JUDD APATOW
‘SOMETIMES IT FEELS RIDICULOUS TO SPEND YOUR LIFE TRYING TO MAKE PEOPLE MAKE A STRANGE SOUND WHEN THEY’RE HAPPY.’
Early on, I thought, ‘I want to be thought of as Clint Eastwood, where I’m the person who is ridiculously reliable,’” admits Judd Apatow of his mogul model as writer/ director/producer of some of the last couple of decades’ bellwether rib-ticklers. Whether it’s shepherding messy teens in the much imitated Freaks And Geeks, overseeing Adam McKay’s comedic output with Anchorman and Step Brothers, his own highly personal dramedies The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Funny People and This Is 40, or launching Lena Dunham’s Girls into the world, Apatow has been a reliable name for slapping a smile on audience faces via ribald gags that metastasize into authentic feels.
A pragmatic, prolific producer (“I don’t make a movie, and then late in the process go, ‘I need another $22m;’ I’ve never done that”), a soul-searching scribe and a helmer that Amy Schumer, his Trainwreck star, describes as “the most fiercely loyal husband and father I’ve ever met and an amazing collaborator”, the 54-year-old New Yorker has turned his attention on the showbiz community with his new Netflix satire, The Bubble. Following the attempts of an all-star film production to get their movie wrapped during the pandemic (and all the quarantine, masking and Covidtesting comedy that entails), it’s one of Apatow’s lightest, daftest works. And one that’s a family affair with his wife and frequent collaborator Leslie Mann playing a vapid movie star and their daughter, Iris, essaying a TikTok influencer (just as big sis, Maude, is killing it in Euphoria). Throw in David Duchovny as a world-weary action hero, Karen Gillan’s reluctant co-star and Peter Serafinowicz’s nefarious producer (plus wall-to-wall cameos) and Apatow’s power to call in big names clearly remains undimmed despite a recent viral tweet suggesting otherwise (more of which later).
A connoisseur of comedy as well as an originator of it, the now LA-based Apatow has followed a passion formed in high school for interviewing comedy writer/performers about their craft – when he convinced the likes of Howard Stern, Jerry Seinfeld and Harold Ramis to appear on his teen radio show – by releasing a 2015 book of chats with various legends, . All the profits go to literacy organisation 826LA and a second instalment of conversations, , is out now featuring deep dives with
