Sal Saperstein is a survivor. At least, that’s how actor Ike Barinholtz describes the anxious, erratic, and sycophantic creative executive he plays on The Studio. In a rapidly changing Hollywood, Sal has learned to (mostly) curtail his profane antics and drugged-out adventures to become something of a politically-correct bro—but after losing out on the head job at Continental Studios to his best friend Matt Remick (Seth Rogen), Sal is now mostly a yes-man, eager to please the new boss and box out the Gen-Z colleagues gunning for his job.
In this week’s episode, “The War,” those two imperatives converge, and chaos reigns. The conflict starts when Matt asks junior executive Quinn (Chase Sui Wonders) to help Sal develop his low-budget slasher, Wink, an obvious rip-off of Parker Finn’s Smile. Naturally, Sal wants to hire Finn to direct, but Quinn dismisses his safe bet and pitches indie darling Owen Kline to helm the project. Is her pushback an honest suggestion, or a ruthless power grab? Either way, an escalating old-school vs. new-school clash ensues, involving sabotaged meetings, weaponized quesaritos, and stolen parking spots.
An industry veteran with a propensity for high-decibel theatrics, Barinholtz makes perfect sense as Sal. Since breaking into television on MADtv, he’s made his name playing men on the verge of various breakdowns, balancing pent-up testosterone with fragile egos in movies like Neighbors (another Seth Rogen team-up) and Blockers, while managing to leave just enough room for sympathy. He’s been just as busy as a writer, most prominently for The Mindy Project, History of the World: Part II, and recently Running Point. Over his two-decade comedy career, Barinholtz has been in just about every kind of room, and met just about every kind of Hollywood character, which made channeling Sal that much easier—and sleazier.
On a recent Zoom call from the Plaza Hotel, Barinholtz checks in with GQ wearing a white LA Aztecs T-shirt, eager to dive into Sal’s series of terrible professional and life choices. Among numerous topics, he explains the importance of parking spots, reveals his favorite drink at Musso & Frank, and sells his vision for Wink.
GQ: Who was Sal Saperstein to you when you first read this script, and how did you initially want to play him?
Ike Barinholtz: Well, from the intro, he comes in very hot. In his first few scenes, he has a lot of information, a lot of plans. He really does think that he’s about to be christened the boss. And within two scenes, he doesn’t get it and instantly makes a decision to be a yes man to his best friend. He also has a minor drug issue. As you read on, he just gets such funny lines. He gets to be Matt Remick’s id. Those guys started together in the ‘90s, and when you talk to people who worked in Hollywood in the ‘90s, the stories are insane. They’re just like, “Oh yeah, at the premiere of that movie, we let in 100 wild goats, and they bucked Rex Reed, but it was really fun. I barely remember it, I was so coked out…” You just hear these stories. And those two guys were around back then. And I think anyone who was around back then, I have a lot of respect for. You’re a survivor. You’re still here. That’s what I really liked about Sal. I know a lot of guys who have his job, components of his personality and stuff. It was so hard to get fired in 1996—you had to do so much shit, but in 2025, anything could get you out of there. So I thought it was a lot of fun to play with a survivor like that.