Judd Apatow has become the guy every aspiring comedian/writer/director/producer in America wants to be. He developed his comedy chops by working his way up through the “Larry Sanders Show,” cult favorite “Freaks and Geeks,” and onto such huge hits as “40-Year-Old Virgin” and “Knocked Up.” Along the way he’s been a mentor and nurturer of up-and-coming talent. I mean, seriously, he’s about as nice a guy as you’ll find in Hollywood.
And, as his latest offering, “This Is 40,” starring Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann (his wife) hits Blu-Ray, Judd called my telephone and answered these questions:
MANDATORY: It’s a pleasure to talk to you.
JUDD APATOW: Pleasure to be talked to.
MANDATORY: How do you prepare for a movie differently now than you did when you were first starting out?
JUDD APATOW: Well, it’s different because when I first started, I had to really know what I was doing. If you don’t, the studio won’t let you move forward, so I’ve been lucky enough to have this great relationship with Universal where they understand that my process works better when it’s more open-ended so I can make changes on the fly. If I discover something in a rehearsal or a table read or on set, I can change everything. Now they trust me to make those adjustments. I’m not forced to shoot the script.
MANDATORY: How different do you think “This Is 40” would have been if George Clooney had written it?
JUDD APATOW: If he had written it?
MANDATORY: From the outside, Clooney has the sort of male dream life of no children and dating young models. But, at the end of the day, would he be dealing with very different problems at 40?
JUDD APATOW: If George Clooney had written it, it would have been a very different exploration of that time and probably better. Way better. The funny part would be that everybody sort of struggles with the same things and in different ways. So, you know, it’s funny — some people will say, “Oh, that’s not how my life is,” and I’m, like, “Yeah, I didn’t say it was!”
MANDATORY: Music seems to be a big theme in your movies. I was wondering how having kids has changed the way you view music.
JUDD APATOW: I listen to an enormous amount of Top 40 music now, because that’s what my kids are into. I’m trying to get them to like my music and the more I push it, the more they hate it. It’s all about the surreptitious ways to get them to listen to Nirvana. It’s fun when they decide to listen to something that you like on their own, but the only change is that I’ve lost control of the radio.
MANDATORY: Do you have any methods of surreptitiously getting your kids to discover good music on their own? Do you leave CDs hidden around the house?
JUDD APATOW: Sometimes when they get in the car, I already have something that I like on and I just pray they don’t tell me to shut it off … that they’ll just forget that they don’t like it.
MANDATORY: If you were going to start your own real-life indie record label, who would be the first band that you would try to sign?
JUDD APATOW: That’s a very good question. Bands I like are Evan Dando, The Lemonheads, Paul Westerberg, XTC … I can list 100 of them. You know, this is who I’ve been listening to in heavy rotation for three decades. And I sample a lot of people. I’m very interested in how people accept their faults as they go through different phases of their lives. I feel like I’m their friend on this journey.
MANDATORY: Shifting gears a little bit. Nurturing and mentoring young talent seems to be a really important aspect of what you’ve done with your career. Are there any young comics or even Twitter feeds that you think we should know about?
JUDD APATOW: It’s a strange time because there are so many really funny people. Paula Pell, from SNL, she worked on “This Is Forty” and has a hilarious Twitter feed. I also follow Patton Oswalt, Steve Martin, Albert Brooks, Garry Shandling … my heroes.
MANDATORY: How has social media changed the landscape of comedy since you’ve started?
JUDD APATOW: It’s probably helped a lot of comedians to get people to come to their shows. If you’re following someone funny on Twitter, they might link you to some of their standup and then it’s suddenly very easy to figure out when they are going to be performing in your area. It’s probably been revolutionary to comedians for finding a fan base. If you can link something funny and put it up on Funny or Die, or link to it on Twitter — if it is funny, it could go viral. When I was young, if I made a little funny short, there was no Internet. There was no way to show it to anybody. You would literally put it on a VHS tape and hope that someone would look at it, one-by-one. So everything is so completely different. It’s a great time to be funny.
MANDATORY: It’s seems like it sort of democratized comedy a little bit, but it’s still kind of all about the live show.
JUDD APATOW: Yeah. Not enough people take advantage of the idea that you can make a funny short film and make a name for yourself, because it’s hard work. And I think that’s good. The older way, people don’t have the energy to do it.
MANDATORY: You can pick pretty much any actor you want to make out with your wife when you make your movies. Is there any reason that you picked Paul Rudd?
JUDD APATOW: I think that Paul is always able to capture some aspect of how I see the world, and it combines with his energy and his sense of humor. So, it becomes its own mutt. It’s not how I am, specifically in a relationship. It becomes another thing that’s neither Paul nor me; it becomes our genetic mutation. And I never mind the kissing. I neither enjoy it. If I thought that either of them enjoyed it, I would probably have to do it with CGI.
MANDATORY: That would be cool. A CGI Paul Rudd.
JUDD APATOW: He should’ve been in “Avatar.”
Pick up a copy of “This Is 40” on Blu-Ray on March 22nd. And all the days after March 22nd.
