Angelique Jackson: Do you know what it really takes to make your favorite TV shows?

Patrick Schwarzenegger: You're off book, the whole script.

Arnold Schwarzenegger : It's from bodybuilding.

It's a reps, reps, reps.

The more reps you do, the better you get.

Angelique: Variety Studio is the only place to see candid one-on-one conversations between your favorite actors as they share behind-the-scenes secrets.

Seth Rogen: It's almost like the longer I act, the less I understand it in some ways, honestly.

Angelique: With Arnold Schwarzenegger and Patrick Schwarzenegger, and Seth Rogen and Jason Segel.

Jason Segel: You know I love talking about acting.

Seth Rogen: Please.

♪♪♪ Angelique: Welcome to Variety Studio "Actors on Actors."

I'm Angelique Jackson.

Clayton Davis: And I'm Clayton Davis.

In this episode, we take you behind the scenes of this year's buzziest TV shows.

Angelique: With the actors whose performances kept audiences riveted.

Talk about an acting dynasty.

Arnold and Patrick Schwarzenegger, a real-life father and son duo, are each forging bold new paths onscreen, proving that talent and charisma run in the family.

Arnold Schwarzenegger brings his unmistakable voice and legendary presence to the animated anthology series, "Secret Level."

King Aelstrom: That crown belongs to Aelstrom, you silky bearded Babylonian cur.

But in combat the fortunate prevail as often as the skilled.

Let us have instead a test of strategy.

To the victor, the crown.

Angelique: Patrick Schwarzenegger continues to make waves in Hollywood with the latest season of "The White Lotus," playing one of the resort's dangerously charming new guests.

Saxon Ratliff: So if something bad is happening, it's happening to both of us.

And I'll always be seen by everyone as Timothy Ratliff's son, and I'm okay with that, I am.

As long as everything at work is going good.

And everything at work is going good, right?

Timothy Ratliff: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Saxon: In fact, I don't have anything else but this.

I don't have any interests.

I don't have any hobbies, okay?

If I'm not a success, then I'm nothing.

And I can't handle being nothing.

Arnold: It is an absolute pleasure for me to sit here today and to have this discussion with you.

Because a year ago, this would have never happened.

Variety would have never asked us to sit here and have this discussion, but now you came out with "White Lotus," you went through the roof.

I mean, I am now a big fan of "White Lotus."

It's a fantastic show and your acting surprised the hell out of me.

Not that I didn't know that you're good because you have seen--you've shown that in the last 10 years.

But it was just unbelievable and that things that I didn't recognize you, certain behaviors, because a son, I know every little kind of facial expressions and all that, but in this one I was really blown away.

So my question is, just, you know, how do you feel about this great, great success now?

Patrick: Well, thank you.

I think that Variety probably wouldn't have asked me a year ago, but they probably would have asked you, but it's--I feel like this is a surreal moment for me because, I mean, as much as we get to hang out or talk or something like that, we don't--we would never have a 45-minute conversation about acting, you know, and kind of the background of where you started, where I got to start and where we are today, so I think this is a really great opportunity and kind of a cool moment, but for me this has been like a whirlwind of the 2 months of, like, the show coming out.

I mean, it's been a whirlwind of a year and a half from the time that I actually auditioned until I booked the show and then we filmed it to actually coming out.

Arnold: I know, I know, but I mean, now everyone is coming up to me in the gym and they're saying, I mean, "Your son is fantastic."

And then someone else comes up to me and says, "Oh, now I hated your son in the series."

Patrick: That was the weird part, yeah.

Arnold: Yeah, exactly.

And I said, "Hated him?"

I said, "What kind of a compliment is that?"

And they said, "No, no, I mean, he was fantastic, but the character that he played."

Patrick: Kind of the biggest learning experience for me is how much people associate you with your character because, for me, it was like people came up to me and told me how much they hated me, how much they hated my character and how bad I was and how mean I was, and so it was just like a rollercoaster of emotions for me, but also just of an experience of people feeling like they knew me.

Arnold: I read--this was in Austria, in a magazine.

They had a big cover story on you and about the success and how great you are and all this, and one of the quotes that I read was how it is sometimes or how it was difficult to get through this because you have the name "Schwarzenegger."

So explain that to me because I didn't understand it because to me the name "Schwarzenegger" always meant a big plus and then all of a sudden you were talking about that it can also be, you know, a kind of an obstacle.

Explain that.

Patrick: Well, it's, I mean, from my side, I feel it in multiple different ways, but I guess Mike White said that it just--it comes with baggage, not meaning just, you know, our last name Schwarzenegger, but I think this idea of when you have successful parents like I do, with you and with Mom, there's just an added level of what other people think, which they did, they did care.

People said, oh, I got the role just because of you or for Mom or whatever that is, and I think Mike was a little bit kind of apprehensive at first about that, but, yeah, I mean, it's-- there were times earlier in my career where I was wondering, you know, does it make sense to go under some sort of alias?

Does it make sense to go under, you know, a different name?

Do I just use "Schwarzenegger"?

And I think it took a while for me to get to a point where I was less worried about, like, comparison and living in your shadow versus me just wanting to carve my own path and wanting to do it the way that I thought I should do it.

Arnold: Well, I'm glad that you kept the name, because now I can take credit.

Yeah, my son, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, you know, those kind of lines that I'm using now, but you basically now joined this short list of actors in Hollywood, you know, that had famous parents, if it is Jamie Lee Curtis, you know, with Janet Leigh being her mother, and Michael Douglas, you know, that worked with his father, with Kirk Douglas, in "The Villain," and all of them benefited and also, of course, had to show that they had talent.

I mean, as you know, Jamie Lee Curtis, I think she's one of the greatest actors in history.

So I think that if you show that you have the substance, you can get rid of this whole idea of nepotism and I think that everyone recognizes that now.

Patrick: Yeah, but I wanna just take a step back because I just randomly was curious, when is the last time you auditioned?

If ever, have you ever auditioned?

Arnold: Yes, one time for Lucille Ball.

She called me at Gold's Gym.

She said, "I'm sorry I'm interrupting your workout, but I saw you yesterday on 'The Merv Griffin Show,' and," she says, "you were really funny.

We were laughing in our house and you were just great.

I want you to come in and do this show with me, a 2-hour show, 'Happy Anniversary and Goodbye,' with Art Carney."

So I go in there and she says, "I would like you to read with us."

And so she gave me the script and she says, "Now, remember, you're a truck driver, you became a masseur."

Patrick: Oh, I've seen this.

This is when you walk in with-- Arnold: That's right, exactly, yes.

"So you come to my house," and blah blah blah.

So she says, "Okay, now let's talk."

She said, "So who are you?"

I said, "I'm Santa.

I said, I'm a truck driver from Italy."

"But you, you said you're a masseur."

"Ah, in Italy, everyone is a masseur.

Every man is a masseur."

You know, and she says, "Ha ha, they overlap.

Okay, you got the job."

So that was--that was it.

Thank God.

And then to get Conan the Barbarian was because of pumping iron.

And so all of the stuff that started happening-- Patrick: And then when did you get--at what point was "Terminator"?

Arnold: "Terminator" was a huge breakthrough, because it was like I was doing the "Conan" movies.

And this is exactly what was my dream when I was a kid.

Unlike you, you wanted to get into acting because of acting.

I got--I wanted to get into it because I saw on a big screen "Hercules."

So it was Reg Park and Steve Reeves, they played Hercules.

And so I said, "I want to be one of those guys."

So I started training and then I said to myself, "Okay, when I become Mr.

Universe."

So "Terminator," "Terminator" was the first time that I was not doing a film that had nothing to do really with the muscles.

It was more with leather jackets on and clothes and part of him being a machine.

Only the opening scene was naked, but talking about naked.

Patrick: I've done it.

Arnold: I couldn't believe.

I said to myself that, okay, I'm watching your show and I'm watching you with your butt sticking out there and I said to myself, "What is going on here?

I mean, this is crazy."

And then I said to myself, "Well, Arnold, hello?

You did the same thing in 'Conan' and in 'Terminator' and all of those films.

You were naked, so don't complain about it," but it was kind of like a really--a shock to me that you would follow my footsteps that closely, but in any case, the bottom line was "Terminator" was kind of a breakthrough that now people started paying attention to me and getting me parts that had nothing to do with muscles.

So then I did "Commando" and I did "Predator" and I did all of this other, you know, "Running Man" and the list goes on and on.

Patrick: For me it was such a blessing to work with the writer, the director, the creator, the showrunner of "White Lotus," you know, because Mike does everything and same with James Cameron, who is one of the greatest directors of all time, has multiple blockbuster, multi-billion dollar movies.

You're in "True Lies" with him, "Terminator."

Arnold: Well, yeah, I mean, it's interesting you mention it because, look, I have always been a fanatic about working with great directors.

Think about how lucky I was: Jim Cameron and John McTiernan, Ivan Reitman and Paul Verhoeven, all great, great directors.

Patrick: I remember with you, with acting, you would always go and memorize your off book, the whole script, day one, right?

Arnold: I studied the script and for a month.

It's from bodybuilding and from weightlifting.

It's a reps, reps, reps.

The more reps you do, the better you get.

I mean, I would go to Jim Cameron and I would say, "I don't like the line 'I'll be back.'"

He says, "What do you mean you don't like the line?"

I said, "Well, 'I'll,' it's just weird for a German to say, 'I'll be back.'"

He said, "Why not--" "Why don't I just say, 'I will be back'?"

Patrick: And he said no.

Arnold: And he said--well, he didn't say no.

He says, "Well, as far as I know, I wrote the script."

And he says, "So are you correcting my writing?"

He says, "Oh, you're trying to tell me how to be a better writer because I'm not telling you when you do a scene to be a better actor or to change your acting."

He says, "Let's just say, 'I'll be back.'

If you want me to do ten takes, different ways, because you feel insecure about it, we can do that.

No problem at all," he said, "but don't change my writing."

And so I have kind of learned from that old school, learn and study the script from the first page to the last page, so that when you get to the set, you don't even have to carry around the pages.

So you showed that also just now with Michael White.

I mean, he is a fantastic director and a writer just like Jim Cameron, so they really know when they direct.

They have a very clear vision.

Patrick: Very clear, so opinionated.

I mean, Mike just kind of creates these characters.

Certain characters evolve over the course of the show.

And other ones don't, and that was a big learning, like, for me.

The end of episode eight, there's this scene where I go-- I'm coming down with the book and I see the girls and I sit on the lounge chair on the beach and I played a very--this guy was very sweet and he had this full 360 moment and he was telling them about how great the books were and everything, and Mike walks over right away and he's like, "What are you doing?

What are you doing?"

And I was like, "I don't know.

I thought I'd play it nice.

You know, I feel like this is a moment to--the character's developed and this is a different, a new him."

And he was like, "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, I don't want that.

All I wanna do is I'm gonna put a camera right here.

And I want you to turn, and I want you to watch Aimee run into Walton's arms and jump into her arms, and I'm just gonna have a camera and I'm just gonna watch you.

And what I want you to deliver is that for the audience to think, 'Hmm, maybe Saxon has changed.

I wonder what his life is gonna be like after this.'

That's what I want them to think."

And he just stuck the camera and it was this 30, 45 seconds scene of the camera just right in my face.

And we did it and then he just yells, "Cut," and he was like, "That's, I'm just-- that's perfect--" And I was like, "Okay, I guess, yeah."

But I--you don't think, you know, and then you see it in the final cut and it plays beautiful of like-- Arnold: It played fantastic, and I'm very, very proud of you.

It was a great discussion.

Patrick: Thank you.

I know we could have kept going.

Arnold: Great discussion, for hours.

Clayton: Long gone are those awkward teens from "Freaks and Geeks."

Seth Rogen and Jason Segel have grown up to become two of the biggest power players on TV.

Emmy nominee Seth Rogen plays a newly promoted film chief in "The Studio," a hilarious send-up of the entertainment industry.

Matt Remick: The fake blood is fully in my underpants now, so, ha, ha, bloody underpants.

Don't let HR hear about that one.

male: Tommy, how you doing, man?

Matt: I'm Matt, hey, great to see you.

male: Matt, this is Matt.

He's our studio guy.

The exec on the film, Matt Remick.

I'm such a big fan of yours, Paul.

I love your directing actually.

You should do that more, you know.

Paul: You saw my film?

Matt: I saw it, I love wildlife.

It's incredible.

The way you shot it is-- Paul: Oh sorry, one sec.

What if I went from regret to resignation to acceptance?

male: Acceptance, I love it.

Show me.

Clayton: Emmy nominee Jason Segel plays a grieving therapist navigating relationships with his coworkers and his patients on "Shrinking."

Jimmy Laird: As therapists, you and I are a lot alike.

Dr. Paul Rhoades: You take that back.

Jimmy: It's true.

We both care about our patients so much, and yes, you might argue I don't have enough boundaries.

Paul: You don't have any boundaries.

Jimmy: Well, maybe you have too damn many.

Christ, you're like a--you're like a mental health robot: "Engage empathy.

Ooh, oh, interesting.

Ooh, oh, interesting.

Ooh, oh, hm, time's up, disengage, people."

Jason: Good to see you.

Seth: It's good to see you, Jason.

Jason: I always knew we'd end up here.

Seth: I did too.

Jason: "Actors on Actors."

Seth: "Actors on Actors," from the first time we met.

Jason: Twenty-seven years ago?

Seth: Twenty-seven years ago.

I was 16 or 17 when we shot the pilot of "Freaks and Geeks"?

How old were you?

A few--19, 18 or 19?

Jason: Was 18 or 19, but it's crazy to think about that.

Seth: It was a really long time ago.

Jason: I, in preparation for this, was thinking about, yeah, no, the first time we bonded.

While we were shooting the pilot, "The Matrix" came out.

Seth: Oh yes, I wrote that down on my phone.

I wrote down, "The Matrix."

Jason: And we didn't know each other that well.

We didn't know anybody else that well.

We were all kind of just meeting each other, and I remember coming out of that movie, like, legitimately feeling like something had changed.

It was a very inspiring thing.

Seth: Oh yeah, it was one of the best movies ever made.

It was like our "Star Wars," like-- Jason: Totally, I think you and I started, like, writing harder after that.

Seth: Yes, and we would watch "The Matrix" over and over and over and over and over again.

Jason: Yeah, I do think about that period a lot as like something you can never get back.

We had the naivety of youth, I think, like we didn't really know how to do it.

Seth: I mean, I remember honestly having no clue what I was doing at all.

And I remember meeting you and you, like, had thoughts about the craft of acting, which to me at the time was like, I had no idea what I was doing.

And I remember you were the first person--you were like, the first like, serious actor I ever talked to.

I--ever talked to you, be like, "Holy [no audio] like, he really--" like, my--all I had was like memorize the lines and try to say them in a way that it sounds remotely realistic and natural, like, that was literally it.

And then I realized everyone else on the show was, like, creating a whole character and stuff which was like so not on my level of ability at the time we did the show.

Jason: But don't you think they're all like with some distance from it all, like, acting?

It's all just tricks so that when they say "action" you feel comfortable?

Seth: I think so.

I don't know, but I don't even think it matters.

I don't even know if that because I've actually found that even if I feel comfortable, it doesn't necessarily have any bearing on-- Jason: If you're gonna do well?

Seth: On if it's good.

I mean, it's almost like the longer I act, the less I understand it in some ways, honestly, and the more confusing a thing it is.

And I'll also act with, like, children who are amazing, who literally don't know what the scene is about and they're incredible.

I also sometimes look back at when I did know nothing about it and think, I don't think I'm better, but I think in some ways I look at the choices I made and they're more surprising at times than maybe things I would do now at times, you know?

Jason: Yeah, because I know that I have to sometimes--people always ask like, "What would older you say to younger you?"

I think the opposite is more important for me at this stage, right?

Like, don't forget the guys who felt like, why can't I make this movie?

Why can't I end it with a Dracula puppet musical?

Like, why can't we do this whole movie about trying to get booze, you know what I mean?

Like, there was a naivety that we had at that point of like, why not?

Who's gonna stop us?

Seth: No, I for sure have let, like, pragmatism invade my thinking in many ways, and you get too realistic about things and you're like, what's gonna work?

It's like, you don't--no one really knows and it's a job without real, like, parameters, I think in a lot of ways, which is also what's fun about it.

Jason: And I think that that's like, I think that's the beauty of this thing--is like starting to realize, okay, now let's, like, try to up the degree of difficulty.

Seth: Oh, for sure, and acknowledging that your taste has changed and your sensibilities have changed and the things that excite you and express what it is you're trying to do are very different than what they used to be.

Jason: Can I ask you about "The Studio"?

This energy that kind of goes through it, it felt to me like a mix, I hope that this comes across right, as "Birdman" meets "Curb."

Seth: Yeah, that's exactly what we were going for.

Jason: It's like all of the awkwardness and reality of "Curb" but, like, set to a rhythm, yeah.

Seth: Yeah, we wanted to be-- I wanted it to be fast.

Like, that was a word I would use a lot.

It's like I wanted it to be propulsive and I love, like, high stakes, intense, like, scenes where everyone wants to, like, grab each other and shake each other and it's like--and so that was like really what, as we were writing the show, that was--those were like the first conversations we were having, was just like, how do we infuse every scene so it's like I'm never on set feeling like I'm doing shoe leather and I'm only doing scenes that are like really funny scenes, because I also just want it to be funny.

Like, I really want it to be funny and so that was, yeah, that was like exactly what we talked about.

Jason: It's like you only did the scenes that people like.

Seth: Yeah, that was all--that was all I wanted to do.

Jason: There's so much stuff where you're like, we could probably cut that, like.

Seth: Yeah, we cut not--we didn't cut--nothing we shot was not in the show.

Literally, I think one, like, 30-second thing in the whole series that was filmed was not in the show, but it was, yeah, but it was out of like a very personal desire to, like, what if we did this in a way that, like, for us every day, it was like hyper engaging and like hyper challenging and different than anything we'd ever done in my life.

I knew I was like, oh, I have an opportunity to do like riffing improv multi-camera comedy, basically, and I love it, but what would also be fun is if I was doing something that felt incredibly different from that.

Jason: Well, because I think that with the riffing stuff which I love also-- Seth: Do you guys improvise a lot on the show?

Jason: We improvise when it makes sense.

Our show is also this like kind of mix of comedy and drama.

Like, it is both.

The thing that I've actually found most interesting, you know, you know I love talking about acting.

Seth: Please.

But not as much as some.

Jason: The--all those improv skills that we learned for comedy and, like, got pretty damn good at, you know, turn out to really apply to dramatic scenes also.

Seth: For sure, even more so I think.

Jason: I think so and-- Seth: Well, it's easier because it's just you're serving--you just aren't trying to make jokes.

Jason: Yeah, and you're not trying to prove that you're clever.

It's more about being present and noticing that, like, if Harrison Ford is looking at you funny that it--suddenly you say, like, "Why are you looking at me like that?"

and you're in this weird little pocket and so I think the show I would best describe with "Shrinking," the writers are incredible.

They give us like a really good treasure map that's pretty detailed, but then you know, then you're dropped into the treasure map and it's three-dimensional and you're like, "Oh, but there's a interesting little thing over here that I--" Seth: And how does it work as you're shooting it?

Like, you're one of the creators of the show.

So do you kind of have--how do all those dynamics work?

Can you, like, are you involved in--are you involved in the breaking of the arcs for the season and all that stuff?

Jason: I get--the way it works because we're--we don't have all the scripts done when we're shooting, so we talk it all through at the beginning and then as we're shooting, I get a draft of the scripts after they have, like, a writer's draft, and I give my notes on it, but I'd say mostly it's like I'll adjust my stuff, mostly it's on set if I--because we have so much experience I think in real time from those movies that were a little more loosely planned of, like, oh this isn't working, so what do we do?

Seth: Yes, real-time decision making.

Jason: Yeah, real time, like, uh-oh.

But honestly, the thing we discovered--I think this is really true of your show too-- but the thing we discovered in season one of "Shrinking" was that every one of those actors could be the lead in their own show.

And so then what happened in season two was it was less about one guy pulling himself out of a hole and then it became season two about, like, kind of like it was--it was ensembly and it's everybody dealing with issues that will end up relating to each other of, like, forgiveness, yeah.

Seth: Which is great.

Jason: Yeah, that's how we do it.

How about your cameos?

Were those just phone calls?

Is that, like, the people you've amassed throughout this career?

Seth: No, not at all.

A lot of them I'd never met ever.

I'd never met, I'd say like, half of them were people I did not know at all.

Half were people that were people that we didn't know.

Jason: I was watching, so jealous of your friend group.

Seth: No, those were not--I wish.

If those were my friends, that would be amazing.

I did not do it.

I know some of those people, but not all those people.

But no, Martin Scorsese, we just sent it to his manager.

Like, Ron Howard I'd met in passing a few times.

Never met--I'd met Zoe Kravitz once or twice.

Jason: Were you intimidated to direct?

Seth: Yes, but I like it.

To me, it's more fun to be directing the scene and in the scene and having written the scene than it is to just be acting the scene.

And the fact that it's way harder, I like it, like it's-- Jason: It's a tightrope.

It also felt like your entire cast was kind of ride or die in these things like everyone's same level of intensity, same level of emotion, same page.

Seth: Everyone's committed and they loved it and that was also one of the things that, like, I wanted, is like, I wanted to feel like I was a part of like a team, and like, I wanted to feel like every day when we went to work, it was like, all of us, the whole crew and the whole cast have to come together in one glorious, like, moment and and pull this thing off.

And that was something I'd experienced, like, here and there on movies.

Jason: You're describing, like, what my ethos of acting is, of film acting, why I think it's, like, special is that the repeatability is an important skill and all that when you start doing all the other angles.

But to me, like, the magic part is when you catch something, you know what I mean?

It's just--when it's just the one that's a little different, or someone, there was a look in their eye where you're like, we caught it.

Seth: Yeah, and you get something cool.

Clayton: We hope you've enjoyed this episode of Variety Studio, "Actors on Actors."

Angelique: Please join us again next time.

Arnold: I was called yesterday by my chief of staff and said, "Patrick called and said it's absolutely essential that you wear tomorrow a t-shirt with your name and your picture on it."

So Patrick just wants to make fun of me.

Patrick: I think you're the only person I know that can wear, head to toe, photos of themselves.

If I did that, people would think I'm insane.

Seth: I think we saw "The Matrix" and then went to Six Flags Magic Mountain together maybe and it's a wonderful day.

Jason: What are we doing?

Now, we just go home after work.

Seth: We should have done all that again.

It was a fun day.