A german transcript of this interview can be found here.  

Peter Clausen: What's your opinion on the movie's German title?

Judd Apatow: I don't know, what does it mean?

Peter Clausen: The First Time.

Judd Apatow: The First Time? Well, that's right. But what does that subtitle (pointing towards the poster) mean?

Peter Clausen: A One Night Stand with Consequences.

Judd Apatow: I think they've nailed it.

Peter Clausen: Literally.

Judd Apatow: Exactly, yes.

Peter Clausen: Before Knocked Up, you made two excellent TV-shows, Freaks & Geeks and Undeclared which were cancelled during their respective first year. Does your current success in movies feel vindicating?

Judd Apatow: Well, I have always believed in all those actors and the stories we were trying to tell. It was very frustrating to get cancelled so quickly. But we looked at Freaks & Geeks like it was a mini-series. We felt, we were going to get cancelled sooner or later, and so we wrote a finale. We even shot the finale in the middle of the first season so we knew they wouldn't cancel us before we would get to it. But I always thought Seth was a star, and somebody people would like to watch in this kind of movie. And it's fun to see all these actors do well. Seth just shot a movie that I produced, called Pineapple Express with James Franco. We also just produced a movie with Jason Segel from Freaks & Geeks, so it's fun to see the actors from the shows do so well in movies now.

Peter Clausen: So, is your current success the legacy of Freaks & Geeks?

Judd Apatow: It is. And another movie that we've just made called Superbad is pretty much like an uncensored episode of Freaks & Geeks. It's what Freaks & Geeks would be, if we were allowed to do all the things we weren't allowed to do or say on TV.

Peter Clausen: Did the cancellation of Freaks & Geeks change your approach towards filmmaking in any way?

Judd Apatow: It did. I was very proud of it, and it made me very confident. Because, even though it got cancelled I couldn't believe it came out so well. So just on that basis I thought "If I don't make anything again for the rest of my carreer, I can't believe I was part of this". I don't even know how it happened, this magical collaboration of all these writers and actors. Everything else in a way is icing on the cake after Freaks & Geeks. So, to have a couple of things that seem to take place in the same universe is something I am very proud of. When I started to make Knocked Up, I really did think "I want to this in the same tone as Freaks & Geeks".

Peter Clausen: And would you ever return to TV, now that you are so successful in movies?

Judd Apatow: I would, mainly because I like to work with certain actors over and over again, and I love exploring characters. So at some point I would do it, if it was something that worked with my life and my family.

In Theaters worldwide: Knocked Up

Peter Clausen: Not many directors leave their ensembles as much room to improvise as you do. Why can you put so much faith into your actors?

Judd Apatow: Well, I always try to have a good script and then allow for something different to happen and have someone do something really truthful that you don't expect. So for instance with Seth it's finding out that he got someone pregnant. We could take the scene that I wrote at two o'clock in the morning in my underwear and that would be fine, but the thing that Seth does from his gut, that surprises me, will probably be better or more truthful. So we just get a lot of choices, and then we pick the best ones. But if you hire people who are funny, and smart and quick on their feet, and who are willing to reveal their dark places, then all sorts of amazing things will happen. And we are following a very tight emotional progression, that doesn't change.

Peter Clausen: How much material in Knocked Up is actually improvised?

Judd Apatow: Well, it's hard to say because I started working with the actors while I was writing the script. I would call Paul Rudd and say "What does your wife hate about you, what do you fight about?". And those details would go into the script very early. And then we have table reads and rehearsals before we shoot, and Seth reads with everyone who auditions, so by the time we actually shoot he has read with hundreds of people, and improvised, so it becomes this big soup of old and new ideas everyone has head.

Peter Clausen: Knocked Up is very far removed from romantic comedy cliches. Was it important to you, to go in a different direction?

Judd Apatow: You know, I wasn't really thinking in terms of romantic comedy at all. I was just trying to tell a story about two people who try to get to know each other under weird, difficult circumstances. It's a good question what the hell happened to romantic comedies, but in my case I wasn't even trying to make one.

Peter Clausen: Another thing I really like about your work is, that your characters feel very authentic. They don't have long emotional monologues, and don't necessarily feel obliged to reveal their feelings and thoughts to their surroundings. Is it important to you, to have this kind of characters?

Judd Apatow: Well, I worked with Gary Shandling for a long time at the Larry Sanders show, and he told me that people almost never say what they really mean. And if they do, it's a big, big deal. People have multiple agendas all the time. And I try to keep that in mind when I am writing.

Peter Clausen: And in most current movies the characters actually talk like no person would in real life. And we, as viewers, have started to expect and accept these unreal conversations because that's just how it is in the movies. So, when a film like Knocked Up comes around where people actually talk in an authentic way, it's really refreshing.

Judd Apatow: Yeah, and if it's the right actors they can find a way to speak like real people and still be amusing. You don't have to fall into a familiar sitcom-rhythm. And some people are very good at it. Usually people who are funny in real life - like Gary Shandling. He kind of talks like Larry Sanders in real life, so it doesn't feel like it's false or a sitcom. But he is funny all day long. So I try to find people who are comfortable being themselves, and being funny as themselves.

Academia at its finest: Undeclared

Peter Clausen: And how important is nuturalism in that regard, compared to more outrageous stuff like Anchorman? What do you prefer?

Judd Apatow: I don't really prefer either. But for now I try to have the courage to be a bit more confessional in my own writing and directing. But I just wrote a movie called Walk Hard, which is a goof on music biopics starring John C. Reilly, and I enjoy that just as much. Movies are usually bad when they caught in the middle. I like movies when they are very sincere and real as comedies, or when they are silly like Anchorman. The middle ones are often difficult.

Peter Clausen: So who produces the most influential current comedy in your opinion? Is it the British, or the Americans?

Judd Apatow: Well, I don't know. I am a giant fan of all comedy, but nothing makes me laugh more than Extras right now. Everytime I put that on I laugh really hard. And I am a bitter comedy-person, but it really makes me bust out laughing. But the Sopranos also made me laugh a lot. I thought that was in many ways a dark comedy. So I love British comedy, like Little Britan or Hot Fuzz. Edgar Wrights work, I think, is pretty unbelievable.

Peter Clausen: Your wife told me, that you are going to meet with Ricky Gervais and/or Stephen Merchant.

Judd Apatow: I am hoping they'll meet with us, but it doesn't mean they will. I just keep emailing Stephen Merchant, who I have met once before, begging him to hang out with us. But I think it's a great year for comedy in America as well. There is alot of things happening with Will Ferrell, and Adam Sandler and Jim Carrey and all the established stars as well as all these new people. I think it's an exciting time.

Peter Clausen: Do you think comedy was in a bit of a rut, a couple of years ago?

Judd Apatow: I don't know. There's alwasy been comedies that I have liked. Sometimes there's more that I like, for example a couple of years ago we had movies like There's something about Mary and Dumb and Dumber which were great comedies, and now there's a new crew of people. But that's just a natural thing, as all those comedians are in their fourties and we used to see them as knuckleheads in their twenties. And now they have moved up, and hopefully there's always someone replacing them.

The horrors of High School: Freaks & Geeks

Peter Clausen: Do you structure your scripts more with regards to plot, or character-development?

Judd Apatow: Well, I think it's the characters. I have really come to believe that the plot is going to be very thin, but if the characters are well explored you can do good work. It's more about the details and the honesty of what you are doing, then it is about an intricate plot. But that might be, because I can't write an intricate plot, so I might be rationalizing it.

Peter Clausen: So, are the characters' emotional journeys your starting point, when writing a script?

Judd Apatow: I always have a very thin emotional arc layed out, like "a guy learns this lesson", and then I plot it out. I don't really think about it much as a comedy, just as a story, and then I try to figure out how to make it funny.

Peter Clausen: The characters in your movies are usually quite different to the typical movie protagonists, because they are often quite geeky. You don't seem to write about smart, successful business-people. How important is it to you, to represent this sort of character in a positive light?

Judd Apatow: I just really write about people I know. Mainly because I started out as a stand-up comedian, because that's what we were all like, because that's the world I understand. I don't understand the world of a stockbroker, so I just don't write about it. I don't have that much of an imagination. I don't write about eskimos or wizards, because I don't know anything about that. I do know about goofy, funny guys sitting around playing videogames and smoking pot. That for some reason I do understand. And I think most people are geeky. Even your handsome wallstreet-man down deep feels the same as the goofy guy playing Halo. In fact, he is probably playing Halo for much of the day. People say that comedies are underdog-stories, but I think everyone feels that way.

Peter Clausen: So, you pretty much represent the underdog in all of us in your movies.

Judd Apatow: I think so. I think that's why people like The 40 Year Old Virgin, because everyone feels nervous and is afraid of being found out of not being good at something. The idea of the incredibly smart guy who can do anything isn't a great comedy-idea. Who wants to see a handsome smart guy do stuff?

Peter Clausen: Thank you very much for this interview!

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Interview with Paul Rudd 

Text Copyright Peter Clausen 2007
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