After a difficult decade in network TV comedy, writer/director/producer Judd Apatow has developed a Midas touch in films, with the uninterrupted successes of “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” “Knocked Up” and “Superbad.”
Apatow’s latest, “Drillbit Taylor,” a high-school comedy starring Owen Wilson as an inept bodyguard to three freshman geeks, opens Friday. Apatow chatted about the film during a phone interview last week.
There are names for all sorts of genres, from chick flicks to brat-pack movies. But there isn’t a category description for the kind of films you make. What would you like people to call them?
I always go back to episodes of “Taxi.” They were really broad but really funny and had a great human quality to them. They always were about something important beneath the surface. And ended with a scene that showed the idea had more significance. I like to do that but also show male genitals.
You’ve shown hundreds of them in your films. What else do you have up your sleeve?
You’d be surprised what parts of the human body haven’t been emphasized. This summer, you’ll see some things you didn’t expect. I always think it’s funny that people are embarrassed about the body, so it’s my job to push their faces in it!
You work with the same performers time and again, bringing them up from cameos to starring roles and screenwriting. How did you develop that approach?
I guess it was because I was friends with a lot of people who became comedy stars, and I saw how difficult the struggle is to be given the chance to be the lead in a movie. Adam Sandler had to write a movie for himself and that’s how he became a movie star, he wrote “Billy Madison.” And Jim Carrey wrote “Ace Ventura.” So I encourage the people that I think are funny to write themselves into the process. Seth Rogen wrote “Superbad,” and Jason Segel wrote (next month’s) “Forgetting Sarah Marshall.” And that becomes an avenue for them to create a project that is tailored to what their talent is.
You cast your wife, Leslie Mann, in many of your films, including “Drillbit Taylor.” What about having her kissing all these other guys?
I can’t say I enjoy it. I didn’t enjoy having her kissing Owen Wilson. I left early that day.
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Where’s Owen?
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Owen Wilson stars in the new comedy “Drillbit Taylor,” opening Friday. But you won’t find the star doing interviews to promote the film.
Paramount Pictures worried that press members would steer conversations toward the 39-year-old actor’s hospitalization last summer following an apparent suicide attempt. The actor has yet to address the incident in the mainstream media.
Rather than put Wilson together with reporters, Paramount had the actor record “Drillbit”-themed introductions to Fox’s Sunday-night prime-time lineup, with Wilson appearing in front of “The Simpsons,” “King of the Hill,” “Family Guy” and “Unhitched.” [ L.A. TIMES ]