon
The original series “The Muppet Show,” created by Jim Henson, ran from 1976-81 and aired in over 100 countries and featured notable guest stars including Elton John, Johnny Cash, Diana Ross, Debbie Harry, Gladys Knight, Liza Minelli, Paul Simon and many others. It has remained incredibly popular ever since and helped bring the Muppets to mainstream prominence.
Rogen is repped by Principal Entertainment LA, UTA, ID, and Felker Toczek. Carpenter is managed by Volara and Foundation Media Partners and repped by The LEDE Company and Paradigm for film and TV.
Streaming platforms once again dominated the 2025 Primetime Emmy awards (77th edition), while network TV was shut out of the the major filmed categories. Apple TV+ came out on top with seven total wins including four for The Studio: Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Lead Actor (Seth Rogen), Outstanding Directing (Rogen and Evan Goldberg) and Outstanding Writing. “I’ve never won anything in my life,” Rogen said during his off-the-cuff acceptance speech. “When I was a kid I bought a used bowling trophy.”
Apple+ also garnered two acting awards for Severance, including Britt Lower (Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series) and Tramell Tillman (Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series). However, HBO Max’s medical drama The Pitt surprisingly pipped Severance for the Best Outstanding Drama Series, while also earning Noah Wyle and Katherine LaNasa drama series awards for Outstanding Lead Actor and Outstanding Supporting Actress, respectively. HBO Max also scooped awards for its comedy series Hacks with Jean Smart taking the Outstanding Lead Actress trophy and Hannah Einbinder winning for Outstanding Supporting Actress.
Netflix took the prize for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series with critical darling Adolescence, with that same show earning Stephen Graham, Owen Cooper and Erin Doherty Emmys for lead actor and supporting actor and actress, respectively (at 15, Cooper is the youngest-ever male winner of a Primetime acting Emmy). That show also won Emmys for outstanding directing and writing for a limited or anthology series or movie.
The Emmys showed again how prestige and money continue to shift from networks to streamers. CBS’s only Emmy was for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, a show it canceled in August. NBC won for the Saturday Night Live 50th Anniversary Special, while cabler HBO took prizes for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (Outstanding Scripted Variety Series and Outstanding Writing) along with The Penguin (Cristin Milioti for Outstanding Lead Actress) and Somebody Somewhere (Jeff Hiller for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series).
Emmy winner Seth Rogen in The StudioCredit: Apple TV+
“I’m truly embarassed by how happy this makes me,” Seth Rogen confessed during one of several acceptance speeches during the 2025 Primetime Emmys Awards.
As actor, director, executive producer and writer, the Hollywood funnyman turned multi-hyphenate scooped up four statues for his work on Apple TV+’s The Studio, which earned a total of 13 wins overall.
Hardly surpassing the set three-hour runtime, comedian and host Nate Bargatze led the 2025 Emmys through 26 award presentations; television tributes for Survivor, Grey’s Anatomy, Law & Order and Gilmore Girls and a handful of performances.
The ceremony took place in Downtown Los Angeles at the Peacock Theater.
Following just behind The Studio, HBO’s The Penguin secured nine Emmys, including Cristin Miliotti who won Outstanding Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for her performance as the stylish, conniving Sofia Falcone. “I love acting!” she proclaimed from the podium before exiting the stage.
Severance, Adolescence and SNL50: The Anniversary Special each scooped up eight trophies. Fan favorite shows like The Traitors and The Pitt earned five.
See more winners from the 2025 Primetime Emmy Awards below.
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Outstanding Drama Series
Andor
The Diplomat
The Last of Us
Paradise
The Pitt – WINNER
Severance
Slow Horses
The White Lotus
Outstanding Comedy Series
Abbott Elementary
The Bear
Hacks
Nobody Wants This
Only Murders in the Building
Shrinking
The Studio – WINNER
What We Do in the Shadows
Outstanding Limited Series
Adolescence – WINNER
Black Mirror
Dying for Sex
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story
The Penguin
Sirens
Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series
Adam Scott, Severance
Gary Oldman, Slow Horses
Noah Wyle, The Pitt – WINNER
Pedro Pascal, The Last of Us
Sterling K. Brown, Paradise
Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series
Bella Ramsey, The Last of Us
Britt Lower, Severance – WINNER
Kathy Bates, Matlock
Keri Russell, The Diplomat
Sharon Hogan, Bad Sisters
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
James Marsden, Paradise
Jason Issacs, The White Lotus
John Turturro, Severance
Sam Rockwell, The White Lotus
Tramell Tillman, Severance – WINNER
Zack Cherry, Severance
Walton Goggins, The White Lotus
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series
Aimee Lou Wood, The White Lotus
Carrie Coon, The White Lotus
Julianne Nicholson, Paradise
Katherine LaNasa, The Pitt – WINNER
Natasha Rothwell, The White Lotus
Parker Posey, The White Lotus
Patricia Arquette, Severance
Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series
Adam Brody, Nobody Wants This
Jason Segel, Shrinking
Jeremy Allen White, The Bear
Martin Short, Only Murders in the Building
Seth Rogen, The Studio – WINNER
Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series
Ayo Edebiri, The Bear
Jean Smart, Hacks – WINNER
Kristen Bell, Nobody Wants This
Quinta Brunson, Abbott Elementary
Uzo Aduba, The Residence
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series
Bowen Yang, Saturday Night Live
Colman Domingo, The Four Seasons
Ebon Moss-Bachrach, The Bear
Harrison Ford, Shrinking
Jeff Hiller, Somebody Somewhere – WINNER
Ike Barinholtz, The Studio
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series
Catherine O’Hara, The Studio
Hannah Einbinder, Hacks – WINNER
Janelle James, Abbott Elementary
Jessica Williams, Shrinking
Kathryn Hahn, The Studio
Liza Colon-Zayas, The Bear
Sheryl Lee Ralph, Abbott Elementary
Outstanding Actor in a Limited Series or a Movie
Brian Tyree Henry, Dope Thief
Colin Farrell, The Penguin
Cooper Koch, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story
Jake Gyllenhaal, Presumed Innocence
Stephen Graham, Adolescence – WINNER
Outstanding Actress in a Limited Series or a Movie
Cate Blanchett, Disclaimer
Cristin Miliotti, The Penguin – WINNER
Meghan Fahy, Sirens
Michelle Williams, Dying for Sex
Rashida Jones, Black Mirror
Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or a Movie
Ashley Walters, Adolescence
Bill Camp, Presumed Innocence
Javier Bardem, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story
Owen Cooper, Adolescence – WINNER
Peter Sarsgaard, Presumed Innocence
Rob Delaney, Dying for Sex
Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited Series or a Movie
Chloë Sevigny, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story
“The Studio” made Emmy history Sunday night with its 12th trophy as the AppleTV+ movie-business romp became the winningest comedy series ever in a season.“Studio” co-creator Seth Rogen won for acting, directing and writing. Along with nine wins claimed at last weekend’s Creative Arts Emmys, it broke a record set last year by “The Bear” with 11.“I could not wrap my head around this happening,” said Rogen after winning best comedy actor at the beginning of the CBS telecast. “I’ve never won anything in my life.”Rogen shared the directing Emmy with longtime collaborator and “Studio” co-creator Evan Goldberg, shared the writing Emmy with Goldberg and others. He’ll get his fourth if “The Studio” wins best comedy. The show rode blockbuster buzz into the Emmys for its breakout first season.Netflix’s acclaimed “Adolescence,” the story of a 13-year-old in Britain accused of a killing, won four Emmys in the limited series categories. Owen Cooper, who played the teen, became the youngest Emmy winner in more than 40 years with a win for best supporting actor.Cooper said in his acceptance that he was “nothing three years ago.”“It’s just so surreal,” Cooper said. “Honestly, when I started these drama classes a couple years back, I didn’t expect to be even in the United States, never mind here. So I think tonight proves that if you, if you listen and you focus and you step out your comfort zone, you can achieve anything in life.”Best supporting actress went to Erin Doherty, who played a therapist opposite Cooper in a riveting episode that like all four “Adolescence” episodes was filmed in a single shot.Cristin Milioti won best actress in a limited series for “The Penguin.” It was the first win of the night for the HBO series from the Batman universe after it won eight at the Creative Arts ceremony.Britt Lower and Tramell Tillman each won their first Emmy for “Severance,” the Apple TV+ Orwellian workplace satire that is considered the favorite for best drama. Lower won best actress in a drama and Tillman won best supporting actor in a drama.“My first acting coach was tough, y’all,” Tillman, wearing an all-white tuxedo, said from the stage. “But all great mothers are.”He looked out to his mother in the audience and told her, “You were there for me where no one else was, and no one else would show up.”His win had been widely expected but Lower’s was a surprise in a category where Kathy Bates was considered a heavy favorite, for “Matlock.”Jean Smart won best actress in a comedy for “Hacks” for the fourth time, at 73 extending her own record for the oldest woman ever to win the category.Every acting winner other than Smart was a first timer.A night of surprise winnersSmart’s castmate and constant scene partner Hannah Einbinder, who had also been nominated for all four seasons but unlike Smart had never won, took best supporting actress in a comedy.She said she had become committed to a bit where “it was cooler to lose.”“But this is cool too!” she shouted, then ended her speech by cursing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and saying “Free Palestine!”Katherine LaNasa won best supporting actress in a drama for the “The Pitt,” a surprise in a category where most expected one of the three nominees from “The White Lotus” to win.“I am so proud and honored,” LaNasa, looking emotional and shocked, said.In perhaps the biggest upset in a night full of them, Jeff Hiller won best supporting actor in a comedy for “Somebody Somewhere,” over Ike Barinholtz of “The Studio” and others.How the 2025 Emmys openedStephen Colbert was the first person to take the stage to present the award during the CBS telecast at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles despite the recent controversial cancellation of his show by the network. He was greeted by a rousing and lengthy standing ovation.“While I have your attention, is anyone hiring?” Colbert said.In an unusual show order, host Nate Bargatze delivered his opening monologue only after the first award was handed out.The show opened with a sketch where “Saturday Night Live” stars Mikey Day, Bowen Yang and James Austin Johnson joined Bargatze, who played television inventor Philo T. Farnsworth opining on what the future of TV will be like.Bargatze-as-Farnsworth mentions that there will be a Black Entertainment Television. When asked if there will be a network for white people, he replied, “Why, CBS of course.”
“The Studio” made Emmy history Sunday night with its 12th trophy, becoming the winningest comedy series ever in a season.
With victories for comedy acting, directing and writing Seth Rogen’s Apple TV+ movie-business romp eclipses the record of 11 set last year by “The Bear.”
“The Studio” came into the night with nine Emmys from last weekend’s Creative Arts ceremony, making it a virtual lock to break the record. And it could keep adding to its total before the evening’s done.
It was the third straight year the record was broken. Last year, “The Bear” – whose dramatic presence in the comedy category irked some competitors – broke its own record of 10 set the year before.
“I could not wrap my head around this happening,” said Rogen after his win for best comedy actor, the first award of the night. “I’ve never won anything in my life.”
Rogen shared the directing Emmy with his longtime collaborator and “Studio” co-creator Evan Goldberg, and he can still win two more before the night’s done.
Britt Lower and Tramell Tillman took trophies for “Severance.” Lower won best actress in a drama for “Severance” and Tillman won best supporting actor in a drama. It was the first career Emmy for each.
“My first acting coach was tough, y’all,” Tillman, wearing an all-white tuxedo, said from the stage. “But all great mothers are.”
He looked out to his mother in the audience and told her, “You were there for me where no one else was, and no one else would show up.”
His win had been widely expected but Lower’s was a surprise in a category where Kathy Bates was considered a heavy favorite, for “Matlock.”
A night of surprise winners
Jean Smart won best actress in a comedy for “Hacks” for the fourth time, at 73 extending her own record for the oldest woman ever to win the category.
Her castmate and constant scene partner Hannah Einbinder, who had also been nominated for all four seasons but unlike Smart had never won, took best supporting actress in a comedy.
She said she had become committed to a bit where “it was cooler to lose.”
“But this is cool too!” she shouted, then ended her speech by cursing the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and saying “Free Palestine!”
Katherine LaNasa won best supporting actress in a drama for the “The Pitt,” a surprise in a category where most expected one of the three nominees from “The White Lotus” to win.
“I am so proud and honored,” LaNasa, looking emotional and shocked, said.
In perhaps the biggest upset in a night full of them, Jeff Hiller won best supporting actor in a comedy for “Somebody Somewhere,” over Ike Barinholtz of “The Studio” and others.
How the 2025 Emmys opened
Stephen Colbert was the first person to take the stage to present the award during the CBS telecast at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles despite the recent controversial cancellation of his show by the network. He was greeted by a rousing and lengthy standing ovation.
“While I have your attention, is anyone hiring?” Colbert said.
The show opened with a sketch where “Saturday Night Live” stars Mikey Day, Bowen Yang and James Austin Johnson joined Bargatze, who played television inventor Philo T. Farnsworth opining on what the future of TV will be like.
Bargatze-as-Farnsworth mentions that there will be a Black Entertainment Television. When asked if there will be a network for white people, he replied, “Why, CBS of course.”
Apple TV+ is poised to have a breakout Emmy year with the two most nominated shows, “Severance” and “The Studio,” which are the favorites to win the two biggest awards.
What to expect from the 2025 Emmy Awards
“The Studio,” with co-creator Rogen starring as the new head of a movie studio, came into the evening the top comedy nominee with 23 and blockbuster buzz for its breakout first season.
“Severance,” the Orwellian office drama about people who surgically split their psyches into workplace “innies” and home “outies,” was the top overall nominee with 27 nominations for its second season. It won six at the Creative Arts ceremony and now stands at eight.
Along with best drama — which would be a first for Apple — star Adam Scott could win his first Emmy, for best actor.
Its top competition for best drama could be “The Pitt,” HBO’s acclaimed drama about one shift in the life of an emergency room.
Its star Noah Wyle could be both the sentimental favorite and the actual favorite for best actor. He was nominated five times without a win for playing a young doctor on “ER” in the 1990s, and now could finally take his trophy for what is in many ways a reprise of the role.
Many perceived the end of the show as punishment of Colbert and placation of President Donald Trump after Colbert was harshly critical of a legal settlement between the president and Paramount, which needed administration approval for a sale to Skydance Media. Executives called the decision strictly financial.
How to watch and stream the Emmys and its red carpet
The Emmys are airing live on CBS at 8 p.m. Eastern and 5 p.m. Pacific time.
Paramount+ with Showtime subscribers may stream the show live. Standard Paramount+ subscribers can stream it Monday through Sept. 21.
Kathryn Hahn is back in the Emmys hunt this year, nominated for her supporting turn as an overly on-trend marketing executive in Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s comedy The Studio. It’s the kind of loud, big-swing comic performance that Hahn honed in the Adam McKay comedies of the 2000s, like Anchorman and Step Brothers—and then, as new opportunities cropped up, started moving away from. When she first stepped onto the set of The Studio, she quickly realized what she’d been missing: “This feeling is the best.”
It’s Hahn’s fourth Emmy nomination in 10 years. In that time, she’s emerged as an unlikely Hollywood lead, getting critical recognition and a certain degree of fame for deeply vulnerable, intimate work. She’s toplined such indie gems as Private Life and Afternoon Delight, tenderly led lyrical literary adaptations including Tiny Beautiful Things and Mrs. Fletcher. She’s also a new, unexpected Marvel favorite: Her star turn on Agatha All Along, reprising the witchy role from WandaVision that netted her an Emmy nod, is among the most wildly creative of her career.
That Disney+ show, which received a handful of below-the-line Emmy nominations, remains in limbo for a potential season two, but The Studio will soon make its way back to Apple TV+. Indeed, Hahn is plenty busy. As we chat, she’s in production on an as yet unannounced project, and she recently finished filming on Madden,David O. Russell’s already controversial new biopic starring Nicolas Cage. There was a lot to catch up on.
Vanity Fair: Of all your recent Emmy nominations—for Transparent, WandaVision, and Tiny Beautiful Things—I’d argue The Studio is the outlier of the group, as a broader comedy. Does it feel that way to you?
Kathryn Hahn: One hundred percent, yeah, you’re right. I hadn’t really done anything of this size, with this much gas on the pedal, so I was very excited to jump when I read it. She was so clear on the page. It looked so fun. There was an ease to it, which is always a good sign with the comedy; it didn’t feel like it was going to have to be too muscled or too sweaty. There was a flow already to her.
I had just done Agatha. I had a year basically off where I was with my family, and I don’t think I’d worked since. This came, it was shot in LA, it was really close by, and also I knew it was such a fun part.
It made me think of those big ensemble comedy movies you used to do. You’ve talked about not knowing how you would fit into those environments when you first started doing them. What was it like to return to the genre here?
Weirdly like a full circle. I love that feeling of the circus. There is something about an ensemble—that the whole thing would fall apart if one person is not carrying their weight. Especially in a farce like this, keeping those balls in the air, no pun intended. I was so much younger when I did those [movies], and I was so in my head about it. I wasn’t in improv. My training was in theater. I never thought I’d find myself in comedies like that. So a lot of those early ones with [Adam] McKay or with [Will] Ferrell, I was definitely in survival mode.
When did you realize you were a) really funny, and b) able to keep up with those guys?
During Anchorman, watching how Adam worked with those actors and watching those guys do their thing, was such a lesson. It felt anarchic. Everything that I had been told not to do, we were encouraged to do. That kind of reckless, fearless, throwing yourself into it—it all opened for me. I felt I had the same freedom going into the next parts. It just felt more and more comfortable, and less and less prescribed.
The Studio did unbelievably well in the Emmy nominations, so it’s clearly beloved in the industry. It’s also so brutal and bleak toward the industry. What do you make of that combination?
There is such a nostalgia baked into this show—there’s clearly respect and awe. I can only imagine Seth and Evan growing up as these Canadian boys thinking of Hollywood. So that makes the specificity of what actually goes down a) that much funnier, and b) that much less cynical or mean. It’s under this layer of people that love film. If it was just solely a mean takedown, it would not be as appealing. That’s my two-cents working theory.
Toward the end of 2020, the only thing more pervasive than COVID-19 was “WAP” by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion. A song whose prowess carried over into early 2021, just as coronavirus did. At that time, TikTok was also blowing up more than ever. In large part thanks to “at-home culture” “thriving.” When corona first hit at the beginning of 2020, Megan Thee Stallion was having a moment all her own thanks to the “Savage” challenge that went viral on the app. A detail that also comes into play during Dumb Money, when a GameStop employee named Marcos Barcia (Anthony Ramos) trolls his boss, Brad (Dane DeHaan), after the latter tells him that while he can’t give him an advance on his paycheck, he can compete to win “ten labor hours” (presumably, that means ten hours’ worth of wages) by participating in a TikTok lip sync contest.
This, of course, happens after “WAP” soundtracks the intro to Dumb Money, as Gabe Plotkin (Seth Rogen) frantically runs through his multimillion dollar property upon being told to “dial in” by fellow hedge fund CEO Steve Cohen (played by an ever-mutating Vincent D’Onofrio). It is Cohen who informs Plotkin that, “They’re holding” (in other words, they’ve got “diamond hands”). The “they” in this scenario being the proverbial “little guy.” The David to Wall Street’s Goliath. And the representative for all the Davids of the U.S. at large is Keith Gill (Paul Dano) a.k.a. Roaring Kitty a.k.a. Deep Fucking Value. Although a financial analyst at MassMutual by day, Keith’s real passion appears to be his post-work life as a “recreational YouTuber.” And it’s one he ostensibly disappears deeper into after the death of his sister, Sara (the cause of which we’re made to assume was from Covid).
This is what the viewer sees when the film cuts to six months earlier, smack-dab in the middle of 2020. Meeting with his friend and financial colleague, Briggsy (Deniz Akdeniz), Keith tells him about his decision to double down on investing in GameStop stock. Which Briggsy bills as “penny stocks” (but hey, those were good enough to make Jordan Belfort a rich man, n’est-ce pas?). Keith insists 1) GameStop is not that and 2) it’s highly undervalued. The obvious metaphor tying into how the “average joe” is consistently undervalued, too. And what business could be more tailored toward such a demographic than GameStop (apart from, say, Home Depot)? He then lays into Briggsy about how “Wall Street gets it wrong all the time. Look at ‘08. These guys, they have all the money, and the fancy degrees, and the political juice in the world and they get it wrong all the time.” Briggsy still warns, “You never bet against Wall Street.” Wall Street, too, is well-aware of its rigged system. The one that everybody on the inside benefits from, including men like Plotkin, Cohen and Ken Griffin (played to perfection by Nick Offerman), the eerily stoic (like, Dick Cheney-level) CEO of Citadel.
These are the men who refer to people like Keith as “dumb money” (the asterisk given with said title card of the movie being: “*individual investors often derided as ‘dumb money’ by Wall Street”). But Keith, at six months into 2020, is about to show these fucks just who, exactly, is the dumb one. Rallying his ever-burgeoning Reddit following, co-screenwriters Lauren Schuker Blum and Rebecca Angelo easily render Gill into a modern-day Robin Hood (and, to be sure, the app of the same name plays heavily into the narrative), taking money from the rich prematurely offloading their GameStop stocks (i.e., “shorting”) and putting it into the “pockets” of the everyman. Including essential health care workers like Jenny (America Ferrera, who is having her best year ever in the mainstream thanks toBarbie and this film, to boot). Among others like Marcos and college students Riri (Myha’la Herrold) and Harmony (Talia Ryder), these are the “subreddits” of the movie that thread together a larger point/theme. A point/theme that should be fairly overt to everyone by now, especially the rich (*cough cough* Wall Street finance bros). Then again, denial isn’t just a river in a hedge fund manager’s backyard.
And yet, although ignoring the contempt of the poor (read: everyone except the rich at this juncture) was relatively easy to do before 2020, this was a year when the internet became an echo chamber of unprecedented rage (markedly propelled by the filmed murder of George Floyd in late May—itself given a nod to in Dumb Money when Marcos passes a wall of graffiti that reads, “Fuck the Cops,” “Black Lives Matter” and “I Can’t Breathe”). A platform for expressing the extreme dissatisfaction that has been percolating for decades vis-à-vis capitalism and the lie it continues to sell about “everyone” having an “equal” chance to “get ahead” (this, of course, alluding to amassing as much money as possible, because that’s all we’ve been conditioned to believe really matters—and yes, people like Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion only perpetuate that message with their money-worshiping lyrics).
Never had it been made more patently clear that that simply wasn’t the case when coronavirus came to roost, and the accompanying lockdowns that classified the lowest-paid workers as essential compared to the richest “workers” who were told to “stay home, stay safe” made it laughably apparent just how unfair this whole game has been. While the fat cats were allowed to safely shelter in place in their posh homes, those paid in peanuts and balcony applause to risk their lives were made to suffer more than ever. And all without any promise of higher pay. So what is being “essential” really worth to he who controls the market? Because, in the end, no matter what, the Goliaths will be able to get what they want out of the Davids of the world, somehow managing to push them into submission one way or the other. In Gill and his acolytes’ case, that came in the form of shutting off access to the r/WallStreetBets forum under the guise of espousing “hateful and discriminatory content” that “violated Reddit’s code of conduct.” Ha! So it’s okay for the rich to make an entire affluent existence out of discriminating and being hateful toward the have-nots, but when the latter group tries to take a stand only then can it be called what it is? Oh hell no.
And when Keith commences his “thesis” on GameStop, he’s right to say, “The value is overlooked. Wall Street just doesn’t see it. Why?… The hedge funds are overlooking the value of the company just like they overlook the people who shop there.” The same kind of people who will continue to be overlooked now that the GameStop “fiasco” is “over.” And, in effect, it is. For the consequences, as usual, did not fit the crime (the SEC made no charges, not even against Ken Griffin). And people like Marcos, although slightly vindicated, continued to get the fuzzy end of the lollipop. Just as he does in having to ride the bus to work during the pandemic (GameStop found a loophole for staying open by declaring itself a purveyor of “essential products” to keep people connected while “working from home” [read: playing video games]). And when he finally gets off the bus to enter a deserted Detroit mall that houses, among other shops, a GameStop, the viewer can then see the ad on the side of the bus that reads: “Money burning a hole in your pocket? We’ll get you some more.” It’s only too appropriate when applied to the stock market as an American casino. Not to mention the way Americans in general are “incentivized” to operate on credit, to incur a negative balance that will keep them constantly on some lender’s hook. This ceaseless, propagandizing encouragement in the U.S. to borrow money and effectively gamble on yourself (knowing full well the system doesn’t want you to be a winner) is what’s at play in Dumb Money as well. Except the hedge fund fucks “in charge” were never banking on the everyman’s “deluded” self-confidence to actually pay off.
Never seeing the short squeeze on the horizon at all, despite how clear it was becoming throughout 2020. And yes, those reminded of The Big Short by the term “short squeeze” wouldn’t be wrong to make the correlation. After all, said 2015 movie also relates to rigged market fuckery and is based on a book: Michael Lewis’ The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine. Just as Dumb Money is based on Ben Mezrich’s 2021 tome (that’s right, the book came out the same year as the “incident” itself), The Antisocial Network: The GameStop Short Squeeze and the Ragtag Group of Amateur Traders That Brought Wall Street to Its Knees. While The Big Short was released almost a full decade after the debacle it addresses, Dumb Money is yet another prime example not just of the possibilities when “the plebes” are united in a cause, but also of the collective’s more recent obsession with looking back on the immediate past as though enough time has gone by to truly grasp the impact of what happened.
In the directorial care of Craig Gillespie (of Cruella and I, Tonya repute), that “grasp” becomes automatically comedic…even if it isn’t able to fully comprehend, so soon after it happened, the full weight of what occurred. The same goes for coronavirus itself, which most people have opted to sweep under the rug in terms of not wanting to remember “that time.” Preferring, instead, to pretend it never existed. In many respects, the attitude taken is tantamount to the cliche of everyone masturbating on a plane as they think it’s about to crash, only to realize the aircraft has righted itself and life will continue on for the time being. Afterward, everyone pretends that no one whipped it out in what they thought would be their final moments. That’s what coronavirus and its lockdown behavior mirrored.
As 2020 came to a close and corona continued to rage on, the sequestering required of people created an unprecedented online environment. A cauldron, if you will, for something like the subreddit of Wall Street Bets to brew into an entire movement. One that was, needless to say, a movement geared toward taking down the rich. Who had only gotten richer during the pandemic while the rest of the working-class “schmucks” lost their already paltry livelihood.
Perhaps what’s most striking of all about Dumb Money (even more than the hubris of the rich) is how it forces viewers to remember that “period” not so long ago. Capturing a moment when complacency had subsided, in large part, thanks to having so much “free time” to actually rail against the oppressor. And the last thing an oppressor wants is for his serfs to have too much free time to think about what a fucked system this is (glorified feudalism, in case you couldn’t guess). Hence, the urgency with which the masses were ferried back to “normal.” With nobody seeming all that concerned about acknowledging the shellshock of what transpired. Just as no one is with acknowledging the (enduring) lack of fairness in the stock market (“fair market” being an especial oxymoron here). No matter what kind of “movement” Keith may have started.
Per the film’s title card epilogue, that movement is summed up as follows: “Because of the GameStop rally, 85% of hedge funds now scour the internet to see where retail traders are investing. Fearing another short squeeze, funds have dramatically reduced their short positions. Wall Street will never be able to ignore the so-called ‘dumb money’ again.” Though that remains debatable.
And then there is the matter of refusing to acknowledge that what actually needs to change isn’t “leveling the playing field” so that broke asses can become just as cunty as richies, but blowing up the entire system, including its major capitalist trappings. I.e., the stock market.
Lauren Miller is sharing her story about an alarming health discovery she previously faced.
The actor and comedian unexpectedly revealed at the University of California, Los Angeles’s (UCLA) Neurosurgery Visionary Ball in Beverly Hills this week that she had a brain aneurysm — and only found it after being inspired by the “Hilary for Charity” nonprofit, which she co-founded with her husband Seth Rogen, to get a full-body MRI.
Miller, whose grandmother and mom had dementia, said during her speech at the gala that she wanted to “take a deeper look at anything that could possibly be lurking inside me that would affect my longevity.” She discovered just that in 2018.
“They found, of course, this sort of aneurysm in my head,” the 42-year-old told her audience. “So, of course, this was terrifying information and made me think of my great-grandmother, whose fate I certainly didn’t want to mimic. Fortunately, it was relatively small.”
She added, “I did what the doctors recommended that I do, which is have annual MRIs [to] track the size.”
Miller explained the aneurysm was small and remained so — “until it didn’t” — as doctors noticed its sudden growth in the spring of 2022. The actor eventually found solace in Dr. Geoffrey Colby at UCLA, who “answered every single question” she had.
Miller decided to go under the knife to have the aneurysm removed.
The “Superbad” actor, who married Rogen in 2011 and launched “Hilarity for Charity” with him, previously told People her most valuable advice for any and everyone is to “know yourself, know your numbers, know your genetic risk factors.”
The comedian naturally opted to pepper her sincere speech Wednesday with some humor.
Miller and Rogen launched “Hilarity for Charity” together with friends in 2011.
Rick Kern via Getty Images
“I’m truly endlessly grateful to Dr. Colby … and the entire staff at UCLA who guided us through this scary experience that I’m truly grateful to have overcome,” she said, per People. “I’m truly thankful that I won’t be dying at this dinner table or any others anytime soon.”
Miller became undeniably serious about brain health after her mother was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s at 55. Rogen followed suit after tying the knot with her — and testified before Congress about the need for further Alzheimer’s research in 2014.
He was naturally just as funny as Miller was on Wednesday when he did.
“I’ve seen the massive amount of financial strain this disease causes, and if the American people ever decide to reject genitalia-driven comedy, I will no longer be able to afford it,” he said. “I can’t begin to imagine how people with more limited resources are dealing with this.”
For Miller, the first step is being aware — and not being scared to seek information.
“Don’t be afraid to deep dive into that,” she told People. “Because there are things that you can do to modify your genetics and to make lifestyle changes and live a brain-healthy life and potentially either delay or maybe even prevent dementia or Alzheimer’s.”
Even when he’s off duty, Seth Rogen is a man of the people. The 41-year-old actor, comedian, and filmmaker just got back from vacation, which he sheepishly admits was spent exactly where you’d expect. “I, along with the rest of the world, went to Italy,” he tells me with a chuckle over Zoom. “I didn’t know until I got there and then started looking at other people’s Instagrams! It was like, Oh, no, all the people I came here to avoid are in this country!”
In between his latest return to the raunch-com, by way of Apple TV+’s Platonic with Rose Byrne, and his work on this fall’s GameStop-stock movie, Dumb Money, Rogen has been spending his non-focaccia-feasting time on Houseplant, the cannabis brand and home goods purveyor that the actor cofounded back in 2019, out of his now notorious twin passions for pottery and, of course, weed. This summer the company’s line of grown-up, midcentury-mod-globby ceramics includes a new party ashtray; think Le Creuset but for that dream blunt rotation. Now that the recent waves of weed legalization have made marijuana more mainstream than ever, the stoner-comedy legend himself believes this is what the people deserve: to enjoy our weed, and have nice accessories for it too.
In conversation with Vanity Fair, Rogen talks about what’s changed and what hasn’t in smoking culture, plus some wise advice he got about edibles from Snoop Dogg.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Vanity Fair:Obviously, weed is getting a huge rebrand now that it’s becoming increasingly legalized. When you think back to your youth, or even whenPineapple Expresscame out in 2008, could you have ever imagined we’d be here now?
Seth Rogen: I grew up in Vancouver, which was probably on the forefront of a legalized-weed-type situation. It was very normalized. Even when I was a kid, there were a few coffee shops you could smoke weed in. I did imagine dreaming of a world where weed was accepted. Alcohol, I always saw as being so much more dangerous, even as a high school kid. Like, I would drink a lot of alcohol and be throwing up and feel terrible all day the next day. And then I would smoke truly heroic amounts of weed, and nothing! Zero negative side effects!
So the hypocrisy was never lost on me. I always hoped that one day weed would be at least as accepted and as culturally available as alcohol, which you can get at grocery stores; you can order it online from anywhere; you can get it at stadiums. Weed is not even remotely like that, and it’s way less dangerous. I am heartened by the strides it’s made, and that it is more accepted than it used to be. But I still definitely think, as far as its legality goes, it has a very long way to go, you know?
Do you get a sense that weed culture is changing along with the market? There’s certainly a more visible kind of connoisseurship lifestyle going on. Houseplant is a part of that.
It’s good. I think it’s making up for lost time. Weed was so stigmatized—something that people were forced to feel bad about, something that they were told made them stupid. People are reveling in the fact that they can enjoy it. As someone who smokes weed, I never felt like a lot of time, energy, or resources were being put into my lifestyle, especially from a product angle. The idea of validating people’s love of weed, to me, is exciting.
People can finally talk about the different strains they like, and the terps they like, and the ways they like to smoke it, and they do get competitive with one another. I think that’s fine. My whole life, I’ve grown up around people with bars and big displays and martini shakers and wine glasses and all this shit, and it’s like, why does alcohol get to have all that stuff? You know? I like when people are indulging their love of weed and nerding out on it.
Have you spent any time in New York lately? There’s, like, a dispensary on every corner now.
I have! I went into so many smoke shops and bodegas and bought random weed. I’m fascinated by the difference between the institutionalized places and the more mom-and-pop places. What’s cool is that there was very high-end weed available and stuff that essentially seems like it’s being sold to you by the guy behind the counter in a Ziploc bag. Overall, I thought the high availability was heartening. It shouldn’t be hard to get weed.
During a press junket interview for the upcoming animated film, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, actor and co-writer Seth Rogen revealed that he’s been enamored with the heroes in a half shell for so long that he’s got the battle scars to prove it. More precisely, Rogen cracked his dome open playing with nunchucks like Michelangelo, as many of us have.
April’s Air Combos Make Her TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge’s Raddest Playable Character
TMNT: Mutant Mayhem follows younger versions of the turtle quartet as they try to gain popularity among their fellow New Yorkers by putting a stop to the villainous Superfly’s crime wave. The animated film includes a star-studded cast of Hollywood actors in supporting roles including Rogen as Bebop, Ice Cube as Superfly, John Cena as Rocksteady, and action-movie legend Jackie Chan as Master Splinter, to name a few.
Speaking with Empire Magazine, Rogen revealed that his fanboy-related TMNT injury came soon after his father gifted him his pair of nunchucks.
“Part of the reason I did karate was because of the Ninja Turtles,” Rogen said. “Me and [co-writer Evan Goldberg] both did karate together. My dad got me nunchucks that I cracked my head open with, because I was obsessed with the Ninja Turtles, and Michelangelo specifically.”
Goldberg added to Rogen’s painful recountings of his ninja faux pas, divulging that it was more than Rogen’s head that the comedy actor broke when displaying his nunchuck skills, saying “Seth had just got these nunchucks. He was like, ‘Yo, check this out, I want to show you this awesome move,’ and just immediately shattered a huge chandelier from his parents’ house into a billion pieces. It took us, like, five hours to clean. On a sitcom, you’d be like, ‘This is too broad.’”
“It was instantaneous,” Rogen added. “It was as though what I was trying to show him was my ability to destroy a lamp.”
In retrospect, it’s probably best that Rogen fancied Mikey instead of Leonardo or Raphael. One could only imagine the kind of physical and property damage a kid could do if left unattended in a house with twin katana or two sais.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem hits theaters on August 2.
