Seth Rogen, Kathryn Hahn on 'The Studio' and its 23 Emmy nominations

Seth Rogen, the creator-writer-executive producer of the hit TV series, "The Studio," still could not believe it.

His passion project, a satirical cringe comedy about the film industry, just earned an impressive 23 nominations for the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards, the most of any comedy series this season. Matt Remick, the character that Rogen plays as the newly appointed head of the floundering film production company Continental Studios, would have been giddy and titillated by now as he prepares for his acceptance speech to impress his Mom.

The actor-comedian-filmmaker, 43, confessed to us when we interviewed him at The London West Hollywood at Beverly Hills that, "No, it was very surprising. It was and continues to be very surprising and not something I ever expected, ever in my work, is to be in any awards contention. And so, it's lovely."

The freshman comedy series broke the record of "Ted Lasso" in 2021, which got 20 nominations in its first year.

We asked the multihyphenate creative genius what gave him the idea of producing and making this kind of series and he replied, "I was really just thinking, honestly, of wanting to make something funny. I wanted to perform in something funny as well. I'd been doing a lot of dramatic work, and I had the idea while I was shooting 'The Fabelmans,' which was pretty dramatic, and I could just see that I was kind of getting pulled in that direction, unless I pulled myself in the other direction. And so, I very deliberately started trying to think of a comedic television show that had an idea that I could envision myself doing for years and years and years. And then I had this idea and thank God, I did and because it allowed me to do exactly what I was hoping to do."

Kathryn Hahn, who portrays the kooky Maya Mason, Continental Studios' head of marketing, told us, "I think I knew that there was going to be a bunch of nominations. When seeing it, I thought this is too special and just hilarious, and just so bright and consistent. So many laughs like one after the other. I knew that there was going to be some major recognition. It's nice."

Nominated for Best Comedy Series, the show will be competing against "Abbot Elementary," "The Bear," "Hacks," "Nobody Wants This," "Only Murders in the Building," "Shrinking," and "What We Do in the Shadows."

Rogen, in fact, earned his first nomination for lead actor in comedy, and was also nominated for writing and directing on "The Studio."

Hahn, 52, earned also an Emmy nod for best supporting actress for her role in "The Studio."

In an earlier interview, Hahn revealed that she found out about the nomination while she was in Ireland and had a pint with her son.

We told Hahn that the colorful and flamboyant way her character dresses up and fixes herself already tells audiences immediately what kind of personality Maya has as soon as they see her. Did she have a hand in this particular look, we asked.

"Yeah, I did," she admitted. "It was definitely written in there for sure. But then when I went to the first costume fitting, it was like Christmas morning because I knew then, I saw exactly. Costume fitting was so fun because it really is like this, the unconscious bridge between an actor and the director-creator, because that's when the character is like, oh, I see what you're thinking. And so that was a really fun couple of days. I think Coco Chanel said it was like, if you put one thing on, you put two other things on it. So, it was like, more is more is more."

She added, "Definitely, the costumes, hair and makeup walked into the room before I did."

The critically acclaimed Apple TV+ satire also stars Catherine O'Hara, Ike Barinholtz, and Chase Sui Wonders. The show is also known for featuring high-profile celebrity cameos in every episode like Martin Scorsese, Anthony Mackie, Dave Franco, Zoe Kravitz, Zac Efron, Olivia Wilde, Ron Howard, Peter Berg and even Ted Sarandos.

In fact, award-winning director and filmmaker Scorsese, earned his first acting nomination at the Emmys for his cameo in the category "Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series."

Also getting Emmy nods for the same category were Zoe Kravitz for her irrepressible cameo and Dave Franco for his "shroom-fueled" cameo. Other guest actors of "The Studio" who also got nominated in the same category included Bryan Cranston, Ron Howard and Anthony Mackie.

Asked how challenging it was to get top-notch celebrities to be doing cameos for the show, Rogen said, "Oh, it was different for everyone, but the most consistent thing that allowed us to do it was like writing roles that we thought they would actually be excited to do.

"Like, I've tried to rope people into cameos in the past when they're sort of just window dressing, and don't actually have a role, sort of maybe serving a joke, but they don't have a joke, you know?

"And so that was something I found very helpful. When I was talking to all these people, I was able to tell them, like, you have a thing to do. Like you get a joke, even if it's a small joke, even if it's like one little thing, you get to participate in a joke."

Probably the best two episodes for us were the Golden Globe episode and the CinemaCon episode. We asked Rogen and Hahn to talk about their experience making them.

Hahn said, "Well, yeah, I was in the CinemaCon episode, and that was just old school farce. That kind of stuff is so dumb and fun. It was like running around screaming."

"Just running around screaming in Las Vegas," Rogen continued. "Yeah, that was like towards the end of the shoot, too. So, this ensemble was, I mean, I love this group of people so, so much. So, it was like candy. I couldn't believe we were all together. Yeah, like the whole cast gets to really perform together in these big scenes, and it was so much fun."

Hahn added, "I got to have like a little interaction with Catherine O'Hara, which made me very happy. We had not had any leading up to that. It was great. It was great. You realize Patty (O'Hara's studio head character) and Maya would have a weird relationship. Very, very rare. Necessarily like each other. A lot of competition."

Rogen chimed in, "Yeah, but Zoe Kravitz, watching her in that part was so delightful and so was Dave Franco."

Hahn agreed, "Oh, God. Amazing guest stars in those two."

So, will there be an Emmy episode in the show?

"Who knows?!" Rogen said with a naughty smile and broke into his signature infectious laughter. —MGP, GMA Integrated News