Better late than never

Director Judd Apatow pops his film cherry with The 40–Year—Old Virgin

Judd Apatow is the comedy equivalent of Vincent Van Gogh, someone consistently ahead of his time; it takes hindsight—and DVD releases—for the world to appreciate his genius. From the merciless skewering of pop culture on The Ben Stiller Show to painfully hilarious takes on high school (Freaks And Geeks) and college (Undeclared), Apatow was behind the three greatest shows ever canceled after one season. Now the 37–year–old director is making his film debut with The 40–Year–Old Virgin.

The 40–Year–Old Virgin—the title alone makes me shiver.

Judd Apatow: Steve Carell plays a guy who keeps to himself, has many hobbies and is hiding the secret that he’s never had sex. One day some coworkers start telling really dirty sex stories. They push him to tell one, and it becomes very clear that he’s making it up. He says, “You know how you touch a girl’s breast, and it feels like a bag of sand?” And they’re like, “No. Are you a virgin?” When the secret comes out, they all decide to help him lose his virginity.

Did you seek out actual virgins for research?

Judd Apatow: We did find a message board where virgins posted blogs about their lives, and we quickly discovered that they’re normal people who are just insecure or got scared early on. So that’s how we wrote the movie—this guy isn’t that odd, sex just got by him. And the longer he went without having sex, the more scared he was to try, so he gave up and then he got busted by these guys at work.

Did your own experiences make it into the film?

Judd Apatow: I have numerous bad sex stories that end with a girl looking disappointed. This wasn’t a difficult area for me, I hate to say. But now I’m married with two beautiful kids, so it all works out.

How was directing your first feature film?

Judd Apatow: It was terrifying. I’m very neurotic, so I tried to shoot lots of extra material. There’s a sequence where I wanted to show what he thinks about while he’s masturbating, so I shot an enormous amount of different jokes. At the end of the day, I might use all of them or none of them. It’s the “cover your ass” theory of directing.

How did you become the executive producer of The Ben Stiller Show at the age of 23?

Judd Apatow: I met Ben on line at Elvis Costello Unplugged, and we both knew that HBO was looking to produce a sketch show. We started kicking ideas around, and we came up with the show, which HBO then sold to Fox. I really didn’t know anything, I just paid close attention to what Ben was doing and went with my gut.

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