Forgetting Sarah Marshall's
Nicholas Stoller
words by Brent Simon, photo by Robert Todd Williamson
Acting is of course a hard-knock lifestyle, with daily judgments from casting directors, filmmakers, audiences, and then finally there’s the actual critics. But debut directors also have it tough. First they have to compete in tooth-and-nail fashion for one of a limited number of studio jobs and then hope the movie does well enough to book another gig.
Nicholas Stoller though, had a not-so-secret weapon. A writer on TV’s Undeclared and a collaborator with Judd Apatow on the script for Fun with Dick and Jane, Stoller is the first-time helmer of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, one of a dozen movies produced by Apatow since 2005’s The 40-Year-Old Virgin hit it big at the box office. On the eve of his film’s release, we met up for a chat over coffee.
h: So is there an official “Team Apatow” handshake? Or perhaps a tattoo?
NS: No, there’s nothing official. To join the group you just have to murder a child. Well, not a child necessarily, but basically you walk into Judd’s office and he says a number, and that’s the age of the person you have to murder. Otherwise we all just get along, and have the same comic sensibilities.
h: As a first-time director, even with Judd on your side, [were] the meetings at Universal a smooth sell, or was there still some trepidation?
NS: Well, this is a sign of how much leverage Judd has right now – it was a meeting, singular, it wasn’t meetings, which was kind of crazy. This was my first directorial thing, and when I was in the lobby at Universal with Judd, walking up, I was telling him how I was going to talk about how I’d been on a lot of sets, because I had been, and pitched jokes and been around actors. And he said, “Don’t say that, you’ll sound desperate. Just be quiet and cocky.” So that’s what I did.
h: Everyone says “I want to direct” but was this always on the agenda?
NS: Oh yeah, I mean this happened much faster than I thought it would, and I thought I’d have to direct Fart College 8 before I got to do something like this.
h: Something with a skating chimpanzee, perhaps...
NS: Exactly! I thought it was going to involve a lot of chimps doing the chimp smile, and holding up Grandma’s most expensive dish, and dropping it. But this is exactly the kind of movie that I would have wanted to do, and did enjoy making.
h: Whatever the exact words used, there’s been a lot of talk about the rise of schlubby guy-hot girl comedies, and new romantic comedy male archetypes. To your mind is there substance to that notion?
NS: It kind of confuses me, because I feel like forever comedy stars aren’t like George Clooney. I mean, he’s funny, but they’re not like that type, you know? Especially comedians like (Adam) Sandler, or Will Ferrell, Jack Black, Steve Martin – none of them would win a male beauty pageant, they just have that everyman quality. And also I get confused too, because I personally think that Jason (Segel) is really good-looking. I mean, he’s not really built or anything, but I think he’s good-looking the way Tom Hanks is good-looking. So when everyone is like, “He’s just a big, doughy dude,” I’m like, ‘Really? I thought he was kind of cute.’
h: So tell me about the burdens of shooting in Hawaii.
NS: Oh yeah, it was rough. (laughs) A lot of our extras were “Others” on Lost, and they’d be like, “I can’t tell you [what happens], but you know when they kill Mr. Ecko – that foot that goes by? That’s my foot.”
h: So I’ve managed to go this far in the interview without talking about rocking out with one’s cock out. I was wondering what percentage of interviews you’ve done for the film where the first question was about its male nudity?
NS: I would say 98 percent of the press junket has been devoted to talking about us showing [Jason’s] penis. It’s kind of a genius move that we did it. I’m going to put it in all my movies now. It was scripted by Jason, and he said early on that he should just show it. I said you can’t, because I was pretty sure that was the rule: You’re not allowed to show your penis, [unless you’re] Harvey Keitel. So then Jason did it, and this is true – it turns out the rule with the MPAA is that it can’t be above 90 degrees. If it’s above 90 degrees, it’s NC-17. And if you watch The 40-Year-Old Virgin, for example, there’s a whole sequence at the beginning where he has a boner, and it’s always at like, an 85- or 80-degree angle. Even in pants, you’d get a NC-17.
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