Having the last laugh?

By Lauren Krotosky - Thursday 27th 2009f August 2009


Jewish kings of comedy team up for film about dilemmas faced by a dying comic

Filmmaker Judd Apatow has proven that when it comes to comedy, nothing - not even middle-aged virginity or unwanted pregnancy - is sacred territory. Both his breakthrough 2005 feature, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and 2007 follow-up, Knocked Up, were critical and box-office smashes that allowed audiences to collectively share in the most painfully funny moments of their lives.

In his third time directing a film, Apatow finds humour in one of the biggest struggles of a person's lifetime. He directs Adam Sandler (I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, Anger Management), Seth Rogen (Knocked Up, Pineapple Express) and Leslie Mann (Knocked Up, The 40-Year-Old Virgin) in Funny People, the story of a famous comedian who has a near-death experience... and what he does with a second chance. Apatow addresses a question that hasn't been touched with such trademark bluntness: If you had the chance to start all over again, would you be the same jerk you always were?

After the success of The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up, Apatow decided he wanted his third story to revolve around the people he had grown up alongside in the comedy world. He was curious to explore the reasons performers were drawn into stand-up and wondered why they tried so hard to get attention as they plunged into the "terror of revealing themselves." Was it a desire to please audiences? Or was it simply egocentrism mixed with an inability to intimately connect with others unless they were on stage? "As a person working in comedy I often think, 'Why do I do this? What's wrong with me? What led me here?'" reveals Apatow.

As he began to write Funny People, he drew inspiration from a freak, life-changing occurrence that happened at his Southern California home in 1994. "When the Northridge earthquake hit, my chimney fell through the roof of my bedroom," explains the director. "The only reason I wasn't there was because I was painting the house. For about three days, I really appreciated life... but just for three days. The movie is based on that idea: If you survive, do you learn anything from it that you keep using in your life?"

There were also more intimate reasons that prompted Apatow to create a screenplay in which his protagonist realises he is dying. He offers, "In recent years, I've had people in my life who have been ill. You see how those who know they're sick struggle with how to live. They also look at how they feel about the way they lived before they got sick."

He found it sobering to see that people weren't always thrilled with the results of the self-examination and could easily begin to revert to old habits. "When people get better, I wondered if they can take that fear, terror and opportunity to understand what's important in life and use it. Or are they thrown by the fact that it's really hard, and a week later, they're back on the same treadmill?"

For the primary comedians in his story, he imagined George Simmons, a superstar struck with a rare form of leukemia who is forced to reevaluate his life, and Ira Wright, the up-and-coming comic who idolises George and whom George reluctantly mentors. "I've had a lot of people who have been kind and mentored me, so I understand that relationship," the director says. "They were kind, generous, normal comedians, some of whom were brilliant. But I thought, 'What if one of those comedians I knew was not very nice and had really serious problems?' George and Ira are a fabricated version of that scenario."

Soon after Judd Apatow wrapped Knocked Up, he showed an early cut of the film to longtime friend Adam Sandler and mentioned he had a project they might do together. Sandler called Apatow and said whatever the project was, he knew he would be on board. Recalling the process of shooting Funny People, Sandler laughs, "We decided to do this whole thing before I even saw a script or knew the full idea. Apatow just told me what it was about and then I said, 'All right, I'll do it.'"

Sandler liked that, at a young age, George faced something we must all deal with: our mortality. "The film is about a man's struggle with what he should have learned and didn't," he says. "George isn't tight with family or any friends. He's a sad soul who doesn't like to cry. You never see him going, 'Oh my God! Life's horrible!'"

About filming Sandler, Apatow adds: "I didn't talk a lot with Adam about the movie's darker aspects. I knew he's a great actor who is brave and willing to be emotionally available, and I trusted his instincts. There were moments when I needed to push something or ask for a little more or less, but his struggle with those emotions is what the movie's about."

Apatow was surprised by his reaction when filming key scenes for Funny People with Sandler. "When we shot the scenes where Adam was sick, it was just devastating," he relates. "I'm used to doing somewhat light comedy, and we would show up on set and suddenly we had to think, 'How do we make this feel like a guy is really going to die?' Then you realise Adam has to go there. He was performing a scene, and I was at the monitor trying to stand in a way that no one could see I was crying on the set. At the same time, some of the dramatic scenes that were the hardest to shoot had the biggest laughs because it's happening to a comedian. His way of coping is by making jokes."

When creating the part of struggling stand-up Ira, Apatow was inspired by his days watching Sandler as a young comic. This role would go to the director's frequent actor, Seth Rogen, who describes Ira as "a pretty good writer, but not great performer. He works at a deli and lives with two guys who are arguably funnier and much more successful. Ira meets George and catches a break when George hires him as his assistant and joke writer."

George has grown into someone few want to be around, and he takes his anger and frustration out on Ira. Rogen rehearsed with Sandler so they could find the comedy that came from George's behavior to his new assistant/confidante; they decided how the two men would argue and, subsequently, bond. The role play gave both men a sense of how it would develop: George enjoying incessantly bagging on his young protégé as Ira enjoyed the career break and access to the big time... while slowly gaining a sense of confidence as a performer and as a young man.

While Rogen - who based much of his performances on an impression of Apatow - was supposed to be a rookie comic, it would prove difficult to convince audiences who saw his stand-up to buy that during filming. Apatow explains: "Seth's character was written to not do so well when he does stand-up. But he just kept bringing the house down. He can't even fake being a bad comedian."

Funny People opens at cinemas nationwide tomorrow