Leslie Mann and Judd Apatow share their thoughts on working together for ‘This is 40‘ and parenting their daughters in Hollywood.
The celebrity couple, married since 1997, do their best to collaborate on projects when they can. Such is the case with the upcoming flick ‘This is 40’, which was written and directed by Judd and stars Leslie and Paul Rudd (reprising the roles of their ‘Knocked Up‘ characters). They dished with Marie Claire in the December issue.
Leslie on providing a healthy normal life for their daughters, Maude and Iris: “I am always jealous of people” [who grew up with married parents in the suburbs]. “I feel like they have such an advantage over everyone – unless the [parents] are, like, raging alcoholics and beating [their kids]. But to have the parents stay together and have that stability, I just feel people like that are so much more solid. Is that a lie I tell myself?”
Leslie on finding her way into comedy: “I didn’t think, I want to do dramas or I want to do comedies – I wasn’t clear in that way. I remember going out on more dramatic auditions, and people were laughing at me. And over the course of a year and a bunch of auditions, I kind of wound up here.”
Judd on the writing process for ‘This is 40’: “I wanted to make a movie about this turning point in people’s lives, so we start kicking around ideas for scenes and it becomes a coded way for us to have a discussion with each other about sensitive issues.”
Leslie on Judd casting her in his films, including Knocked Up and his new film, This Is 40: “It’s so nice to be able to have a say in things and Judd being open to collaborating because I’m very helpful in that area. And that’s why working with him is so great, because I get to have a say in things where normally I wouldn’t.”
Leslie on breaking her toe on the set of the Marie Claire photo shoot: [The photographer was going for a “deconstructed gown kind of thing” and asked Mann to jump back and forth in an attempt to get her Gucci dress to billow.] “I felt like such a dork…I’m leaping, and the fans were blowing, and the dress would fly up, and I was barefoot. That’s the other thing – I have giant feet, and they are not attractive at all.” [Mann didn’t say anything when her toe got caught under her foot and snapped; she didn’t want to seem like a pain in the ass.]
Photo Courtesy of Marie Claire
