The Origin of Knocked Up: “What happened was after Virgin, Seth and I were talking about writing something for him. All of his ideas were giant science fiction movies. They were very high concept. And I said, ‘Seth, you don’t need a big concept to be funny. In Virgin you’re funny just standing there talking. You just need a situation that’s funny because you’re in it, as opposed to somebody else. Like, you get a girl pregnant—and that’s just funny because it’s you.’ And that’s how the idea started.”
Who is This Guy?: Told that Rogen said his character’s sort of based on Apatow, the writer/director responded, “Yeah, it’s based on all of us. It’s based on Paul [Rudd] and Seth… I mean everybody puts their distinctive stamp on these situations. I look at it as part of my Pat Robertson moral trilogy: The first movie is the anti-sex before marriage. This is the anti-abortion movie. Soon it’ll be the anti-Jew movie and then I’ll realize I’m Jewish and get all confused. Because I keep making these movies and saying, ‘Wow they’re dirty!’ but they have these really moralistic messages. How’s this happening? They keep slipping in.
I basically try to make all these movies with the thought that they’re about trying hard not to be an a**hole. Any journey towards learning how to be a good person is funny to me, and what it takes to get there. I look at the movie as a story that talks about how hard it is to be married and to have children, but also how great it is. That it’s a constant education in being an adult and doing the right thing, so there’s a lot of my thoughts about those issues.”
Reuniting with His 40 Year Old Virgin Cast: “The people from Virgin worked together very well - Seth [Rogen] and Paul [Rudd] and Leslie [Mann] - so there’s a shorthand there. Everyone understands the process. Then for the new people who join us like Katy [Heigl], they easily fall into what we’re doing because everybody is so in-sync. In that sense, it’s been fun. We’re just trying to take advantage of the real relationships people have. When Seth has four friends in the movie, they are actually played by his four best friends in real life. And when they start talking, it just feels very genuine and funny, in the way that they’re funny if you hangout with them.”
Hiring His Own Kids for Knocked Up: Apatow said that decision was his alone. “It was definitely my choice. I just thought that whenever you see kids in movies they always feel scripted and stiff. And if I had my kids there with us, they would act like normal children and do things that kids don’t do because my kids do all sorts of weird things. They’re really funny and then they’re pissed off, and then they’re suddenly happy again and there’s violent mood swings all day long. There’s a potential for violence and then they just kiss you hard. I thought if I could capture any bit of that, it would show people what being a parent is actually about.
I was nervous about it because I thought if this doesn’t go well it could be a disaster. ‘I’ve already ended their acting careers.’ I said, ‘Your acting career ends Friday at six o’clock.’ But, you know, I thought it could really be a disaster if they refused to do it. They could show up at work and say, ‘I want to go home…’ and then I’m a lunatic if I don’t let them.”
It helps that mom [actress Leslie Mann] is on the set anyway. “Yeah, she’s acting with her mom and I’m right there. If her mom goes, ‘What do you want for breakfast?’ and she just answers and forgets the cameras are there, you really see the kind of conversations that they have. It’s funny and sweet and very weird at times. And they’ve gotten good at improvising, which is somewhat shocking. Or I can feed them lines and they will repeat them. I said to Iris, it’s true, I said, ‘After Seth walks away, turn to Paul Rudd and say he looks like Winnie the Pooh.’ She just turned and went, ‘He looks like Winnie the Pooh,’ without missing a beat.
Maude went on a rant yesterday in a scene how she thinks babies are born. I said, ‘Say whatever you want, Maude.’ And she went into this really long, bizarre explanation about storks have these eggs that are invisible and they go through your head and they go into your stomach and you push your bellybutton and your butt falls off and it falls out your butt. It goes in the dirt and you dig it out and you hit it with a hammer and then [there’s a] little tiny bird baby and it’s already wearing clothes. She was just going and going.”
