Episode 73: Knocked Up with Judd Apatow

Judd Apatow really needs little in the way of introduction. After all, he’s a filmmaker synonymous with an entire era of American comedy – that mid-’00s explosion of films about incapable men grappling with the realisation that it’s about time they grew up. There’s The 40-Year-Old Virgin, which Apatow wrote and directed. There’s the cult classic music biopic satire Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, which he co-wrote with Jake Kasdan. The Cable Guy, Anchorman, Talladega Nights, Superbad, Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Step Brothers, meanwhile, are just some of the projects he’s served on as a producer. Since then, a remarkable run of dramadies has seen his comic signature evolve into something more tender: films like Funny People, This Is 40 and The King of Staten Island are all funny, sure, but there’s an introspection to his work nowadays that has updated the Apatow brand to encompass poignancy and emotion like never before.

On this week’s episode, Judd revisits one of his best-loved movies – 2007’s Knocked Up. But it’s not his first draft we delve into. Instead, as a window into his creative process, we uncover emails that the filmmaker sent to himself in the run-up to writing that movie – stream-of-consciousness splurges in his inbox, about what the comedy could be and why the prospect of a stoner played by Seth Rogen having a baby with a high-flying media personality played by Katherine Heigl would be hilarious. We talk about how his own adventures in parenthood with his partner Leslie Mann inspired the film, how the film broke American taboos around pregnancy – and where next for Judd, after three decades of celebrated storytelling.

Script Apart is hosted by Al Horner and produced by Kamil Dymek. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram, or email us on thescriptapartpodcast@gmail.com.

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