I’m in San Francisco,” Ike Barinholtz says via Zoom from his hotel room, then spins his laptop around to prove it. “See? There’s Alcatraz.” It’s now official, though paparazzi photos have all but confirmed it: Barinholtz is in town filming Artificial, Luca Guadagnino’s fact-based account of the behind-the-scenes turmoil that saw OpenAI CEO Sam Altman fired and quickly rehired in 2023. Andrew Garfield plays Altman in the film. And Barinholtz? He’s Elon Musk. No big deal — just the richest, most recognizable, most controversial dude on the planet.

That casting coup caps a watershed year for the 48-year-old Chicago native, still buzzing from having pulled off one of the funniest and most talked about roles of his career: Sal Saperstein on Apple TV+’s uproarious Hollywood send-up The Studio. The foulmouthed movie exec earned Barinholtz his first Emmy nomination, one of 23 for the hit series. Off camera, Barinholtz finds time to be an actual studio exec (hopefully less foulmouthed) on Running Point, the Netflix pro basketball comedy he co-created with Mindy Kaling, in production on its second season. Says Kaling: “Ike is so funny and has so much training. He can do accents, physical comedy, total commitment always. He’ll throw vanity out the window if it makes the scene funnier. Sometimes we have to beg him to give a character more dignity, and he’ll just squint and go, ‘Should they?’ That’s his whole ethos: Whatever’s funniest wins.” After two decades of scene-stealing and dues-paying, 2025 already feels like it belongs to Barinholtz, THR‘s Comedy Player of the Year.

So you’re in San Francisco. Can I pry and ask what the work is?

Pry! Pry! I am indeed going to play Elon Musk. I don’t know if you’ve heard of him. He’s been in the news as of late.

You’re great at accents. I’ve known that since Eastbound & Down. How did you master Elon?

I definitely have been watching him over the years. It’s your standard Pretoria/Canada/Valley girl situation, but with stuttering. It’s a trip to play someone who is alive and very powerful, and I hope I don’t get put into some kind of mecha gulag or something.

It has to be concerning considering how passionate his fan base is. What are you doing to gird your loins for what may come?

My loins remain ungirded. What happens will happen. When you get an opportunity to work with someone like Luca and tell a story like this, you just do it and deal with things as they come.

Is it going to be a comedy?

It’s not as openly comedic as, say, Blockers, but it’s definitely funny and disturbing. Luca is someone tapped into finding humor and irony even in the darkest subject.

L.A. has gone crazy for the Tesla Diner. There are three-hour lines.

I’ll pass on that one. I’m more excited for Phil Rosenthal’s diner, put it that way.

It has been an amazing year for you. Does Sal connect with audiences in a new way?

He definitely feels like he lives in the same universe as a lot of the other characters I play, in that he’s got a lot of id and says some bad things. But the show as a whole really connected with people. Obviously, people in our business connect with it. When you’re on any set now, it doesn’t matter who is in the crew, they’ll say, “I love The Studio.” People in the food world have The Bear, and we have The Studio. It’s one for us.

Is Sal someone that you specifically have dealt with?

He’s an amalgam of execs I’ve worked with. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing a lot of great execs. I’ve had the displeasure of knowing a couple of shitty ones. The one thing that exists in all of them is this vibe of, “Hey, you want to grab a little food, little drink?” That kind of cutting loose a little bit, talking some shit after work. That is the essence of Sal Saperstein.

Do you like being asked out for drinks after work?

I do! It’s funny, in L.A., you don’t do that. You go home and you see the family [Barinholtz has three daughters, ages 5 to 10], and you get up. But for the last two episodes of The Studio, we shot on location in Vegas for two weeks. It’s crazy because you wrap and it’s 9:30 p.m., and you’re literally in a casino and everyone’s just looking at each other, and Catherine O’Hara is like, “Does … anyone want to get a martini?” And you’re like, “Yes!“

You could have made Sal a demon, but for all his foibles, he’s pretty likable. He’s generous with his pharmaceutical-grade cocaine, for example.

It wouldn’t have been as fun if he were over-the-top vulgar and irredeemable. It would have been a little boring. That stems from [creators] Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. They want even the craziest characters to have something human and relatable and, at the end of the day, nice. I do maintain that we’re not without our assholes, but the vast majority of people in our business are nice and got into this business because they want to entertain people. That’s the fun energy in The Studio. It’s not just focusing on the ugly, cutthroat version of Hollywood.

You have a unique perch as a busy actor, writer and producer and have been in Hollywood for a while. What is your diagnosis of the industry right now?

I want to believe that AI will give us the things it’s promised. It will cure cancer and create drought-resistant crops, you know what I mean? But right now, I see it primarily encroaching on the arts, which I find very troubling.

One thing Seth always says is that there have been so many downturns historically in Hollywood. But it just takes one thing to turn it around — like Barbenheimer. There is an appetite for going to the movies more than a couple years ago, especially coming out of COVID. I’m going to see The Naked Gun today at a theater and have not been this excited in a long time.

But you weigh that against the rise of AI and the collapse of global capital, and the outlook is not great. Not just for our industry but most industries. I do think no matter what, people will still want to hear stories.

You came out of improv, and your first break was on the one sketch comedy show that posed a challenge to SNL, MADtv. Did you ever audition for SNL?

I desperately wanted to. I was in Chicago for a few years and then went up to Amsterdam for a couple of years at this theater called Boom Chicago with a bunch of future stars — Seth Meyers, Jordan Peele, Jason Sudeikis. Then I moved to L.A., and I wanted to audition for SNL but didn’t have an agent. About a year and a half after busing tables, I got MADtv.

Was it your decision to leave MADtv?

I had your standard kind of late night five-year contract, and I was getting a little restless toward the end. I was like, “I’ll come back, but I want more money.” And I remember my manager called me and goes, “So the offer is currently nothing.” I entered a three-year period where I barely worked at all. I had already asked my now-wife [Erica Hanson, an accountant] to move to L.A. Six months later, I’m at home all day making sandwiches.

Switching gears, your dad became famous for playing the judge on Jury Duty. He’s a lawyer. How did he get that audition?

It was such a fluke. He wanted to be a comedy guy in the ’70s and used to hang out at Second City and watch John Belushi. He did a little stand-up and was a theater major. At a certain point, he was like, “I’m just going to be a lawyer. I want to have a family and be able to buy them food.” And so he kind of let his dream go but was very supportive of me.

He was starting to think about retiring. Randomly, a friend of a friend was like, “Hey, we’re casting a show, and it’s like a fake jury thing and I want to put your dad on tape.” I remember thinking, like, “Man, the old man’s kind of good.” We sent it in thinking nothing would happen. A day later, Dave Bernad, who’s the producer of Jury Duty and The White Lotus, texted me — he is a friend — and was like, “I’m going to cast your dad on this show.” Then it comes out, it becomes a big hit. He started getting recognized so much, and it was just crazy. He couldn’t be happier. Getting a taste of nepotism is kind of sweet.

He’s a nepo … papi. Is he getting any other work?

That sounds like a Netflix special from a bad comedian: Nepo Papi. Well, you can see him on such shows as The Studio and Running Point. He was also in The Accountant 2.

Did your parents — your mom is a costume designer — move to L.A.?

They did. They live in Van Nuys, and it is the best thing to happen to our family. We will come over for dinner, and my dad will be like, “When you have a few minutes, if you could put me on tape for Mike Schur’s new show, I’d be really grateful.” We’re a showbiz family now.

I’m wondering what your thoughts are on the demise of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.

I think it’s horrible. It speaks to a much bigger problem. Late night comedy has always been a pressure valve for people at the end of the day. I remember very well watching Johnny Carson with my parents. I was obsessed with David Letterman, and I loved Conan. It’s very important for people in comedy to watch guys like that. The fact that it’s very possible that this is influenced by politics and Trump is no bueno. It’s like a real piece of Americana that is getting erased.

What are your impulses with politics and Trump when they surface, say, in the writers room?

I’m sure there are writers rooms where they’re like, “Don’t discuss politics.” But it’s unnatural to not discuss it. It is very fast moving in a very bad direction, and I’m very worried for where we will be in a year. And God, this is not funny.

No, but it’s interesting. The question is, do you make something timeless that’ll be funny in 20 years — or address what’s going on in the world right now?

There’s South Park, making shit about what is happening right now, and it is hilarious and very at the vanguard, which is crazy. Then there are shows that are completely untethered to what’s happening. I respect that as well. There will come a day when the notion of trying to separate things will not work, but I don’t think that day is yet.

How do you divide all your time between so many projects?

We start shooting Running Point in a couple of weeks. If I’m doing The Studio four days a week, I’ll go to Running Point two days a week.

Both of them shoot in Los Angeles?

I’m adamant about shooting in Los Angeles. This needs to remain a showbiz town. Remove whatever we need to remove to make it easy for jobs to stay in L.A. I’m Ike Barinholtz. I’m running for governor.

You won $1 million for charity on Celebrity Jeopardy! in February of 2023. What was your charity?

Holly Grove, which is part of Pacific Clinics. Holly Grove was the first orphanage in Hollywood. Marilyn Monroe stayed there for a minute when she first arrived and she was still Norma Jean. They work with low-income folks dealing with mental health issues and are very hands-on.

Do you remember what the Final Jeopardy question was?

The category was Renaissance Painters: “Despite his name, this painter was born in Delvecchio.” I thought about “despite his name,” and I know Leonardo DaVinci means “Leonardo of Vinci.” So I was like, “I’m just going to guess that.” And it was right.

Then you became a semifinalist in real Jeopardy! — the Tournament of Champions, no less.

It was kind of a bucket-list thing. I went in, like, “I’m for sure going to get destroyed, and I’m just going to have fun and be funny.” I was geeking out. I went up against Melissa Klapper and Ray Lalonde and was holding my own most of the game. Then that Final Jeopardy came. I think I was in second place. The category was Roman Poetry. I was just like, “I’m going to say Ovid.” And it was Ovid. So I went to the semifinals and went up against Ben Chan and [Jared Watson]. The Final Jeopardy was Ancient Literature: “This enemy of the Greeks said something or other …” I was like, “It’s either the Spartans or the Persians.” I guessed the Spartans. It was the Persians, goddamn it. I only think about that three to four times a day. That’s down from 10. But I will be back. I shall return.

This story appeared in the Aug. 13 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.