Steve Carell’s The 40-Year-Old Virgin is often regarded as one of the funniest films of the 2000s and was instrumental in introducing many future stars. Judd Apatow’s directorial debut saw Carell leading a film for the first time and also featured Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, Catherine Keener, Romany Malco, Leslie Mann, and Elizabeth Banks.
The film was reportedly based on a sketch that Carell had envisioned while he was performing improv comedy with the Chicago-based troupe The Second City. He mentioned that he pitched the idea as a last-minute ditch attempt after talking about multiple ideas with Apatow. He also said that the film was greenlit in a few weeks.
Steve Carell’s Legendary Comedy Was Based On A Sketch He Envisioned Years Ago
Before Steve Carell became the most adorable supervillain Gru and the world’s best boss, Michael Scott, he was a struggling actor working as a comedian. He had his breakthrough with the film Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, where he had a supporting role as the clueless weatherman Brick Tamland.
Judd Apatow was reportedly a producer on the film and was so impressed by Carell’s performance that he invited him to pitch ideas for a film with him in the lead. The resulting film was the cult comedy The 40-Year-Old Virgin, which became a huge success and propelled Apatow and Carell into global stardom.
Carell mentioned in an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that they discussed several ideas for a feature film but got nowhere. However, Carell still had one idea that he had created while he was performing with The Second City in Chicago but had never made it into the show. He said,
There was one character I was working on, and it was a poker scene. The guy and all of his friends are talking about s*x and they’re trying to regale each other with all these stories of sexual conquest. My guy didn’t have any sort of context, no frame of reference, and obviously was trying to lie.
This idea reportedly became The 40-Year-Old Virgin, which was also Apatow’s directorial debut. The filmmaker confirmed the events in a separate interview with Vanity Fair.
Judd Apatow Never Said ‘Cut’ While Filming The 40-Year-Old Virgin
Judd Apatow’s films and shows are best known for their improvisational nature. Maybe because of his background in stand-up comedy and improv theater, Apatow also hired actors who were good at coming up with lines on the fly like Seth Rogen, Steve Carell, Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd, Jonah Hill, and more.
Catherine Keener, who played Trish in The 40-Year-Old Virgin, revealed that Apatow would rarely yell cut while on set and they would just keep burning through film rolls to capture the actors improvising. She said in an interview with NPR,
Judd, he never really would even say cut. He would just say reload. I mean, we just burn right through a whole – they call them mags, magazines, film because everyone was just wildly improvising. It was hysterically funny.
She also mentioned that everyone on set would give real-time feedback and recounted how she made Seth Rogen laugh one day.
The 40-Year-Old Virgin is currently available to stream on Apple TV+.
