5 roles in Judd Apatow’s movies that were perfectly performed (and almost played them)
With his very popular first feature film The 40-year-old virgin, Judd Apatow created a particular brand of cinematic comedy that combined hard-R with subversive sweetness. For more than a decade, Apatow dominated the comedy film landscape with his own efforts as a director and by producing the films of other directors like Paul Feig and Adam McKay.
Apatow has built a recurring stable of actors including Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill, Paul Rudd and Kristen Wiig. Roles like Bridesmaids‘Megan, Super badis Seth, and PresenterBrick Tamland was performed perfectly, but these Apatow productions almost featured different actors.
5 Seth in Superbad
Perfect Cast: Jonah Hill
There have been a lot of steamy R-rated comedies about teens trying to fuck, but what made Super bad standing out was the dynamic shared by its stars, Jonah Hill and Michael Cera.
Hill and Cera share compelling chemistry as lifelong best friends Seth and Evan, whose dynamics take a surprisingly smooth turn as the story becomes less about sex and more about separation anxiety.
Almost Cast: Seth Rogen
Seth Rogen and his writing partner Evan Goldberg began work on the script that would eventually become Super bad when they were only 13, still in school themselves. At the time, according to Vulture, Rogen wrote the role of Seth for himself.
However, by the time they made it to Hollywood and started production on the film, Rogen was too old to convincingly play a high school student, so he instead played Officer Michaels opposite Bill Hader.
4 Aldous Snow in the memory of Sarah Marshall
Perfect Cast: Russell Brand
When Jason Segel’s Peter travels to Hawaii to recover from his breakup in Forget Sarah Marshall, he is horrified to find his ex in the same complex with a new beau: Aldous Snow, the legendary frontman of the rock band Infant Sorrow. Russell Brand hilariously played Aldous’ sobriety claim and shared terrific chemistry with Segel, Kristen Bell, and Jonah Hill.
Brand’s portrayal of Aldous proved so popular that he received his own spinoff film, Take it to greek, reuniting him with Hill, about an Aldous out of the wagon escorted to a concert by a record manager.
Almost in the cast: Charlie Hunnam
While Brand ended up being the perfect actor to play Aldous, according to CinemaBlend, Segel wrote the role with his Undeclared co-star Charlie Hunnam in mind. Playing Aldous in 2008 might have stopped Hunnam from playing his lead role in Sons of anarchy.
Hunnam explained why he turned down the role: “I was on a dark soul night in my career, at the time, and felt like I had to grab the trajectory and it didn’t fit all. just not really with, at this time of my life and my career, what I wanted to do.
3 George Simmons in Funny People
Perfect Cast: Adam Sandler
One of Apatow’s most personal films, Funny people, translates his experiences as a young stand-up comedian into the dramatic story of world-famous comedian George Simmons, diagnosed with a terminal illness and taking a protégé under his wing.
Adam Sandler was the perfect casting choice for Simmons. Much like Simmons, Sandler is a legendary comedian on the other side of the looking glass with a huge fan base and a history of critically polarizing high concept studio comedies. In addition, according to Hollywood journalistSandler used to live with Apatow in a $ 900-per-month apartment when the two were just starting out, so he was there for many of the experiences that inspired the movie.
Almost in the cast: Paul Rudd
While it seems unlikely that Sandler turned down an offer from his former roommate, The Huffington Post reports being offered the role of ‘Jew Bear’ in Quentin Tarantino’s WWII epic Inglorious Basterds at the same time as Funny people. So he had to choose between the two.
According to Vulture, if Sandler had accepted Tarantino’s offer and refused Apatow’s, Apatow would choose Paul Rudd or Jason Bateman as George Simmons. Bateman’s deadpan style would have been perfect for this role, and Rudd played the role of Apatow himself opposite his wife and daughters in In blister and It’s 40.
2 Brick Tamland as presenter
Perfect Cast: Steve Carell
One year before the double whammy of Office and The 40-year-old virgin would make Steve Carell a comedy superstar, he offered a first glimpse of his talent as less-than-intelligent meteorologist Brick Tamland in Presenter.
Carell doesn’t lean too much into the quirks of Brick’s personality, opting instead for hysterically impassive deliveries of lines like “I love the lamp” and “Where did you buy your clothes, the toilet shop?” “
Almost in the cast: Chris Parnell
According to Vulture, the original screenplay by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay for Presenter included their top casting picks for lead roles, like Ben Stiller as Brian Fantana and Ed Harris as Ed Harken. The role of Champ Kind was written for John C. Reilly, but he was busy with The aviator at the time. Reilly went on to play lead roles in Ferrell and McKay’s next two films, Nights of Talladega and Half brothers.
Chris Parnell, Ferrell’s co-star SNL, was the first choice for the role of The Brick. After Carell was cast, Parnell took on the smaller role of Garth Holliday instead.
1 Megan in the bridesmaids
Perfect Cast: Melissa McCarthy
Academy voters tend to reject comedies – especially R-rated comedies with scatological gags – but they made an exception for Bridesmaids, which received Oscar nominations for Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress for Melissa McCarthy.
McCarthy became an overnight star with her stage thief trick as Megan, who flirts with an Air Marshal, poops in a sink, and claims to have telepathically communicated with a dolphin after falling from her a cruise ship.
Almost Cast: Rebel Wilson
According to CinemaBlend, Rebel Wilson auditioned to play Megan in Bridesmaids and even made the shortlist alongside McCarthy. Although McCarthy landed the role, the producers loved Wilson so much that they created the role of Brynn for her. Annie originally only had one roommate, played by Matt Lucas, but she was given a sister so Wilson could appear in the film.
Wilson ended up appearing in some of the film’s funniest moments, like showing off her horribly infected tattoo or revealing that she had read Annie’s diary after mistaking it for “a very sad hand-written book.”
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