Knocked Up
Judd Apatow Talks Knocked Up
"I just filled a room with babies and just positioned them in the room," said Apatow. "Some are the babies of crewmembers and some are babies that are baby actors."
Despite warnings about working with children, there is a healthy business of baby actors in Hollywood. "There is a whole world of baby actors that you don’t know about. If I needed a baby this afternoon, I could get a baby if I had the money to act with. There are some very nice people who have twins and if one is crying then you bring in the other one. We are always very careful with them, because at some level it’s odd there is a baby there and it feels wrong. So, we try to shoot them very quickly and then have them leave. Especially when the baby is born and they are handed the baby, it’s difficult, because you want a baby that’s teeny, because it would look weird if a baby came out and was talking. And then you are scared to even have to hold the baby. The guy who delivers the baby, Ken Jeong, is actually a doctor in real life and he was terrified holding this little baby even though he knows how to do it."
In addition to all the babies, Apatow also cast a slew of fellow Jews. "We are like the Spice Girls of Jews. That’s how I look at. I didn’t set out to make the movie too Jew-centric, to create a word for this conversation, but Seth is a Jewish guy and all his friends are Jewish, at least the ones I cast in the movie, so I thought it’d be funny that they talk about it, because it’s truthful to their experience. I didn’t set out to make any kind of statement like ‘You can have five Jews in a movie.’ I think we saw that can be done in The Chosen. But, if they were all some other religion, I would have had them talking about that. I didn’t want to shy away from it. I thought it was fun not to shy away from it. That these young Jewish guys are proud to be Jewish and they talk about Munich and their Jewfro style hairstyles and that it’s all O.K. I think there is a classic clash in film comedy between Jewish guys and non-Jewish women trying to figure each other. Whether it’s in When Harry Met Sally or Annie Hall, it’s always funny to see the Jews trying to make women happy and fail."
Apatow also addressed such serious childbirth topics like abortion, though never let it ruin the comedy. "From the very beginning we knew we wanted to have a moment where Seth and his idiotic stone friends debate abortion. And we actually improvised for five hours, these guys debating the issue. Some of it you will see on the DVD. And it’s very, very funny, but really shocking and disturbing but it is part of the movie, because the movie is about two people trying to decide how they are going to handle the fact that a baby is coming. And the first decision you make is, ‘Am I going to keep the baby?’ And part of what is interesting to me is that it’s two people trying to do the right thing and keep the baby. And they are trying to decide if they ever could like each other which is probably something most people don’t do and that’s what hopefully makes it an original concept. I am pro chose and I don’t think anyone should tell anyone else what to do with their bodies or their points of view. I think those decisions are very personal and no one has the answer, so I am pretty solid in that position. But, I also think it’s a very interesting story when you decide not to get an abortion. Everyone has their own take on it and subjective view on it. In terms of the comedy in terms of what I’ll show or what I won’t show, I just want it to seem real."
Knocked Up opens to
theatres June 1st.
For trailers, interviews, stills and more movie info, go to the Knocked
Up Movie Page.
Stay tuned for updates.
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