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The A-List

The best from Hollywood: the recent movies, DVDs, CDs, and books that earned raves from EW's critics

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ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Judd, you've developed this sort of repertory company of actors and cowriters who are significantly younger than you. There's a 20-year age difference between you and Michael here.
JUDD APATOW: Jesus Christ, this just took a very dark turn. You son of a bitch. And thus began the beginning of my creative paralysis. [Laughs] It's true, though, I could be Michael Cera's dad. I could be everyone's dad here if I started having sex at 14.

From the outside, it seems unusual that you guys manage to work so well together and have such similar sensibilities.
SETH ROGEN: It's funny, when I met Judd and learned about all the stuff he did, I realized that's the stuff that directly influenced me. I mean, like, Adam Sandler's comedy albums were gold to me. Those were the first things that made me think, S---, there are things you can do with comedy I never thought you could. And Judd helped out with those.
APATOW: Very little.
ROGEN: And The Ben Stiller Show and Larry Sanders. All those things were huge.
JONAH HILL: That's how I found out who Judd was. I kind of compiled a bunch of s--- that I liked and his name was in the group of that the most.
ROGEN: You did a Bible-code-type thing.
HILL: I did a Beautiful Mind. But that's how I figured it out, because I kept seeing his name on s--- I thought was cool. [To Apatow] How does that make you feel, dude?
ROGEN: You're responsible for this filth.
APATOW: I feel so old right now. My wife was watching the trailer for Superbad and it says, ''From the guy who brought you 40 Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up,'' and she just turned to me and went, ''Great, now you've become that guy.'' [Laughs]

Judd, it must surprise you to find a guy like Michael, whose sense of comedy is so highly developed at age 19.
APATOW: I am surprised because I was so unfunny at that age. I mean, I was really not funny at all at 16, 17, 18, 19. I look back at old standup tapes and notebooks and it was really godawful and embarrassing. So yeah, to see guys who really know what they're doing and are sophisticated, it makes me ashamed of everything I did in those years. I think back to being around all those comics I admired, having them see my act and how bad it was — that's brutal. I remember being booed off the stage at UC Santa Barbara. I was opening up for Marc ''Skippy'' Price from Family Ties. I was terrible. I had a lot of jokes about condoms: ''My grandfather gave me a condom. It was made out of wicker.'' That was about the level of the act. It wasn't really at the Arrested Development level.


HILL: That's what's always so f---ing embarrassing to me, is that Seth and Michael have only done awesome s---. And when you saw Aint-It-Cool.com stuff before Superbad, the review would start out, ''Trust me, Jonah Hill is funny. Please believe us. Seriously, I know, I think he sucks, too, but then I saw this movie.'' I'd had to do s--- I wasn't super-psyched about. But all my friends have the most flawless careers of all time.
APATOW: Hey, George Clooney was in The Facts of Life. I always said to Seth from the beginning, ''Don't do anything crappy. Keep the résumé looking good so when you get your opportunity people aren't burned out on you.''
ROGEN: When I was younger, I always wondered, Why does Judd hang out with me? Doesn't he feel weird?
APATOW: Is he some kind of a pedophile?
ROGEN: But honestly, since I've met Michael, I'm like seven years older than you and it literally doesn't occur to me for a second that I'm older than you. And I'm glad because it finally gives me some insight into what it was like when people hung out with me and I was so much younger than them.

NEXT PAGE: ''Look at Mel Brooks. He's having hits at 80. He's doing Young Frankenstein on Broadway. It's possible next year won't suck.''


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