Notes On The Season, The Studio, Seth Rogen, F1, Emmys And Oscars

A column chronicling conversations and events on the awards circuit.

In case you missed it when we posted it on Deadline Monday, over the weekend I hosted a conversation with Seth Rogen and five other cast members of The Studio at SAG headquarters in the Wilshire district and you can see that here. It was total laugh out loud with that group as you can imagine. What I didn’t print, and what was not on the video we posted was equally hilarious especially because Rogen had never been to SAG headquarters before, which includes the incredible new Meryl Streep Center For Performing Artists they have constructed on the penthouse level, and it all provided some instant material for the comedy star.

This center, named after the three-time Oscar winning and 21-time nominated star, has all kinds of rooms where actors can attend seminars, self tape auditions, do voiceover, take headshots, and so much more. It also houses a screening room which seats about 100 or so and that is where we showed SAG nominating committee members the final two episodes of the season and conducted the conversation which due to the limited size of the stage meant three stars were on the bottom row and three others right above them. “It feels like we’re about to play The Match Game,” Rogen cracked.

And also before I could work in any questions Rogen had some observations of his own on the size of the intimate theatre in this facility named after her (the actual theatre itself is named for Tom & Rita Hanks who like Streep donated quite a bit of money for the naming honor). “I would hope Meryl Streep had a bigger theater, if I’m being totally honest. This is it? What Meryl Streep gets is this? Is that Meryl Streep annex? Come on. Give the lady a full size theater. You got, like, one eighth of a theater here,” he joked.

But when I mentioned this was all being recorded he changed his tune a bit. “Wow. What a beautiful (theatre)…don’t worry, she’s not going to watch this. I’m not concerned this is going to get back to her, like Meryl’s just live streaming her theatre all day. Oh man this could be an episode of The Studio, trying to hide from Meryl Streep! Anway, congratulations. ”

Actually before the actual Q&A began Rogen was noticing all the other areas of the Streep Center which had been donated by the famous, like the room named for now divorced couple Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness, or notably the Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively Balcony right off the Green Room.

All of this inspired him so much he grabbed a marker and paper to rename the restroom after himself. Here is that photo. Do you think they left it up?

This was all in good fun and I have to say what SAG/AFTRA has created with this Streep Center is remarkable, a way the union can really help their members with all the practical needs for any actor. I have done a few of these conversations there for the SAG Foundation and the actors who come in for those always leave impressed.

CLOCK IS TICKING FOR EMMY VOTERS

We are still in crunch time for casting your Emmy ballot with voting continuing only until August 27. This is why you are seeing so many contenders popping up everywhere they can still bring attention to their nominated work. On today’s edition of my Deadline video series, Behind The Lens , Alan Cumming is the guest talking about all aspects of his career including as host of Peacock’s The Traitors for which he is nominated for two Emmys. But he goes back in time to recall his first production of Cabaret on Broadway where the PR representative welcomed him and he thought there wouldn’t be much more to do. He says she corrected him and told him she would be seeing a lot of him in the next three months. “It’s awards season!” she said. Cumming said he had never heard of an “awards season” before. He certainly has now.

As this one winds down it has become apparent we have some real horse races going on. Will it be Hacks repeating or The Studio cashing in a lot of those 23 nominations for its first season, or can The Bear make a comeback? This week the Television Critics Association recognized The Studio for comedy, but clearly showered the most love on The Pitt with 4 major wins. Severance was shut out, yet it has double the number of Emmy nominations so it looks like the contest for Drama Series is coming down to the wire with both shows firmly in contention. So could The White Lotus come back ala The Bear and triumph once again? Anything is possible, well except in the Limited Series race where Adolescence has this thing in the bag.

OSCAR CONTENDERS START YOUR ENGINES

As the Emmys wind down, next week marks the official start of Oscar Season with the Venice and Telluride Film Festivals kicking off the Fall Fest circuit. No rest for the weary. Over the course of the next few months one potential winner after another will be introduced. Some will fade quickly, others will be at the Dolby in March. But from the first eight months of the year it is Warner Bros. who look to be in the prime starting position with a couple of surprises from the horror genre, Sinners and Weapons leading the pack of potentials, and Apple’s summer smash, F1 for which Warner Bros. is handling the theatrical release are the only surefire Best Picture possibilities of movies that have already had a release in theatres. Last night at the DGA and Wednesday night at AMC Century City F1 appeared to be the first on the Oscar track in terms of all guild Q&As for the industry. It is getting an early jump on the game. I moderated the DGA screening to a packed house, and asked legendary producer Jerry Bruckheimer (who was on the panel with director Joseph Kosinski, producer Jeremy Kleiner, Casting Director Lucy Bevan, and Supervising Sound Editor Al Nelson) why the Academy doesn’t take these big beautifully crafted movies more seriously.

It wasn’t until Top Gun: Maverick that Bruckheimer received a single Best Picture nomination in his career, and now there is talk for F1, both directed by Kosinski. “I wish I knew this.Then I could make those other kinds of movies he’s so good at,” he laughed indicating Kleiner who has two Best Picture Oscars for smaller films like 12 Years A Slave and Moonlight for his work with Brad Pitt’s Plan B. “I mean, I
love making movies that take you to another world and show you how it actually works as a process,” he said while adding they worked three long years to really pull F1 off, and now it not only is Apple’s biggest success, but the streamer let the theatrical aspect play out to an astonishing (for this era) 58 days on an exclusive theatres window, and in fact Kosinski announced that as we were at the DGA (and showed me on his phone) , F1 finally officially debuted last night on digital at a $19.99 rental price, and still with no firm streaming date announced. It is also hitting $600 million at the worldwide boxoffice, but most importantly it is a film with emotion and humanity, and some terrific performances led by Brad Pitt. Why shouldn’t it be a contender?

We shall see it and you on the Oscar season trail.