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Now it's not often you can be definitive when talking about cinema. There's always an exception to the rule, an opposing view, a stone in your theoretical shoe. But here's something irrefutable. Judd Apatow is the most influential thing to have happened to American comedy in well over a decade. Writer, director, producer, executive, talent spotter and mentor, he is the powerhouse around whom a whole troop of comedy actors, an entire comedy style, in fact, has tilted. And now, Trainwreck, with comedian Amy Schumer as a confirmed bachelorette who never lets her lover sleep over until she meets a doting doctor played by Bill Hader. In many ways, Apatow might seem an unlikely champion of women's comedy because his male characters are always so much more appealing. In fact, he's frequently criticised for portraying women as shrews and for being deeply old-fashioned and conventional - all his films have happy endings including his latest. Trainwreck was written by its star Amy Schumer, but bears all the hallmarks of an Apatow production. For instance, he told me why he rejected her first screenplay and what he encouraged her to explore in this one.
"It was just a little bit more of a high concept. There were personal elements in it and I thought, oh I want the whole movie to be like that. And sometimes, you know, when movies are built on a comedic premise, it's harder to get to the truth. And so, I don't know if it's my lack of imagination, but I always push people to just get to their core truth." |