‘The Studio’: Ike Barinholtz Reveals Sal Saperstein Was Written for Him

You may know him as the hilarious ex-con-turned-nurse from The Mindy Project, or from his long stint on MADtv. Now, comedic actor Ike Barinholtz has turned his attention to satire, playing a film executive in the new Apple TV+ comedy series The Studio, which follows a struggling Hollywood movie studio and its newly appointed head of film production (Seth Rogen) and features an epic list of guest stars that includes Martin Scorsese, Bryan Cranston, Steve Buscemi, Ron Howard, and more.

The Chicago native recently chatted with us about his role and answered questions about the show.

The Studio is different than some of the shows you’ve done. How did you get involved with the show?

Ike Barinholtz: Many, many years ago, I was talking to Seth Rogen, and he was like, “Hey, we’re writing a show about Hollywood. There’s a part that we’re writing for you. Will you do it?” And I was like, “Sure.” I have learned that when Seth and Evan ask you to do something, you just say, “Yeah.” It wasn’t until I got the scripts, and we had a little mini-read at some point… I was just so blown away by what they created, and the part that they wrote for me is just so funny and so fun and wrong, and I really fell in love.

Do you relate to your character, Sal Saperstein?

Oh, sure. Sure. I have daughters. I think Sal is a bit of a pragmatist in the sense that he thinks things are going to go one way, and when they don’t, he instantly is able to pivot and accept the reality. In the pilot, he thinks he’s going to get the job [as the new head of the studio]. And then when Seth gets it, right away, he’s like, “Okay, my friend is now my boss. We’ve got to work together.” In business, sometimes that can be a good way to know about things. You fight for things that you want, but when you know something is inviolate, you can either accept the reality or you can try to fight it. And from experience, I can tell you only one of those things will work smoothly.

Apple TV+

The show is very meta. How does it feel to be an actor playing someone who works for actors? 

I’ve been in this business a while, and so I have a lot of friends who are or were studio executives. It was a very familiar kind of air to step in because I’ve talked to so many of them over the years. I think Seth and Evan did such a great job of keeping the environment the proper amount of self-aware. They have some moments that are a little tongue in cheek, but it was never like the tongue is poking through the cheek on the other side. I think they calibrated it the proper way.

How accurate would you say it is behind the scenes in Hollywood?

I think it’s pretty accurate. I think it’s pretty honest. If it was perfectly 100 percent accurate, I don’t know if it would be a comedy, but I think in terms of making it a comedy, it’s pretty true to how things are.

I know it’s a comedy, but it feels very stressful at times. There’s so much yelling. Is there this much yelling in studios?

That part they do keep from you. When you’re a writer or an actor, they try not to yell, but I’ve heard stories. I have heard stories. When Seth was first showing me the concepts and everything, he was like, “Yeah, it’s just [going to be] beautiful locations that we shoot in a gorgeous way, and inside these locations we just have people screaming at each other.” I was thinking, “That sounds like a show that I want to watch.”

What’s been the most fun aspect of doing this show?

I have never shot in Las Vegas before, and I love Las Vegas. Normally, they call “cut” and then you have a couple minutes while they’re resetting, and normally, you kind of sit down and maybe work on your lines or talk to your castmates or read an article, but there’s a blackjack table like 15 feet away. So, you could literally call “cut,” get a couple notes, go sit down, play five, six hands of blackjack, and then go into the next take with maybe 100, 200 bucks up. It’s pretty great. I highly endorse shooting in places where they have legal gambling.

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There are a lot of big-name guest stars. How challenging was it to get all these directors and actors to come play themselves?

The only hard part is logistics. It’s very tough when you have your series regulars who are in town, but if you ask someone to do a favor, and they go, “Yeah,” but then all of a sudden there are other job calls. I was so excited to work with a lot of these directors just because you don’t get to act with directors a lot. Obviously, Marty Scorsese is my favorite director of all time. As everyone says to him [on the show], he’s the reason we do this. I was so excited to work with him.

I think it was helpful that a lot of the directors they cast to play themselves were actors. Like Martin Scorsese has acted in several movies. I’ve loved Ron Howard for many years, and he was an actor but hasn’t acted in 40 years, and he shows up and he’s incredible. He’s blowing everyone else out of the water. They understood how to do it, they knew how to do it, they got the joke, and they were some of my favorite people to act with on the show.

What do you think is the main takeaway from the show?

Movies and TV shows are wonderful and important and it’s nice to like the people you work with.

The Studio, Wednesdays, Apple TV+

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