FILM INTERVIEW: APATOW & STARS OF 'FUNNY PEOPLE'

The Director & Stars of a New Heartfelt Look at Mortality, Humor & Friendship

Emmanuel Itier:  Why were you all excited to be in this movie, starting off with Judd? What was it after 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up that made you come up with Funny People?

 

Judd Apatow: I always wanted to make a movie about comedians.  I always looked up to comedians and wanted to be one, and a lot of comedians were really nice to me when I first started my career, so I wanted to talk about that relationship, and after Adam saw Knocked Up, he said that he wanted to do something together, so I quickly went through my notebook and then realized I had several ideas that I could combine that would eventually turn into Funny People.  One about a mentor relationship, one about someone who's sick and seems to be learning nothing from their near-death experience, and another one about someone trying to win back an old flame who's married.

 

EI:  So, Adam, for you, what was it?

 

Adam Sandler: I was excited to work with Judd, and I think Judd just told me about that much before I said, "Yeah, right, let's do that." He told me he wanted to do a movie about a comedian who's sick and gets better and doesn't learn from his near-death experience.  I thought that was very interesting, and I was excited about doing something about stand-up comedy.  I did a lot of stand-up when Judd and I used to live together. I was just wanting to hang out with Judd also.

 

Seth Rogen:  Yeah, he explained that he wanted me to play someone who looked up to Adam Sandler. That was easy for me [laughs], so that's where I signed on.  As you know, I did stand-up, so I thought it was really an interesting thing to make a movie about.  I've never really seen a movie that handled it in the way that I experienced it, and also, I have a lot of friends that are actors that are around the same age, and we were competing for a lot of parts and jobs with one another and we lived together throughout that time, so that aspect of the movie I really related to also and felt that we could explore some interesting stuff.

 

EI:  Leslie, why were you excited about being in the movie?  What was it for you that said, "God, I really want to do this"?

 

Leslie Mann: It's been exciting to watch Judd grow as a creative person and just having more life experiences and putting those into his movies, and I feel like this one was very brave and it turned out really well.  It's just nice to see him not sticking to the same formula and doing the same thing that worked in 40-Year-Old Virgin. He's trying new things, and it's exciting to watch him grow as a creative person, and I wanted to be a part of that.

 

Eric Bana:  I'm just a huge fan of Judd's and love his previous movies, and nearly fell off the chair when I got the call saying that there might be a part in his next film, and then when I heard that all these guys were involved and read the script, it was like a dream come true. I hadn't done comedy for a long time, and if I was going to trust anyone with that responsibility, as far as I was concerned, it was Judd.

 

EI: Adam, I'd like to know what makes you guys laugh.  What kind of jokes?  What kind of situations?

 

AS:  I'm sorry, I don't know. [Laughs] We laugh a lot.  It's not a particular thing. Bana is funny a lot, Leslie's funny...  All these guys are funny a lot -- Seth Rogen...smarter and funny in that, for a man his age, he's not supposed to be that quick. He's pretty ridiculous. So is the Jonah kid [Hill].

 

SR: I don't know -- that's really hard. Whatever makes me laugh, that's what's funny.  I work backwards from there...

 

EB:  My kids are pretty funny -- my kids make me laugh.  Other than that, Judd Apatow movies.  [Laughs]

 

EI:  Leslie made you laugh.

 

EB:  Leslie makes me laugh too much, that's true.

 

LM:  I think anything that's too serious makes me laugh.  People who take themselves too seriously make me laugh...and fart jokes.

 

JA:  We laughed really hard at extras. I remember we would sit in bed really laughing out loud, hard, at extras.  That might be the biggest laughs we've had in a while.  There was one where he clogged up the toilet and then he was just looking for an egg beater to break it up.  That was pretty good. That got us.  [Laughs]

 

EI:  Would you mind sharing with us the most memorable moment during filming? JA:  For me, it was when James Taylor was there. It wasn't a rushed circumstance, and he agreed to sing 12 songs when we really only needed 1 ¼.  I couldn't believe that he would do it, and then Adam and James Taylor performed a few songs together. Adam's solo was not very good [laughs] -- "Steam Roller"...

 

AS:  He told me it was a different key.

 

JA:  That's true.  Messed you up.  But that was pretty amazing. We've all listened to him since we were born, and people were crying and it was emotional, and he was so nice. In between songs, he would talk to the crowd, and that was kind of a dream come true.

 

EI:  What about you, Adam?

 

AS:  Can't I go with that?  [Laughs] That was great.  The whole time, it was random -- the good times.  We had fun during rehearsals. I did like that -- the day Bana showed up during rehearsals and was committed right away to being crazy.

 

JA:  Marshall Mathers day was funny.

 

AS:  Yeah, Eminem day was great. He was laughing his ass off throughout that night, and we were all happy about that.

 

JA:  We laughed really hard at Ray Romano's reaction to Marshall 'cause he kept saying, "Why is the funniest thing in the world the fact that you think I can't defend myself against Eminem?" [Laughs]

 

LM:  Eminem actually has a really dainty handshake.

 

AS:  He saves it 'cause he has to hold the mic and stuff when he's singing... [Laughs]

 

EI:  Leslie, you just mentioned that you enjoyed watching Judd growing as a creative person.  If I'm not mistaken then, Judd and Adam, you've known each other even longer in that you lived together at one point. How did you see each other or watch each other grow on a creative side?

 

JA:  When I lived with Adam, Adam's stand-up act was very imaginative. There was a lot of mumbling involved, and I remember I said to this comic, "Oh, you have to use Adam. This guy's gonna be big -- he's the funniest..." We went up to the San Diego Improv, and Adam just leaned against the brick wall and bombed for an hour straight, and just said his act line for line and he never won the crowd over [laughs], and I thought it was hilarious.  Then he got hired to be on Saturday Night Live and I thought, "How is he on Saturday Night Live?  He doesn't do any voices or characters." And then suddenly, on the show, he started doing impressions and doing all these characters, and I'm like, "Where did that come from?"

AS:  I know you would steal them if I did them.

 

JA:  It's fun to watch Adam, and then it turned into movies, and we both started to act with very silly movies and then slowly tried to take more chances with what we were doing. But what I was most impressed by, by his evolution, was what a strong actor he was and how committed he was to the part. Also, a lot of actors will say, "I don't want to do that 'cause you might use it," and they almost try to direct the movie through withholding performance.  Adam really was willing to try anything and trust that the process would select the best material.

 

AS:  That's true.

 

EI:  And how has Judd evolved?

 

AS: Just like what Leslie was saying, when I saw Knocked Up, I was in my trailer. I was shooting another movie at the time, and I was watching. Judd dropped off a copy of Knocked Up before it came out, and I was watching it and I was very blown away by what he was doing -- how they had the language of the movie.  I loved Seth in it too.  I remember, at the premiere, the place went bananas after it was done and I saw Seth... When you're a comedian and all of a sudden you see this young guy who's great, you're initial reaction could be like, "Aw...goddamn it.  Here comes the new shit and I'm out." But I was so happy for how great that kid was in the movie. But the Knocked Up movie did blow me away -- how deep it was and how it took its time, and how romantic it was and what it would talk about -- and then I got excited. I always wanted to work with Judd. We've been very good friends for a long time and it just timed out nice that I got him at the peak of his career.

 

JA:  It's all downhill from there. [Laughs]

 

EI:  Adam, you mentioned that your character  had a near-death experience.  What do you think makes funny people so oblivious about death?

 

AS:  I thought it was funny that a person doesn't learn. I also thought it was an interesting choice.  If I was writing a movie, I probably would have went to the guy having a better life after this and learning a lot, but Apatow's brain told him not to do that [laughs] and make people more uncomfortable.

 

JA:  At the end, I think that he...it's not that he doesn't learn, it's the fact that he's not telling Seth off. He accepts Ira back in his life which means that he wants an honest voice around and he's trying to figure out how he can change, but it's really hard for him to do that right.

 

EI:  Judd, do you run your stories and scenes by Leslie to check if they work?

 

LM:  I have a pretty good bullshit meter so I can, and especially for his female characters, so I think he uses me for that.  But do you use me for the other stuff too?  You run things by me just as much as he runs things by Seth and, I'm sure, Adam and everyone else, but really it is me who is responsible for all of the great stuff... [Laughs]

 

EI:  Judd, are you and Adam collaborators since you were friends and roommates in the early days?

 

AS:  Even ones that Judd didn't rewrite, he was a part of my movie -- he would guide. Judd came to so many of my screenings and gave me notes and thoughts and would read my scripts, and I'd say, "I'm getting ready to shoot in a couple weeks. Take a look at this and give ideas." We've been creatively involved. I didn't do the same for you, by the way. [Laughs] Judd was okay without me, but I always, even since I was 22 and I was doing stand-up, I would say a joke and Apatow was my roommate at the time, and I'd run it by him and if he liked it, I felt more confident.  So we've had a good relationship like that.

 

EI:  Also with Zohan?

 

AS:  Yeah, absolutely. Judd, [Robert] Smigel and I thought about that...  That movie was ten years coming, and it was great.  That was accredited to Apatow's [laughs] career.

 

EI:  This question is for Adam.  Playing a guy who has a near-death experience, did you sometimes think about your own mortality, or did you just push it away and be light and comedic?

 

AS:  The days I'd have to worry about it, I wasn't thrilled to have to go through that and think about that.  When I watched the movie and I saw myself, my reaction is I feel bad for my kids having to see that someday, and see me in a movie and actually in real life, you dread that day ever coming, so it's not something that you're thrilled to shoot that day or to actually know that it's on film, but I'm glad my character gets better.

 

EI:  This is for Adam as well. Aren't you afraid that the audiences might transfer whatever he has done, especially the bad stuff?

 

AS: Maybe that could happen, I don't know.  There are parts of me in the guy, but it's definitely not my life -- George Simmons has his own; his journey is different than mine, but...I just trusted Apatow.  And as he said, he wrote it in the movie -- we show real stuff of my stuff.  I thought it was really interesting.

 

EI:  What is it that makes you proud of your life at this moment?

 

AS:  Boy, I can't say yet.  I know one thing: I'm always earnestly proud of having a good family.  But creatively, I've always tried as hard as I can. I'm proud of that.

 

EI:  What similarities could you find between the personality of your character and your own?

 

AS:  Let's see...

 

JA:  Adam is exactly like his character.  [Laughs]

 

EI:  I guess that's a question we can bounce around.

 

JA: I literally watch the movie now and think that I'm way closer to George than I thought when we were making the movie.  Now that the movie's over and my brain opens up, and I don't have anything in it that I'm working on, I feel a lot of those feelings of somebody who feels the need to keep everything going, and how much energy we put into our careers and not into connecting with other people. I would hate for any of that to be transferred to Adam because Adam is surrounded by people and friends and family, and he's very far from an isolated figure.  But we always looked at it like this is what our lives could have been like if we made a lot of mistakes and were complete ego maniacs.  Now we're only partly ego maniacs.

 

AS:  That's still a lot. What Judd was saying is this: the similarities of me being in the movies and having a big house, that makes some sense.

 

JA:  It's the same housekeeper you have. [Laughs] We just paid her as a housekeeper, not as an actress.

 

SR:  "Hide the camera!"  [Laughs]

 

AS: But I don't struggle as much as this guy. I have times when I react like this guy -- I'm short with people, and I have a quick trigger in real life, but I'm not living that man's life.  Like Judd said, I do have a lot of friends, I'm very close with my family...if I found out I was sick, I wouldn't be alone with it. I have people to go to.

 

EI:  The film feels so real, so honest. I want to talk about the stand-up.  How did that feel?  And how was it going back to that scene?

 

AS:  The worst part of the stand-up was writing most of the jokes.  When I would sit alone and write it, I would be like, "Wow, I haven't grown at all. [Laughs] That's the same shit I would have written when was 17."

 

EI:  Seth, for you too?

 

SR:  No, it's literally the same jokes I wrote when I was 17.  It was interesting to see where your brain goes when you have no real parameters. That's what stand-up writing is, in a lot of ways, and it goes right to farting and jacking off.  There's no defense for that. Blame my parents, maybe, I don't know. That's where it goes.

 

JA:  I thought we showed great restraint with how many masturbation jokes we put in the movie...

 

SR:  We could have had a lot more.

 

JA:  We had a lot...

 

SR:  I remember Judd cut me off at one point.  He came to me at one point and he's like, "You can't write anymore jack-off jokes. It's like there's a finite number that we can handle." [Laughs]

 

EI:  When was the last time you did stand-up?

 

AS:  I hadn't done it in a long time.  Last time I did it, I was on tour and people were paying a lot of money to go see me, so they wanted to like me. When people pay money and say, "Hey, I'm coming to see you," you usually get the benefit of the doubt. It got pretty easy for me.  I had a nice hour, hour-and-a-half of stuff I would do well. Even when I was doing well, I was always on the side of the stage going, "Why the fuck am I doing this?  I can't stand having to walk out there.  I'm a nervous wreck. Aaahhh... ahhh..." It's a lot of pressure. In your head, you're like, "I can ruin my whole life up here if I say the dumbest thing." So I just kind of stopped doing it after I toured. Then getting back into this, I wasn't going to places where they were paying money to see me. I was going to places where they've seen ten great guys in a row and then I would go on and not have my shit together and I'd feel the energy of people going, "Oh, I thought he'd be better than this..." But it was fun.  It felt good. It was a good challenge. It also felt good to get off stage and hide in my house.

 

EI:  Seth, what was it like for you to go back?

 

SR: It was very strange.  Again, I did it when I was a teenager mostly, so when you're a drunk guy in a comedy club and you see a 15-year-old get up on stage, you're pretty skeptical of whether they'll make you laugh, so I really had to win the audience over, and that was a real part of the challenge. When you're in movies and you get up on stage, the audience is pretty inclined to like you because they're excited, and it was, in a way, the exact opposite of what it used to be. This was kind of trying to prove to them that I was worth the excitement that they had had a few minutes prior [laughs] and not disappoint them.  So it was a little difficult, and then ultimately to do it for months and get much more comfortable doing it, then have to start filming and act like I was totally uncomfortable doing it, it took me on a little roller coaster, but ultimately, when I watch the movie, the stand-up, to me, looks totally authentic and real, and I think it feels real.  I think people are really used to seeing stand-up on television and Comedy Central, so I think if, as soon as it cuts ours, if it looked or felt any different than what people are used to seeing, it would have ruined the whole reality level, so I'm really pleased with how all that turned out.

 

EI: In case your doctor will tell you that you only have a few months to live from now on, what is the one thing that you definitely want to do?

 

JA:  Help the Saints win.  [Laughs]

 

EB:  Just so long as I live past September 25th, I'd be happy.  [Laughs]

 

JA:  So it can be the perfect season.

 

LM: I would fight and try to figure out a way to get well, and I would be with my kids and my husband every day, every second.

 

JA:  We do that now.

 

LM:  Yeah.  [Laughs]

 

JA:  We'd sleep less, maybe.

 

EI:  Seth?

 

SR:  Oh, I don't know. I'd be with Leslie and her kids and... [Laughs]

 

AS:  Same thing.  [Laughs] I would be all up in my wife and my kids, and hopefully, like Leslie said -- I've seen it, I saw my father go through it -- when you find out news that you're dying, you certainly don't want to go.  So you fight hard, and if it comes to it, you try to make sure the people you loves' lives will be as good as you can set them up when you go on.

 

EI:  Adam, the soundtrack is wonderful. What is your favorite song?

 

AS:  That Warren Zevon that Judd uses, "Keep Me in Your Heart." That is amazingly effective.  That song was just coincidence that Judd used that. He loves Warren Zevon.  And when Zevon was sick, my father was sick at the same time and I would be reading about what Zevon's going through in the paper, and it was the same stuff my dad was going through.  And then, when I heard that song for the first time before we did the movie, the whole album -- the fact that Warren Zevon did a record when he was sick and made an incredible album as he was dying -- that always destroyed...broke my heart, and so it was very easy for that song to move me.

 

EI:  Judd, did you want to add something of importance to the music in the movie?

 

JA:  Yeah, a lot of the movie is about writing jokes and trying to find ways to be creative in good times and bad, so we tried to find songs that connected with that spirit, so there's demos -- the Neil Diamond song is the first take; it's kind of a semi-demo of that song "We."  The John Lennon song is a demo of "Sitting Here Watching the Wheels Go Round," so I thought there was a kind of connection between how comedians write and songwriters write.  I tried to make every song a song that I really loved and cared about and had an emotional connection to.

 

EI: Leslie, how did you thank your kids for doing a good job?

 

JA:  The new iPod, I think. [Laughs] The new iPod phone, right?  Is that the iPhone?  That's what she wants.  And I don't know if I want to give it to her...

 

AS:  It depends how it opens the movie.

 

SR:  Yeah, see how she opens it.  I don't know if Maude's performance has got legs yet, you know?  [Laughs]

 

JA:  Wait a second.  We don't want to even tell her she's good -- then she'll want to do it again.  Leslie always says, "Don't praise her; she'll get into it too much!" [Laughs]

 

SR:  I was very praised. Look at me.  [Laughs]

 

AS:  I had the same mother as Seth! She'd say, "He's wonderful! This is the funniest boy in the world."  [Laughs]

 

EI:  It's been tough times with all this financial crisis and the studios laying off people left and right and everything. Judd, how do you justify having a limo pick you up at your house for such a short distance -- six miles...

 

JA:  Say what?  What is?

 

SR:  That you have a limo take you six miles.

 

JA:  A limo?

 

SR:  Six miles is pretty far...

 

JA:  I didn't have a limo take me six miles.  [Laughs]

 

EI:  I have proof! There is the receipt!

 

JA:  What's that?  I don't mind answering the question...

 

SR:  The truth is spending money on limos actually helps the economy.  If no one spent money on that, then it would hurt even more.

 

LM:  Who's going to pay the limo driver...

 

JA:  Exactly.  [Laughs] Well, there are not limos on productions, but there are drivers that drive you back and forth from work because you work like 12-14 hours a day and it's actually dangerous to be driving at 5:30 in the morning and driving back late at night after long days, so that's why the studios actually want people to drive you.  But you can drive me, I don't care...whatever makes it easier.  [Laughs]

 

EI:  Give me a thousand dollars and I'd would be happy to do it.

 

JA:  I think about that all the time. I think, "Oh this is a lot of money," but it is churning up the economy, and  a lot of people are working...

 

SR:  If none of us spent money, it wouldn't get better.

 

EI:  Judd, when did you know you made it?

 

JA:  With this movie or just generally?

 

EI:  Altogether in your career, where you said, "Okay..."

 

AS:  The fact that you're getting limos now is pretty...

 

JA:  Exactly.

 

SR:  A limo is going to take him to the next interview.  [Laughs]

 

JA:  On the third floor.  I don't know -- the first time I wrote a joke and it worked... I mean, when you would write anything and... I remember Adam and I were talking on the phone once and he was looking for something to do on "Weekend Update," and we were kicking around that he would do a bit about Halloween costumes that...

 

SR:  Spoon Head?  No shit! I love that joke.  [Laughs]

 

JA:  It was a routine...he couldn't afford Halloween costumes so he just put a spoon on his head and said, "I'm crazy Spoon Head," and it was all just like...

 

SR:  And it reached me, see?  [Laughs]

 

JA:  The scene, just a joke you talked about with your friend on the phone and something that would be on TV...  Actually, one of the most exciting things that ever happened: Adam left and moved to New York to be on Saturday Night Live, and I couldn't get hired on as a writer. I kept trying to get hired on at Saturday Night Live and they wouldn't hire me. They wouldn't read my package and it was just very difficult.  So I said to Adam, "I'm gonna write a sketch and I just want to see if it could get on."  And I sat home and I wrote a sketch and I sent it to Adam, and then they did it on the show and it got laughs on the show.

 

AS:  And I took full credit.  [Laughs]

 

JA:  That was a big win.