Judd Apatow’s films, including The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up, have addressed a number of important adult benchmarks, from falling in love to having kids to dealing with success. But in This Is 40, the filmmaker pays tribute to marriage – in particular, the wives who endure (and prevail over) their mates.
“It’s a salute to all of the women who have husbands who drive them crazy,” Apatow told Celebuzz.
Apatow is notoriously honest about relationships in his films, not just chronicling many of his own experiences but even casting his wife, Leslie Mann, and daughters Maude and Iris. At the same time, he characterizes the end result as a mishmash of real-life conflicts and the aggregated drama of his friends and family’s relationships.
“It’s everything I’m thinking about, dramatized,” he said. “I’m a clock-watcher, as is Leslie. And some of it is observed from our house, but some of it is observed from our friends, and a lot of it is Paul [Rudd]’s relationship. It’s a weird morphing of what everyone’s going through.”
This Is 40 opens in theaters nationwide December 21. Watch Celebuzz’ interview with stars Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann and let us know what in the film you could relate to in the comments section below!
