Tim Cook was turned down for a cameo on ‘The Studio’

Tim Cook launched Apple TV+ in 2019 and still can’t get an acting role in its shows — image credit: Apple

He does those Apple keynotes, he starred in a “Severance” promo, and oh, yeah, he controls Apple TV+. But none of that was enough for Seth Rogen, who reportedly turned down Apple when they wanted Tim Cook to get a cameo on “The Studio.”

It’s unlikely that Cook filmed an audition tape for “The Studio,” but then you never know because it’s also been reported that Apple doesn’t interfere with productions on Apple TV+. AppleInsider contacts in television say that last is true, unless your show is in trouble, in which case Apple is all over you.

“The Studio” is not in trouble. Already commissioned for a second run, Seth Rogen’s comedy drama about Hollywood is a critical hit, and attracting buzz around Apple TV+.

Most recently, that attention has been on how “The Studio” got Ted Sarandos, head of Netflix, to be the latest of the show’s huge number of cameos. These cameos can be so crucial to the show’s Hollywood satire that according to Deadline, creator Seth Rogen says he once scrapped an entire episode when he couldn’t get who he needed.

He hasn’t said who he’d wanted for that cameo, but since the episode was dropped, clearly Tim Cook wasn’t waiting in the wings all season. Instead, it’s now been revealed that Cook was put forward for this latest role, the one taken by Netflix’s head.

While the news has only broken now that the Netflix cameo has aired, Business Insider magazine says that Cook was proposed — and immediately rejected — early on in the process.

“They asked if we could use Tim Cook instead, and we said no,” Seth Rogen revealed to the publication during the red-carpet premiere for “The Studio” at the SXSW Film & TV Festival in March 2025.

That would be the same festival at which Apple’s Eddy Cue and producer Ben Stiller enthused about how Apple never interferes with its shows.

Tim Cook has also had a go at comedy in Apple’s Mother Nature sketch

It’s not as if the cameo appearance is long — it’s 65 seconds — but nonetheless Sarandos has been praised for just agreeing to do it. He plays himself, revealing that actors always thank him in their awards acceptances because he writes that into their contract.

If that’s not self-deprecating enough, he adds: “I mean, otherwise, why in the world would they possibly thank us? We’re bean counters. They’re artists.”

Maybe Tim Cook could’ve pulled off that kind of dig at studio bosses — he’s done comedy before — but Sarandos’s character also has to swear repeatedly. If Tim Cook isn’t in fact a constantly polite individual, he’s worked hard to appear so and this would’ve been a jolt.

It would’ve been an excellent jolt, certainly. If Cook had said this dialogue in this way, he would be being applauded for his ability to mock himself. He’s certainly been willing to play up aspects of his keynotes, as with Apple’s “Mission: Impossible” skit about his slide clicker.

Tim Cook retrieves his slide clicker in Apple’s “Mission: Impossible” skit — image source: Apple

But the reason he was turned down was probably not to do with his acting ability, or anything remotely against an Apple TV+ show being meta about Apple TV+. Instead, it was because Netflix is so much bigger in film and television than Apple that Ted Sarandos is that much bigger a player.

So instead of kudos to Tim Cook for a cameo, kudos to Apple for not interfering the show. Mind you, more kudos for Sarandos for mocking himself in a rival streamer’s hit show.

Still, it’s not the first time Cook has failed to get a starring role as himself. Back in 2018, Hank Azaria — best known for “The Simpsons,” and “Mad About You” — won the role of Tim Cook in “Super Pumped,” a drama series on Showtime that you’ve never heard of.

He shouldn’t feel left out, though, since that same series cast Rob Morrow as Eddy Cue.