Judd Apatow
Judd Apatow
Judd Apatowis an American producer, writer, director, actor, and comedian. He is the founder of Apatow Productions, through which he produced and developed the cult television series Freaks and Geeks and directed and produced The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Funny People, This Is 40, and Trainwreck...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionFilm Producer
Date of Birth6 December 1967
CitySyosset, NY
CountryUnited States of America
creativity economic-models people
We are at this weird moment where there's an economic model that supports creativity. People are demanding something new and fresh.
successful tv-shows people
Something economically changed. It used to be that you needed 20 million people to watch a TV show for it to be a hit. Now, with just a few million people watching, you're considered very successful, for a lot of these streaming services, or cable channels. Now, that allows people to do much more creatively ambitious work, because it's not lowest common denominator.
scary trying comedic
There's something so scary about trying out new material and being completely comfortable jumping into the abyss with a comedic idea.
writing risk performing
I loved the idea that I could write a joke and someone else would have to take the risk of performing it.
thinking people comedian
I did get good enough to get on HBO's Young Comedians Special, but I certainly wasn't the person who got launched off of HBO's Young Comedians Special. That would be Ray Romano that year. I had some semi-intelligent jokes, but when people would see me, they would think, "Oh, that's a good writer." No one would ever have said, "Oh, that's a good performer."
guy political imagine
I worshipped guys like Bill Maher, Jay Leno, and Jerry Seinfeld, and was doing my variation of that. But as a young person with no political point of view or life experience, it was as funny as you can imagine.
smart remember really-smart
I remember the review from Michael Wilmington in Chicago, and Gene Siskel wrote really smart reviews where I thought, "Oh, they totally get what we're attempting to do."
fun thinking house
It was always the most fun thing in the world to think of a joke area and talk about it with someone like Jim Carrey, and then he would get on stage fearlessly and tear the house down. That's something I always enjoyed. It also allowed me to not be terrified.
special helping
I used to tour a little bit with Jim Carrey and help him out on his first Showtime special.
I wrote for Roseanne. I wrote her stand-up act with her. I wrote with Tom Arnold. There was a period when I was working with them pretty steadily. But I would take brief gigs here and there.
writing laughing people
I wrote on the Grammys, and a few times for Garry Shandling when he was hosting. I couldn't have enjoyed those gigs more, because I would get to collaborate and try to make people I looked up to laugh, but for the most part, when you're as talented as they are, what they really want is someone who can type fast and whose presence makes them feel in the mood to write and spew and be creative, and I was a good person to have in the room.
fun people creative
I bring people on to the movies to type and to help punch up and look at things. But a lot of it is, you want fun people to be around, to put you in a good mood, to try and access your creative place.
running writing night
Right when I started getting solid was when I was offered a lot of writing work. And when The Ben Stiller Show was picked up, I realized there was no way for me to do stand-up three or four nights a week and run this television show with Ben. So that was the moment when I had to make a choice.
people humiliated
Every time I perform in front of people, no matter how well it goes, the next day, I feel humiliated.