Leslie Mann and Paul Rudd co-star as a married couple with kids in the Universal Pictures comedy, Knocked Up, written and directed by Judd Apatow. Knocked Up is a real family affair with Mann and Apatow’s two young daughters making their big screen acting debuts in the film. And Rudd has become one of Apatow’s go-to guys for supporting roles so he could sort of be considered an extended member of the Apatow family.
But Mann says her husband wasn’t always sure Rudd was right for his brand of comedy. Mann revealed that Apatow used to think Rudd was a ‘pretty boy’ and wasn’t sure he would fit in. Rudd said he’s the one who actually reached out to the filmmaker via email. The two sent friendly emails back and forth for a year before Rudd met Apatow for the first time when they worked together on Anchorman (which Apatow produced).
On Working with Judd Apatow: “To create such a nice working environment, like a very safe working environment for an actor, so you feel like everything you do is okay and good, so you're more willing to try things and explore, and you never feel judged by him, like you're doing something wrong and stupid - that's how he gets great performances out of people, I think,” explained Mann.
Rudd agreed with his onscreen wife. “Yeah, you're right. You never are in a case of wondering, ‘Oh god, did I just go too far with that?’ He just won't use it, because I think we all have. Yeah, especially me. Sometimes in an improvisation or something it will go in a completely different way than what might be in the script, and he'll encourage that. He certainly feels comfortable enough to spend the time going in a direction that is completely new. He can process all that in his head while knowing that this will fit into what the next thing's going to be. And he's so funny himself. He'll yell out a line while we're shooting a scene, and we'll just incorporate what he says into the scene, hopefully without stopping.”
Acting with Her Kids: Leslie Mann and Judd Apatow’s daughters Maude and Iris play Mann and Paul Rudd’s kids in the film – and they’re great little actors. But Mann admits to being a little leery of letting her kids play the roles. “I didn't want to put them in the movie, but Judd, he thought that it was a good idea. Time passed by, and I was saying no, no, no. And then I'm like, ‘I don’t know, maybe.’ Then it was like a week before and he said, ‘You have to tell me now.’ He would ask me when I was really busy, so I couldn't really focus on it and then it ended up just happening. But it's okay.”
Maude was even able to improvise a lengthy description of where babies come from. “She was just so good,” said Mann. “I'm trying to think of what we said to her. We just told her she would need to talk about how babies were born. You know, that's as much as we told her, and then she improvised that, right.”
Rudd added, “Yeah, yeah. She was sitting at the table and came up with several different explanations.” “That was all her,” explained Mann, proudly. “She's very comfortable improvising. We had three cameras on her, people standing all around her, and she was so comfortable and really funny — and good. So it worked out…so far.”
Enjoying Even the Serious Parts of Knocked Up: Rudd said he believes it was important to include a few serious moments here and there to keep things realistic. “That scene, for instance, in the driveway, that hurt that Leslie's feeling, and the confusion, the stuff I'm saying, it's because we do kind of love each other. The tough parts of the marriage is heightened because it's a comedy. But we both, Judd and I, talked about [it]. You have to believe that these people are married, and why would they stay together freely? So if you can have a couple of moments where you see that they love each other, the birthday party, talking about the cupcakes... Otherwise, it's just a one-dimensional cartoon.”
The Male Dynamics of the Knocked Up Set: Mann recalls one specific experience in particular on the male dominated set. “You know, one day at the end of shooting the movie, I was stuck in the hospital room, in the waiting room area, with all of the boys during the birth scene. I was so disgusted by — all they talk about is like porn sites. It's real! The way they talk in the movie, that's how they talk. And I had to sit there all day with them and [to Paul Rudd] you. And he knows all about that stuff, too. I just had to sit there and listen to them talk the dirty — you know, DIRTY stuff - like you just don't hear, that I'd never heard about.”
