Interview: Chase Sui Wonders Discusses ‘The Studio’

AppleTV+’s upcoming series, The Studio, takes a satirical, if not poignant, look at filmmaking in Hollywood. The series was created by Seth Rogan, Evan Goldberg, Peter Huyck, Alex Gregory, and Frida Perez. Rogen stars as Matt Remick, the newly appointed head of the embattled Continental Studios. Desperate for celebrity approval, he and his executive team at the movie studio must juggle corporate demands with creative ambitions as they try to keep movies alive and relevant.

Chase Sui Wonders co-stars as Quinn Hackett, Continental Studios brash and determined Creative Executive. Wonders is best is known for her roles as Riley in the HBO Max series Generation and Emma in the horror-comedy film Bodies Bodies Bodies, and she will soon be seen in the reboot of I Know What You Did Last Summer. As a filmmaker, Wonders has written and directed the films A Trivial Exclusion and Last Migration, as well as the short Wake.

We spoke with Wonders about the role, as well as what it was like to work with the talented cast, and how accurately the series portrays the cut-throat filmmaking industry. You can listen to our conversation or read it below.

First of all, congratulations on The Studio. I can’t begin to tell you how much I enjoyed it.

Thank you. Oh, that’s so nice to hear. I’m so glad.

Tell me a little about Quinn.

Quinn is a very complicated lady. She is a Machiavellian little twerp, I would say. She’s incredibly ambitious. She’s seriously power-hungry. She’s often just a little out of her depth but acts like an absolute wise-ass who has all the answers and knows better than everyone else. She is a product of a very pretentious film school education, and she is just kind of ruthlessly slashing and burning her way to the top and needs to be humbled, I would say.

Like you said, she’s very ambitious. Given your career path, is there any of you in Quinn?

I think there are similarities. I hope I tread forward with a bit more compassion than Quinn. I think that I like people more than Quinn does, but I do think there is an element to this industry that really requires you to be a little bit delusionally confident about your path and your ability to take up space in these rooms. I think it’s a constant fight against imposter syndrome, which I think Quinn has none of. I think early in my career, I was definitely hoping that people would see me as young and kind of not knowing the rulebook, and therefore I would kind of take big swings and send risky emails or walk up to Francis Ford Coppola at a party and talk to him, and things like that.  

Can you talk a little about working with Seth and Evan?

They’re the best. They exceeded all my expectations. I really think that puberty, for me, was encapsulated by Superbad and Pineapple Express. Knocked Up was my sex education. This is the End is the last great American comedy in my eyes. To get to work with them is a total dream come true, and I’ve learned so much from them. Being on the set, seeing how they run it, it’s such a warm environment. They’re such good guys, and they’re such generous laughers. I was shaking in my boots when I first got onto this set. The first day was a scene with Ike when we had to scream at each other, and I had to cry in front of all these guys, but try to be funny at the same time, I was absolutely petrified. But they gave me so much confidence, just because they want you to win. They want you to crush, and the best joke wins, even if that’s coming from the young, inexperienced kid. They are very uplifting people, and I feel like I’m standing on the shoulders of giants, being able to work with them.

There are some exceptionally long takes in this series. What was the production process like?

When they first told us how it was going to be shot, I was like, “That’s impossible. That simply won’t work.” Especially for comedy. So much of comedy is in the editing. You know, ‘Crazy thing happens, cut to crazier thing, laugh.’ That’s the engine of so many great comedies. But when you don’t have that, it’s really scary, but it also makes it so fun. And there’s no dead time on set. There’s no waiting around, being on your phone, because you have to be on. And it’s terrifying as well because you have to be dropped in. You have to be totally in character.

It’s like a symbiotic team sport, where you have to create that comedic timing in the moment, and really beyond. If someone’s crushing in the take, and you flub, you’ve let your whole team down. A lot of times, when a movie comes out, some people will be like, “Oh, honestly, she wasn’t that good on set, but she got saved in the edit.” There’s no room for that here. There’s no getting saved in the edit. You have to bring it on set.

You and Ike take center stage in an episode called “The War,” in which Quinn and Sal try to sabotage each other’s efforts to get a film produced. I’m curious, in your experience as an actor and as a filmmaker, can getting a film produced be that petty? How on the nose is it?

I think it’s incredibly, incredibly accurate. People are sabotaging each other left and right. And it’s not even their fault. It’s the structure of the industry is kind of built to award and then castigate these kinds of infractions. I think there are constantly scenarios where people are undermining. We’re not friends at all, and people are really willing to do whatever it takes in order to get their movie funded or green light their pitch.

I think it’s a total comedy of errors, the way people approach these things because they will go to great lengths to get their idea or get their passion project made, which is sometimes not the best route. But when it works out, people are rewarded, and they do it again and again and again. So, yeah, it’s very accurate, unfortunately.

I have to ask about the cast. It’s an astounding cast. And in addition to the regular cast, there are celebrity cameos up to wahoo. Can you talk about working with some of them?

Yes, you are absolutely right. Up the wahoo. Famous people who I’ve idolized throughout my entire youth just left and right. You show up on set, and you look over, and Paul Dano’s, getting a prosthetic on. He’s like, “Hi,” and I’m just like, “Oh, my God, icon. Hello.” I feel so spoiled. I was not in the episode when Martin Scorsese was on set, but I did show up. I was front row in video village, just, like, watching the sausage get made with Martin Scorsese at the forefront. It’s a real treat. And it’s a testament to Seth and Evan that they can write people as themselves.

And people will say yes, just by virtue of the fact that they know it’s going to be funny, and they know that it’s a trusted team. And I think that’s a real privilege. I’m sure that Martin Scorsese has been asked a million times to play himself, but the fact that all these actors have said yes, and they crushed it. And they’re really funny. Dramatic actors who aren’t normally seen as funny are hilarious. People like Nicholas Stoller, who’s a writer-director, crushes and is so funny.

It was also a film education, all these people passing through. Ron Howard telling stories about Happy Days, and Anthony Mackie telling stories about when he studied acting. It was a real film education, just seeing all these people pass through the hallway of the studio.

Between acting and writing and directing, where would you say you feel most comfortable as a storyteller?

I’ve gotten lucky enough to be acting pretty consistently, especially for the past year. So, I do feel like I’ve gained my sea legs. But I went to school to study film with the intention of becoming a writer-director. I was so terrified of being in front of the camera. So, I still hope to do that. I will say, being on this set and seeing Seth and Evan do it, especially Seth do the directing, the writing, and the acting so seamlessly and so effortlessly, has really given me a lot of confidence, perhaps, delusional confidence. But I love writing, and that is kind of my heart and soul and definitely informs my acting process and vice versa. I’m writing stuff now, and I’ve gone through the pitch process, talked to studio heads. It’s a great balance. I don’t think I could pick one.

Has the series changed your perspective on the industry at all?

I think it really kind of peels back the curtain on an industry that can seem really big and scary and unapproachable. It feels like very high school, like the cool kids’ table. But at the end of the day, at least the people that I’ve worked with, are just misanthropic characters who are kind of weirdos who just want to play pretend and get their stories made and do it with integrity and heart. Even the studio heads; these people who I have pitched to as a writer have done screen tests in front of. They seem so big and scary and they’re wearing suits, and they have a green juice in their hand, and they seem impenetrable. But in actuality, they’re just in it for the love of the game. They’re movie nerds. Most of them are just theater kids or movie nerds who just want to see these stories get made. And I think that is really important to just remember is, all these celebrities, like, they’re all just people at the end of the day.

The Studio is set to be released on AppleTV+ with the first two episodes on March 26, 2025.