Seth Rogen used Apple TV+’s FYC showcase in Hollywood this week to make an audacious plea: coax three-time Oscar-winner Daniel Day-Lewis out of semi-retirement for a cameo in Season 2 of “The Studio,” the streamer’s hit satire of modern moviemaking. “He’s the greatest living actor…his process is so specific that I think that would be interesting to explore on the show,” Rogen said, before addressing the actor directly: “Daniel, please consider a Zoom with us. We’ll pitch you a good idea!”
Apple renewed the ten-episode comedy last week after its March debut drew a 93 percent critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes and a string of celebrity cameos from Martin Scorsese to Charlize Theron. Production is expected to start later this year for a 2026 launch.
Whether Day-Lewis, 68, is persuadable remains uncertain. The actor declared he was “no longer working as an actor” after 2017’s “Phantom Thread” but agreed last autumn to star in “Anemone,” an indie drama directed by his son Ronan Day-Lewis, suggesting selective openness to new projects. A television appearance would be his first since a 1985 BBC miniseries.
Rogen is not alone in dreaming big. Co-creator Evan Goldberg floated James Cameron (“a genius…but known for sometimes getting angry”), while cast-mates Chase Sui Wonders and Ike Barinholtz lobbied for Kristen Stewart, Al Pacino and Leonardo DiCaprio. Dewayne Perkins’ pick is Zendaya, and assistant-player Keyla Monterroso Mejia wants Larry David to bring “balance to the chaos.”
Industry veterans are divided on what a Day-Lewis cameo would mean. Former MGM executive-turned-author Matthew Specktor praises the series for depicting studio brass as “people, not punch lines,” but warns that introducing Hollywood’s most reclusive star could upend that delicate tone. Rolling Stone, which called the show a “hilarious love-hate letter to Hollywood,” argues its season-one guest roster proves almost any door can be opened with the right joke—and the right budget.
For now, the ball sits squarely in Day-Lewis’ court—another pitch meeting that Hollywood’s most elusive performer may take, or skip, without explanation.