Becoming an actor had to come naturally for someone with superstar parents, but Maude
Apatow has made a name all on her own these past couple of years.
How far is she willing to go for a role?
Keep watching for more on Hollywood's new favorite Apatow.
While Maude Apatow has become a successful actor in her own right, there's also no denying
that her earliest screen appearances were the result of nepotism.
Her first three screen credits were in films made by her dad: the Judd Apatow-directed
"Knocked Up", "Funny People", and "This Is 40".
In all three movies, Apatow and younger sister Iris played the daughters of characters portrayed
by their real-life mom, Leslie Mann.
Apatow shared in an interview with W magazine,
"I was so little when my dad cast me in movies.
I didn't even realize what was going on, but I knew that I liked it."
"No phone, no computer" "This is BS.
This is a bunch of effing S, you're acting like a B."
Working with her mom onscreen while her dad was behind the camera, she added, wound up
becoming a part of her childhood that she didn't understand until much later was far
from ordinary.
Apatow once again worked with her dad in the 2020 comedy "The King of Staten Island," portraying
the younger sister of the movie's protagonist, played by Pete Davidson.
She wasn't just given the role, however; unlike those earlier experiences, she told Hello
Giggles, she actually had to audition.
In addition to projects directed by her father, Maude Apatow has built up an impressive reputation
as an actor on her own.
Her first adult role came at age 17 when she appeared in three episodes of Lena Dunham's
hit comedy "Girls" — a series produced by Judd Apatow.
After that, Apatow appeared in films and TV series in which her father wasn't involved,
beginning with the 2016 indie film "Other People" and then the 2018 action-comedy "Assassination
Nation."
This was followed by a high-profile part in Ryan Murphy's Netflix miniseries "Hollywood."
She then played fan-favorite character Lexi Howard alongside Zendaya on the acclaimed
HBO drama series "Euphoria."
Presumably based on the strength of that body of work, in 2021, Apatow was tapped to star
in AMC's animated conspiracy drama "Pantheon."
It was her role in Sam Levinson's "Assassination Nation," in fact, that led her to be cast
in the director's TV series "Euphoria," but landing the role was no walk in the park.
Apatow told W magazine that she auditioned six times before finally being cast in "Euphoria,"
saying
"We got along really, really well, and Sam had told me he was working on another show."
Even though Maude Apatow has amassed an impressive roster of screen credits in film and television
at a relatively young age, her original aspiration was to act onstage, not onscreen.
Interviewed by Vanity Fair, Apatow revealed,
"I actually got the acting bug from doing musicals in high school, like 'Cabaret' and
'Into the Woods,' so it always seemed like that's where I was headed."
Of course, that's not how things turned out, with Apatow's career taking her in front of
the camera and not onstage.
Yet despite how much Apatow's Hollywood career has heated up in recent years, she admitted
that performing in a Broadway musical remained a dream.
"Maybe one day.
That's the goal," she told Vanity Fair, singling out Mama Rose in the musical "Gyspy" as a
"dream" role she'd one day love to embody.
Still, the experience of taking in live musical theater continues to inspire her creatively.
She added that watching musicals always reminds her why she's acting.
"Maude, you're fine."
Maude Apatow's Twitter fame led to an opportunity that she considered to be one of the greatest
of her young life: interviewing the members of British boy band One Direction for Teen
Vogue.
As the One Direction fan admitted in another interview with Teen Vogue, her nervousness
was through the roof.
She joked,
"I was so excited and shaking the whole time, so they might have picked up on that."
In her original piece, she confessed that the timbre of her voice becomes "very high"
when she becomes nervous, which was absolutely the case when she interviewed the singers.
She wrote,
"My voice was so high that it was painful and embarrassing to listen to the tape of
the interview."
More than a decade later, Apatow appeared on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,"
where she reminisced about interviewing Harry Styles and the other 1D members.
As she recalled, her excitement over meeting the group was marked with real terror.
She admitted that it was the scariest thing in her life.
In addition to her famous parents, Maude Apatow also looks to other successful women in Hollywood
as a template for her own future.
She told Teen Vogue when she was just 14,
"I really look up to Lena Dunham, who writes and directs her show."
As she explained in an interview with Who What Wear, Apatow "grew up" around Dunham
while her dad produced the HBO series "Girls," and she came to admire Dunham for her multifaceted
role as both an actor and creative visionary on the show.
In that same interview, Apatow also shared her admiration of "Fleabag" star and creator
Phoebe Waller-Bridge, whom she described as "the funniest, coolest person on the planet."
Another name she mentioned was Olivia Wilde, known for her acting roles in such TV series
as "House" and films like "Tron Legacy," who segued into directing with the 2019 comedy
"Booksmart."
She noted,
"[Wilde] has gone from being a movie star to now directing.
I think that's really cool."
Given that her father is a famous Hollywood director and her mom is an actor with oodles
of screen credits under her belt, it would be natural for Maude Apatow to seek advice
from her parents when it comes to navigating the choppy waters of Tinseltown.
According to her mom, that actually isn't the case.
In an interview with Us Weekly, Mann said that it's hard to get her daughter to listen
to her advice.
Of course, Mann has also been quick to point out her daughter was born into a life of wealth
and privilege that has shielded her from the kind of realities that Mann herself had to
deal with as a struggling young actor trying to make a mark on Hollywood.
As Mann admitted during an appearance on "Good Morning America," her daughters definitely
have a leg up in the industry,
"It's a little bit easier for them, like when I started I was very poor and hungry."
She sometimes hears her daughter complain about the difficulties of being an actor,
which she has to dispute.
"And I think, 'It's not hard.
At least you have food a the refrigerator and like nice sheets.'
You're fine!"
According to Maude Apatow, she owes her first name to a famous cult movie and her parents'
inside joke about it.
Interviewed by W magazine, Apatow confirmed that she's named after the elderly character
played by Ruth Gordon in the 1971 comedy "Harold and Maude."
Apatow explained,
"My parents told me recently that they [started] calling me Maude when my mom was pregnant
as a joke, and then it stuck.
And, I was like, 'Oh, that's kind of offensive.
But, OK.'
But I love that movie.
I think it's one of my favorites ever."
Given the influence that the cult classic and its iconic director Hal Ashby had on her
father, the name is actually something of a badge of honor.
Speaking at an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences tribute to Ashby, Judd Apatow
revealed that their shared love of "Harold and Maude" was one of the things that he and
future wife Leslie Mann bonded over while they were dating.
When he first met Mann, the director quipped,
"My wife [...] let me know right away that she's watched that movie hundreds and hundreds
of times, which I didn't know if I should be concerned about or not."
Interviewed by Teen Vogue when she was just 14, Maude Apatow discussed some of the successful
women in Hollywood whom she admired.
Among them was director Sofia Coppola, and Apatow noted that she'd like to try her hand
at directing in the future.
Several years later, she told Who What Wear that directing was still something she continued
to aspire to.
That ambition came to pass when she co-directed a short film, 2017's "Don't Mind Alice," for
which she also served as a writer and actor.
She told W Magazine,
"So, that was the greatest thing ever, and hopefully I can do more of that, If I could
do [directing, acting, and writing] at the same time that would be cool."
Directing continues to be a future ambition.
"My goal is to become a director," she said in a 2019 interview with Collider.
Noting that she's had some "great mentors," she also credited her experience on "Euphoria,"
in which she was able to watch the varying styles of different directors at work.
She said,
"It's been really cool, getting to see how everyone works so differently."
Being the child of famous Hollywood parents has been something of a double-edged sword
for Maude Apatow.
While her parentage has opened doors, keeping those doors open has come with an increased
degree of pressure and responsibility.
She said in an interview with Who What Wear,
"I know that people definitely see me as my parents' kid, so it's important to me to work
twice as hard to prove myself."
Citing the "really good mentor-mentee relationship" she has with her father, she credited him
for knowing how to encourage her and what to teach her about acting, noting how lucky
she is to work with him.
While her parents have encouraged her acting ambitions since she was a child, they also
insisted she graduate from high school before pursuing an acting career.
However, Apatow told Collider,
"The second I graduated, I was like, 'Let's go!'
I guess I always knew that I wanted to do this 'cause I grew up around it, but I also
couldn't imagine doing anything else.
It wasn't even a question."
"Oh my god, are you crying?
It's a directorial note, you just take it and move on, okay?"
Maude Apatow has made no secret of her love for musical theater, something that bubbled
to the surface in a Season 2 episode of "Euphoria."
In that episode, Apatow's character, Lexi Howard, debuts the play that she wrote about
her life and in which she also stars.
As Apatow explained in an interview with Variety, the play-within-the-show came about from a
"semi-collaboration" with "Euphoria" creator Sam Levinson.
Apatow admitted,
"It was loosely inspired by my high school play that I produced.
Everyone in the theater department hated me, but I really wanted to do a good job."
She added more details in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, revealing that the inspiration
for the episode originated from her experience with that play during her senior year of high
school.
As Apatow explained,
"We had a student-produced, directed, and written show, and I was the producer, and
I was like a tyrant."
Once she and Levinson discussed her recollections, she added, "Sam went in and wrote it all."
Let it never be said that Maude Apatow isn't committed to the craft of acting.
In fact, that level of dedication has been evident since her childhood, as she explained
during an appearance on "Late Night with Seth Meyers."
Noting that she started doing theater when she was a kid, Apatow recalled that she pushed
to be as real as possible with her work.
As an example, she pointed to a school "Gold Rush Day" when she was 9 years old.
In order to get into costume authentically, she had to do what only a 9-year-old could
think of doing.
"I wanted to look like a miner, so I, like, ripped out my tooth."
Seth Meyers then asked if the tooth had been loose, and she had to confess.
“Was it a loose tooth?”
"It was not a loose tooth at all.”
“Oh no!”
“It was not ready to go, and I just ripped it out."
After high school, Apatow went on to study theater at Northwestern University, but she
decided to take a break.
However, as she told Vanity Fair, before she was able to go back, she wound up being cast
in "Euphoria."
She said,
"I wanted to make sure if I was leaving school to act that it was worth it, and 'Euphoria'
is unlike anything I've ever seen."
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