Knock knock ... look who's there
By Robert Davis
Knocked Up has been the surprise hit of the US summer, and now it reaches the UK. On the heels of 2005’s blockbuster The 40-Year-Old Virgin, writer/director Judd Apatow brings us a comedy about a one-night stand with unexpected consequences. As the name suggests, the main story concerns pregnancy — in this instance, a definitely unplanned pregnancy. Stars Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd were in London last week to promote the film ...
Q: Seth, was there any indication when you were making the film that it would be this big a hit?
Rogen: Really not at all. We were shocked when 40-Year-Old Virgin was so big. We’re not the guys who go, "Well, we did it once, we can do it again." We’re the guys who say, "It happened once, it’ll never happen again." We thought it was funny and we hoped that other people would think it was funny, but not everyone in the past has agreed with us on what is funny. You think maybe we’re crazy and this isn’t funny at all, and that’s why we’re so open and shoot a lot of material because we never know what people are going to laugh at.
Q: You and writer/director Judd Apatow are close friends — was there a risk of in-jokes?
Rogen: There are tons of scenes we shot where we are literally the only ones in the world that would find it funny.
Q: How do you feel about this "new comedy mafa" tag?
Rogen: It really doesn’t feel that way. It’s always flattering when people want to lump you in with the people that I think are the funniest people in the world, but there is no "frat pack" as people say. We actually are friends, that might be the real difference. I think the difference between us and the quote unquote Frat Pack, is that we are friends. Saying that, I imagine people will be well and truly sick of seeing us together fairly soon. And we’ll be forced to disperse...
Q: Paul, you've been doing a lot of press recently. Is there anything you thought you were going to be asked that you haven’t been asked yet? Any great answer you had prepped that you haven’t been able to use yet?
Rudd: Here’s the thing. I’m lazy. I don’t sit down for even five minutes and think well, this is a question I will probably get asked, what’s a clever answer? Instead I don’t think about any of it and then I get asked then I start stuttering and I try and make a joke and then, inevitably, I’ll just make some weird random joke about my testicles or something and it falls flat and everyone is uncomfortable for the rest of the interview.
Q: Indeed. Moving swiftly on then... your character, the marriage, the big secret... it’s very well drawn.
Rudd: Yeah, and then you’re caught and it’s ridiculous and the argument that follows isn’t really funny... it’s actually sad and I think pretty realistic. There are things in this movie that are out of my marriage and out of Judd’s. Many people have come up to both Leslie and me and said, "Wow, some of those things you guys said in that film, we’ve had that row." My wife and I have a baby and I didn’t read any of those books and I was telling Judd and, understandably, my wife took that as something of a hostile gesture. Which I never intended it to be, I just thought, like Seth in the film, do I really need to read a book? Isn’t nature just going to take over? What did they do 100 years ago when they didn’t have "What To Expect When You’re Expecting"? But then I think probably in those really terrifying moments I was thinking if I read these, then it makes it real and I’m going to get really scared. And that stuff is in the movie. So... we do bring a lot of our own lives to the film. I have no problem in keeping a secret but that Fantasy Baseball sequence. I do that in my own life and my wife has said: I am so sick of looking at your back, because I’m at the computer seeing what Jose Reyes did, did he get any stolen bases and that’s also something we put in the movie. And the arguments sometimes, we’ll go off the page a little bit and see what happens.
Q: Has that spirit of collaboration given you writing or directing aspirations?
Rudd: I think writing more so than directing at this point, but I think so, yeah. I feel al ittle spoiled working on these movies because there is such a sense of collaboration, such a creative outlet, more so than just memorising lines and standing on a "X". I think writing stuff and working it with this group of people has just been really fun.
Q: Seth, there’s a real sense of heart to the film, it’s not just crass stuff. That genitals and truth thing...
Rogen: Dick and heart. The two most important organs I think. To me, that’s just what life is like. When you’re me. When you’re friends with the guys that are in the movie or guys like Judd, you know, that is what life is like. We try and have a light attitude, we joke around a lot and we’re all perverse by nature.
Q: You originally met Judd on the TV show Freaks & Geeks?
Rogen: It’s kind of the best thing we’ve ever done. The way we look at it it’s not like we started there and slowly got better. It’s like we miraculously did the best show ever and we’re just trying to get back to that. Maybe that’s why we keep working with all the same actors. We’re trying to recreate that moment.
Q: You’re an unconventional leading man /romantic hero. Thank you for giving hope to the normal guys.
Rogen: It’s funny. There have always been people who looked like me in comedies but not really in romantic movies. To me that’s really strange. When I look at someone like Brad Pitt... I don’t know anyone like that. No part of me relates to that in any way. I think he’s a great actor. And I want to fuck him! But no part of me relates to him. I hope it becomes more acceptable and we get more normal looking dudes on screen.
Q: Have you noticed more female attention since Knocked Up hit big?
Rogen: I have a girlfriend and we’ve been together for two years. I genuinely never go to bars and as soon as women start talk to me I try to end the conversation...
Q: And next it's Pineapple Express...
Rogen: We finished shooting that a few months ago and I’m really psyched about that. It’s a weed action comedy — which doesn’t sound good.
Q: A weed action movie? I sense a pattern emerging.
Rogen: Exactly! But we took Judd’s pattern of putting a sweet emotional story into any movie and we thought how about we do that and put it in an action comedy movie? It’s me and James Franco. I’m a process server, he’s my weed dealer, who I don’t really like but he likes me and wants to hang out all the time, and I witness a murder and we’re thrust into this chase together. It’s a real 80s action-style movie, a bit like Midnight Run with weed. David Gordon Green directed it. He’s made some real artsy movies in the past, like George Washington, and he’s just made one called The Snow Angels, with Kate Beckinsale, which is probably the most depressing movie I’ve ever seen. But we met him and he’s hilarious and we thought, if we have this guy direct our weed action movie, that could really add a strange spin.
Q: Any other genres you want to play around with?
Rogen: We love action movies. Now we’re going to write the Green Hornet movie. We’re going to see what we can do with that. We’re psyched about that.
• Watch the "X-rated" Knocked Up trailer: WMV | RM | QT
