Why Martin Scorsese kept ‘one note’ to himself during his cameo on ‘The Studio’: ‘He didn’t give it until later’

Not only is Martin Scorsese a legendary director that anyone would be happy to get advice from, but he’s also a gentleman.

The Studio co-creators Alex Gregory and Evan Goldberg recently recalled how the 10-time Oscar nominee made great efforts not to seem like a “backseat director” while appearing on the pilot episode of the Apple TV+ series.

“He had one note, but he didn’t give it until later,” Gregory told People at Saturday’s 2025 Gotham TV Awards, where the show won the breakthrough comedy series.

Goldberg explained that during Scorsese’s cameo, in which the director plays himself as the big name that Seth Rogen‘s Matt Remick brings in to direct a movie based on the Kool-Aid Man, the director and fellow guest star Charlize Theron kept “whispering to each other, and it took like 10 takes to get the shot.”

“And then we got it and I was like, ‘What were you whispering about?’ He was like, ‘I knew you were doing this wrong, but I didn’t wanna be a backseat director, so I just didn’t say anything,'” Goldberg continued. “And I was like, ‘Well, we could have used that time, but I appreciate that you didn’t wanna manhandle us.'”

While Scorsese kept mum on that piece of feedback, he didn’t hold back on other bits.

Rogen, who serves as a star, co-creator, executive producer, and writer on the series, previously revealed at a SXSW panel at the two-episode premiere of the series that Scorsese offered a surprising note while filming his cameo.

Rogen recalled the Taxi Driver filmmaker telling him and Goldberg, “You guys say ‘f—‘ too much,” Variety reported. 

Rogen was, understandably, baffled, “We were like, ‘We say ‘f—‘ too much?!'”

Scorsese has never been shy when it comes to profanities. His 2013 film The Wolf of Wall Street once held the world record for the most F-bombs in a movie, with more than 500 utterances of the word. Many of the filmmaker’s other well-known titles aren’t lagging far behind, with Casino boasting 422, while Goodfellas has 300. One has to wonder: How many curse words were Rogen and Goldberg dropping to get an eyebrow raise from Scorsese?

Spoiler: a lot.

Regardless, Scorsese was only one of the many big-name cameos featured in the entirety of The Studio‘s first season, in addition to cast members Catherine O’Hara, Kathryn Hahn, Ike Barinholtz, and Chase Sui Wonders. The series features appearances from Scorsese, Theron, Paul Dano, Peter Berg, Nicholas Stoller, Steve Buscemi, and more.

Scorsese was a high get for the creators, who admitted they were shocked he agreed to make a cameo.

“I’d never met Martin Scorsese before,” Rogen shared. “We couldn’t believe he did it! But we worked hard to write roles we hoped were funny and that we hoped that people would respond to.”

Goldberg, who directed the episode with Rogen, later told People that “unanimously we would say Martin Scorsese as an actor was unbelievable. The fact that he actually showed up, ’cause we kept thinking, ‘He’s gonna cancel. It’s too amazing. It’s too special. He’s just the best.'”

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Several of the guests play versions of themselves, as Matt frantically works on his very first project as the studio’s head: a feature film adaptation of Kool-Aid.

If such a concept sounds eerily accurate, it’s by design. Rogen previously told Entertainment Weekly that the series was born from the very real experiences that he and Goldberg had in the industry.

“Me and Evan always are quoting a meeting we had when we were just starting, where a studio executive said literally the thing that Matt says in the pilot,” Rogen said. “He was giving us notes and he hung his head and was like, ‘I got into this job because I love movies, and now my job is to ruin them,’ and the more we started talking about that, we were like, ‘That’s very tragic and sad and inherently very comedic in many ways.'”