Movies

After a difficult decade in network TV comedy, writer/director/
producer Judd Apatow has developed a Midas touch in films, with the uninterrupted successes of The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up and Superbad.

Apatow's latest, Drillbit Taylor, a high school comedy based on a John Hughes script, starring Owen Wilson as an inept bodyguard to three freshman geeks, opens nationwide Friday.

In a phone interview, he discussed how he learned to be funny, his practice of working with a stock company of actor/writers and why he hates exotic locations.

Q. There are names for all sorts of genres, from chick flicks to brat-pack movies. But there isn't a category description for the kind of distinctive films you make. What would you like people to call them?

A. I always refer to what I'm trying to do as filthy James Brooks movies. He's the man that I look up to and is probably my biggest influence. James Brooks and Cameron Crowe and Hal Ashby and Garry Shandling. I always go back to episodes of Taxi. They were really broad but really funny and had a great human quality to them.

Q. You work with the same performers time and again, bringing them up from cameos to starring roles and screenwriting. How did you develop that approach?

A. I guess it was because I was friends with a lot of people who became comedy stars and I saw how difficult the struggle is to be given the chance to be the lead in a movie. Adam Sandler had to write a movie for himself and that's how he became a movie star, he wrote Billy Madison. And Jim Carrey wrote Ace Ventura.

So I encourage the people that I think are funny to write themselves into the process. Seth Rogen wrote Superbad, and Jason Segel wrote (next month's) Forgetting Sarah Marshall. And that becomes an avenue for them to create a project that is tailored to what their talent is.

Q. You also work frequently with your wife, Leslie Mann, who is the female lead in Drillbit Taylor, and you cast your own children as the kids in Knocked Up. Are there any disadvantages to working with your family?

A. Leslie and I met on the set of The Cable Guy, which I produced and she was the lead of, so that worked out. We had a blast on The 40 Year Old Virgin, and when it was time to do Knocked Up I was trying to write a story that was more personal. I thought it would be interesting to have Leslie's children played by my kids so it would feel more like a real family. It gives it some authenticity.

Q. What about having your wife kissing all these other guys?

A. I can't say I enjoy it. I didn't enjoy having her kissing Owen Wilson. I left early that day.