Seth Rogen on ‘Tangles,’ Madonna in ‘The Studio’ Season 2

“Tangles,” a new black-and-white animated film about a 20-something illustrator named Sarah who is dealing with her mother’s Alzheimer’s disease, was all too real for its producers, Seth Rogen and Lauren Miller Rogen. The couple started dating more than two decades ago, as Miller Rogen’s mother, Adele, was showing the first signs of the illness she would suffer from for the final 16 years of her life.

“There were so many similarities between my family and Sarah’s family,” Miller Rogen says as she sits in a suite at the Majestic Hotel the day before the film debuts at Cannes. “Our moms were both teachers who were diagnosed in their early 50s. I related to the denial, fear and sense of aloneness that can come with a dementia diagnosis.”

Adds Rogen, “All this stuff we experienced firsthand was reflected in this story. I remember being in kitchens or around dining room tables, screaming at people that something was not right here.”

“Tangles” is adapted from Sarah Leavitt’s graphic novel of the same name, and the Rogens hope it will resonate with audiences who may be going through something similar in their own families. Making the film took more than a decade. That was partly because Rogen is one of Hollywood’s most in-demand comedy stars and producers, and also had to do with the fact that even though he put his considerable clout on the line and enlisted A-list friends like Bryan Cranston and Julia Louis-Dreyfus to round out the cast, the subject matter is bleak.

“How many black-and-white animated movies are there about Alzheimer’s?” Miller Rogen quips.

It was a meticulous process to bring Leavitt’s deeply moving, occasionally hilarious story to life because “Tangles” co-writer and director Leah Nelson wanted to use hand-drawn animation.

“We wanted that quality to it,” she says. “I needed to see the hand of the artists in this piece.”

And Nelson was eager to retain the distinctive spirit of the novel, while also streamlining the story so it could clock in at less than two hours.

“Seth and Lauren were really great about helping us focus on the fact that just because something happened in real life, it doesn’t need to be exactly that way on screen,” Nelson says. “You have to start from reality, and then find what you need to best serve the story.”

In addition to producing the film, Rogen plays a supporting role as the well-meaning, doofish boyfriend of Sarah’s sister. He’s an aspiring musician, so Rogen lent his vocal talents to covers of boisterous, off-key renditions of songs like Melissa Etheridge’s “Come to My Window.”

“They assured me, ‘he doesn’t have to be a great singer,’” Rogen says. “That makes him kind of tragic in his own way. But he doesn’t care. He has a lot of spirit.”

Rogen recently recreated another storied European film festival for “The Studio,” his award-winning satire of Hollywood. A section of the upcoming second season unfolds at the Venice Film Festival.

“We have a keen eye to make the show as cinematic and romantic as we can in this old Hollywood way,” Rogen says. “Venice is one of the most beautiful cities in the world, and it’s a place I’ve longed to film. We scouted the festival last year, and we thought, ‘This would be a fun scene to dive into.’”

But each episode of “The Studio” unfolds in one uninterrupted take. That meant that Rogen and company couldn’t hit the Lido when the festival was in swing.

“We recreated the entire festival ourselves,” Rogen says. “The way we shoot requires these long, continuous runners. So we need to literally control every element of everything that’s in the frame. Everyone in our shot, from background actors to supporting actors, have to be placed in very specific ways to we can reset and do it again.”

Madonna is one of the A-list guests who will be making a cameo in the upcoming season of “The Studio,” and Rogen wouldn’t reveal anything about what she will be doing in the series.

“It is crazy,” he says. “I’ll just leave it at that.”

Nor does he have any advice on recreating a film festival for Mike White, who will be setting the next season of “White Lotus” at Cannes. “I would never presume to tell Mike White how to steer his ship,” Rogen says.

The Rogens have used their microphone to advocate for more research into Alzheimer’s and to strengthen the support networks for families caring for people with the disease through their non-profit Hilarity for Charity. For Miller Rogen, the Cannes premiere of “Tangles” is bittersweet.

“I wish my mom was here to see it,” she says. “But I am happy that I’ve been able to make so much good come from so much bad. And wherever she is, she’s making this happen because she wanted me to live my life and to do the things that I wanted to do. But I would trade it all for more time with her.”