Judd Apatow is a hero of mine. When I was a kid, I felt like no one was making movies or TV shows that hit my sense of humor, and then out of nowhere, it felt like there were tons.
I spent hours videotaping Freaks and Geeks, and I remember turning 17 and then rushing to see The 40-Year-Old Virgin, which was so taboo for a Catholic School kid like me.
Recently, Apatow sat down with The Hollywood Reporter to talk about his career and whether or not movies like that can be made today.
Let's look at some of his best quotes.
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
It's hard to believe it's been 20 years since the movie came out. I viscerally remember purchasing my tickets and feeling like I was getting away with something as I laughed until I cried in theaters.
But we almost had this movie ripped away early on.
Apatow told the story: "They told us in the middle of the third day of shooting to shut down. They had a bunch of notes, one of which was, Paul Rudd was too heavy. But I had asked Paul to be heavy — I just thought that was funny. And they thought that Steve looked like a serial killer, which he did. He had these glasses, and he was wearing a Jeffrey Dahmer-type Members Only jacket. There was some concerns that I was shooting it to look too much like an indie — maybe the lighting was not comedy-bright."
He continued, "So we all chatted and went over the notes, and it was one of those experiences that’s really difficult because we felt really good about what we were shooting. We thought, “Maybe it’s not playing because it’s not edited together,” because we were doing so much improv. All the scenes that we had shot that led us to get shut down are in the movie and killed."
There are many iconic scenes in the movie, but the waxing scene is the one I think gets talked about the most.
Of course, as the legend goes, it really happened, and that was real pain and real reactions.
But Apatow expands on this idea, saying, "We were trying to think of some makeover sequence, but that had been done to death. So we were trying to think of an original way to approach it. Steve said, “Maybe you could just wax me for real, and it’ll hurt so much, it’ll be funny. People will just be able to tell that it’s actually happening.” So we set up five cameras like it was a documentary and just did it. It turned out to be as funny as we hoped it would be because it’s the kind of joke you can only do one time. We wanted the waxer to be someone who was an actress and also a professional waxer. Miki Mia claimed to have been a waxer, but I think maybe she had only done it once because she clearly didn’t know how to do it, and we almost ripped his nipples off during the shoot."
'The 40-Year-Old Virgin' Credit: Universal
Big studio comedies can feel like the rare white buffalo these days. But when this movie came out, it was huge.
So, could they still make it today?
Apatow thinks "yes."
He said, "I think it’s possible. It might be a slightly bumpier road, but I think the studios would love comedies to do very well. The hard part is when you make comedies, you are taking chances. You can’t just make them based on old IP. You can’t rely on just casting someone who’s been in a lot of hit movies. The best comedies come from out of nowhere, and they are often based on unique and wild concepts. Most of them don’t even sound like they would work on paper. People resisted making Anchorman for years. They resisted making Superbad for years. It requires someone to take a risk to have that giant breakthrough comedy."
I love the optimism here. It feels like the tide has turned, and we may see more comedies in theaters, mostly because they drive audiences who want to laugh along with other people.
This interview brought me back to the heyday of these huge comedies, and I hope we're seeing it come back. I love the communal experience, and I think we could all use a laugh.
Let me know what you think in the comments.
