-Our next guest is a writer, director,
and "New York Times" best-selling author
who you know from his work on comedies such as "Trainwreck,"
"This is 40," and "The King of Staten Island."
His book, "Sicker in the Head:
More Conversations About Life and Comedy,"
is available now, and his latest film,
"The Bubble," is streaming on Netflix.
Let's take a look.
-Um, a lot of you have been asking about flirting.
Yes, it happens.
Physical touch is, of course, off the table.
So what I would recommend is making sweet eyes at each other.
Um, if you're wondering what that looks like,
that would be...
[ Chuckles ]
Wh--
[ Chuckles ]
Oh.
Mm.
Are there any questions?
Amazing. Let's have some fun.
-Please welcome back to the show
our good friend Judd Apatow, everybody!
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
-Welcome back! -It's so good to be here.
-It's so great to have you here in person.
We've Zoomed a couple times over the last year.
Thank you for making time for me in your home.
-I enjoyed that. -This is --
You've also enjoyed, historically,
you love talking to comedians. It's something you did as a kid.
-I did. When I was 14, I started interviewing comedians.
-And you're still doing it today.
-This is the new book.
-Second of this title. -Second of the series.
-Series, yes. -And it was very emotional
because a lot of people, you know,
they were at home during the pandemic,
so the interviews got very, uh, deep.
-Amber Ruffin, who's a writer on this show,
Jimmy Kimmel, John Mulaney, Pete Davidson.
I checked -- I'm not in here.
[ Laughter ]
I was also at home. -Yeah.
[ Laughter ]
I know, I was thinking that today.
-When you realized you were coming here?
Is that what jogged it?
[ Laughter ] -Yeah, yeah.
But, you know, I'm gonna do a soft-cover version
where I add more interviews. -Oh, wow.
-So, you know, maybe we could do a little piece of it now.
-All right, great, 'cause everybody wants
to make the soft-cover version. -Yeah?
[ Laughter ]
So we'll just do a little bit of the interview.
-Okay, great. -So, what I'm interested in,
because you're so funny, is, like, what really painful,
traumatic thing happened to you as a child
that made you want to express yourself in comedy?
-I don't want to be in your book.
-Okay. [ Laughter ]
Problem solved. -Hey, this is very nice,
and, true, because you did it for the first book, as well.
All the money is going to charity...
-Yes, all the money is. -...which is really impressive.
-Thanks. [ Cheers and applause ]
-When you -- How does it come about?
When do you make the decision,
like, "This is gonna be for charity"?
-Well, Dave Eggers has a charity called 826,
which provides free tutoring and literacy programs for kids.
And he said, you know,
"Maybe we can come up with something for charity."
And I thought, "Well, I guess you'd take all the money."
-Yeah.
-And then it made a lot of money.
-Yeah. -And then someone said to me,
"You could have given him just, like, a little bit of it."
-Oh, right. -So, I didn't know
I could've kept it all. -Yeah.
[ Laughter ]
-And then, there was another book.
I'm like, "I don't think I can switch the deal now."
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-And so now they get all the money.
I think you can give away like 4%, and people are like,
"Wow, you're so cool."
-And that still counts as "to charity."
-Exactly. -It would be a bummer
if right now I was saying, like,
"Now, the proceeds of the first book went to charity.
And this is cool -- this one all goes to you."
-Yeah. Exactly. [ Laughter ]
-So you were -- you definitely cornered yourself, yeah.
-Yes, I'm screwed for life for caring.
[ Laughter ]
-This is really exciting and a rarity for us.
I had your beautiful wife, Leslie Mann, was here yesterday.
-Yes. -And you guys are coming up
on 25 years of marriage. -25 years.
-And according to -- You brought something for us.
-Yeah. -There was maybe a time
where people didn't think you were gonna make it.
The public at large didn't think you were gonna make it.
-There were some bumps along the road.
-This was from "Star" magazine. -Yeah, "Star" magazine.
-"Marriage drama." [ Laughter ]
-I know. Look how angry I look there.
-Yeah, you were not -- [ Laughter ]
-She's not happy with me at all. -Yeah.
Do you want to read the quote, or do you want me to do it?
-You can do it. It's painful.
-"She may have been seen in the movie 'Big Daddy,'
but insiders tell 'Star,' Leslie Mann is not at all
into dad bods." [ Laughter ]
"And with hubby Judd Apatow's fading figure,
the spark is dimming on her 21-year marriage."
I mean, I know you're a loyal "Star" reader,
so you probably picked this up. [ Laughter ]
You were probably taken aback. -Yeah, it's like
my favorite magazine, and then, like, they're tearing me apart.
-Yeah! Here you are, a lifeti--
You don't even get it at the supermarket.
It comes to your house. -Exactly.
[ Laughter ]
-There was an article about dad bods somewhere,
and they were describing the phenomena of the dad bod.
And I swear to God, I clicked on it,
and the photo they used was of me.
[ Laughter ]
-That's really -- that's heartbreaking, yeah.
It also said -- -Oh, you're going on.
-"Still, the 'Trainwreck' director isn't the only one
to blame when it comes to their rocky relationship,
adds the source." They had a source.
-Oh, man. -"He says, 'Watching Leslie's
love scenes with other men disgusts him.'"
[ Laughter ]
-I can't believe Maude is the source.
-I know. [ Laughter ]
-Your daughter Maude.
-Sweet, 10 grand. 10 grand right there.
-She got 10 grand out of that, yeah.
But, now, of course, the true thing is,
you're often responsible for these love scenes,
including in "The Bubble."
And we were here, talking last night,
her ex-husband in the film is played by David Duchovny.
You wrote a love scene for the two of them.
-Yes. -So, when you're sitting down
and you're writing a love scene with your wife
and David Duchovny, what's that --
what's driving that?
[ Laughter ]
-Well, I figure, then she'll accept my dad bod,
and I'll accept her sex with David Duchovny.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-Does that make sense? -Yeah, I think it is.
It's sort of like, "If you accept this,
I will give you this." -Yeah.
[ Laughter ] I've written a lot of
love scenes for her that I've had to direct.
And I think it's a fetish. [ Laughter ]
-Yeah, maybe that's it. -Like, if you could, like,
write scenes for your wife, like, "Hey, you want to make out
with Owen Wilson?" "Mmm."
[ Laughter ]
-They're also -- And I will say, I love your films,
but often the sex scenes are very jarring.
They don't serve the plot at all.
-No, no, no. [ Laughter ]
Go on for so long. -Even films she's not --
the ones she's not in, she shows up for, like,
one weird sex scene.
-We have the dailies at home we're watching every day.
[ Laughter ] -I talk because --
So, "The Bubble," you not just direct Leslie,
you also direct your daughter Iris.
I mean, it's great, I would assume, to be with your family.
What's it like to direct them? -I mean, I like
just being around them, 'cause they're your family,
so you like them more than other people.
-Yep. -You know?
-It means you're doing it right. -Exactly.
And so I knew it was fun to get out of the house
and do something during the pandemic, you know,
'cause it's a movie about making a movie
in a bubble during the pandemic that's a dinosaur action movie.
-Yeah. -It's a really weird premise.
-Yes. -I have to say,
some critics were thrown. [ Laughter ]
Like, "Why did you do this?"
And what they don't get is, they're watching it wrong.
First of all, when you watch it --
'Cause it's a weird movie. It is weird.
It stars Fred Armisen. -Yeah.
-It's weird. [ Laughter ]
You should be high. -Okay.
[ Laughter ] -You should be a little drunk.
-Yep. -You should watch it like
10 minutes after you've had sex. -Okay, great.
-And you should be on sizzurp. [ Laughter ]
-On sizzurp? -Yeah.
-You should be on sizzurp?
-Yes, or --
-I mean, is this all on the poster,
these instructions? -Yeah, exactly.
[ Laughter ] It's like on medicine.
You have to do this before watching the movie,
or you won't know what's going on.
-So, but this is also the mo--
You were making the movie the way the movie was being made
because, of course, you were also making it during a time
where you had to make it within a bubble, so you had --
-We were making a movie about how only idiots
want to make a movie during the pandemic,
but we were making a movie during the pandemic.
It was like a meta meta hypocritical nightmare.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
And that really wonderful clip about the sort of health
and safety protocols, I imagine you had someone
like that for real on your set. -We would have, like, that guy
give the speech very seriously, and he goes, "Thank you,"
and then we'd go, "Action," and then that guy would mock him.
[ Laughter ]
-He must have been like, "What am I doing this for?"
-Yeah, yeah. -You've made movies both ways.
You've made films that come out in theaters,
and then you find out in real time how it's doing
in the box office. Obviously, your movies
have historically done a great deal of ticket sales
in the box office.
So what is it like when you have a film on Netflix?
How are you finding out? -You just don't know.
You have no idea how many people watch.
Like, people text things -- "I'm watching in Denmark" --
and you just don't know what's going on.
And they put out information every once in a while.
-Yeah. -Like, they'll say,
"Well, people watch 1.9 million minutes of 'Red notice,'"
which makes you wonder, "Did 1.9 million people
watch 'Red Notice,' or did 1.9 people
watch one minute of 'Red Notice'?"
[ Laughter ] -Yeah.
-So you don't know. And then they put up these,
like, top 10s trending. -You made a top 10 here.
This is very exciting. So, there you go.
Number five, there's "The Bubble" right there.
Congratulations. -So we worked...
[ Cheers and applause ]
So, it's "Shrek." -Yeah, that's the new "Shrek."
-"Is It Cake?" -"Is It Cake?"
That's a game show. -And then "The Bubble."
-Yeah. -So, like, we worked for, like,
so hard, and we couldn't beat the mystery of cake.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-So, I don't know. Is that good?
-I think the problem is, like, if you also were high,
a little bit drunk, and on sizzurp, that cake show,
you might be like -- that might be right up your alley.
[ Laughter ]
-That's why it's so popular. -That's the problem.
You, like, made a film at the wrong time.
It came out at the wrong time. [ Laughter ]
You also have made, over the course of your career,
some fantastic documentaries,
and I'm really excited about this.
You have a documentary for HBO about George Carlin.
-Yes, in May it's coming out.
-You know, he's a fantastic comedian.
I feel like, obviously, as time passes,
less and less people are maybe familiar with his work.
You knew his work a great deal when he was alive.
And what is one of the things you found,
going back and looking at his material?
-Well, what was weird is, anytime something happens
in the world, no matter what it is,
he trends because he has the best stand-up bit on the topic.
-A modern topic. -Anything.
Viruses, big pharma, abortion, the government.
You know, like, everything, he's got the bit,
and it just starts trending.
And I only saw him once. He was at Igby's in L.A.,
working on a new set, and he would sit there and,
like, memorize it like a play.
All I remember, and I don't remember the jokes,
is he said to the audience, "There are certain things
you're not allowed to make jokes about,
and that's what I'm going to do right now."
[ Laughter ] And just went at --
whatever you could imagine as the worst topic,
he did that night. -Being as familiar as you were
with his work, was it also an education
to go back to the old stuff? -Oh, yeah, because, you know,
he was kind of corny in the '60s,
and then, suddenly, he's like, "I want to be edgy."
And then he grew a beard, and he became the edgiest guy.
And then he got kind of soft again and did, like,
"Place for my Stuff."
And then he saw Sam Kinison -- he saw Sam Kinison,
and he thought, "I don't want to be soft compared to this guy."
And then he tried to, like, outdo Sam Kinison
for the rest of his career. -That's fantastic.
I can't wait to see that.
And it's always so great to see you.
Thank you so much for being here.
-Great to see ya. -You guys, Judd Apatow,
"The Bubble," streaming on Netflix.
"Sicker in the Head" is available now.