The 40 Year-Old Virgin

Fifteen years ago, Judd Apatow directed his first feature, leaping from a career in standup and TV to become the cinematic king of comedy. Total Film gets together with the writer/ director to reflect upon his cherry-popping moment…

- SIMON BLAND

When we started testing the movie it got gigantic laughs – I don’t know if I’ve ever gotten more laughs than those first test screenings for The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” admits director Judd Apatow, recalling the 2005 release of his game-changing feature debut. “It really was an opportunity to showcase all these people we thought deserved big comedy careers.” You don’t need us to tell you just how on-point Apatow’s radar is for finding funny people. After cutting his teeth on cult series Freaks And Geeks in 1999 – a project that introduced him to future collaborators Seth Rogen, James Franco and Jason Segel – he quickly set his sights on the big screen. All he needed was an idea and a comedian exciting enough to help him make the jump.

“I’d been trying to get several different movies greenlit in the years prior to The 40-Year-Old Virgin without success,” Apatow tells us between editing stints on his Pete Davidson-fronted next film, The King Of Staten Island. “I met Steve Carell when I produced Anchorman and he was just as funny as a human being could be. I asked him if he had any ideas where he would be the lead and I don’t think he had thought about that at all. I don’t believe he thought that was on the cards for him.”