Judd Apatow revealed that he felt very emotional when watching his daughter Maude Apatow act in “Euphoria.” The star director recently opened up to Entertainment Tonight‘s Will Marfuggi at the Annual Directors Guild of America Awards where he gushed over his daughter’s acting success.
I’m just in a puddle,” Judd admitted to ET of watching Maude play Lexi on “Euphoria.” “I’m just bawling and crying.”
“I’m excited to watch it again, because it was really emotional watching it the first time, because of the show and also because of how amazing she was in it, I thought,” he added.
He also said that he and wife Leslie Mann were thrilled that their daughter was “doing the things she loves doing and doing an incredible job.”
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Maude plays Lexi in “Euphoria,” whose plot follows a group of high school students navigating friendship and love in a world of sex, trauma, drugs, and social media. The second season was a hit for Maude as her character produced a play about her life and sizzling romance with Fezco, who was played by Angus Cloud.
However, Judd wasn’t the only one who loved Maude’s acting skills; the director of “Euphoria” admitted being blown away by all of Maude’s work. “She touches you but at the same time she has a real comic edge to her as an actress and that’s my favorite style of acting,” he said. “She gets a lot of that from her mom who has always been so amazing at playing things truthfully and even the scenes that are tough, she finds a way to make them very funny at the same time.”
The Father-Daughter Duo Have Worked Together
The pair have worked together on many of his productions, including 2020’s “The King Of Staten Island,” which starred Pete Davison.
Maude also appeared in her father’s comedy movies, “This Is 40” and “Knocked Up.”
“A lot of the time, I don’t think she knew there was a camera rolling,” Judd told People of working with Maude when she was little. “I would sit her next to her sister and I would just say some key phrases and then they would just start fighting.”
She added, “I remember once, Maude had a little doll in the car and she tossed it and hit Iris on her nose. And then Iris started crying and I was like, ‘Great, we’ll use that in the movie! That’s a real moment of hostility,'” he said, joking of his younger daughter, now 19, “Years later, Iris saw it and she was like, ‘I can’t believe you used me really crying!’ So one might say, bad parenting.”
Maude Apatow Once Interviewed ‘One Direction’
Before she featured in HBO’s hit series, Maude interviewed the boy band “One Direction” ten years earlier.
In an appearance on the “Tonight Show,” she explained that when she was 13, she had a popular Twitter page and decided that she wanted to become “a child journalist.”
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“They asked me to interview One Direction on their first trip to America,” she added, “it was like the scariest thing in my life.”
Maude mentioned that her father videotaped her just before going to interview them. In the video, Maude is spotted covering her mouth and screaming, “Oh my God,” as Judd whispers, “In 10 minutes, you’ll be in the room with One Direction! Let’s go!”
She admitted not to having seen the outcome of the interview. “I honestly don’t know if I did such a great job. It couldn’t have been good.”
Although she got to see the band in a concert after her interview, she admitted that “it was even worse then.”
She Had Always Wanted To Be In The Entertainment Industry
Due to her early exposure to the film industry, she had always known what she wanted to do for a living. Although she was enamored with acting, her parents insisted she go to school until she became a legal adult.
“My parents didn’t allow me to do anything else, but they weren’t involved until I was a little bit older. They thought it was important for me to finish high school, and I’m glad that I did, but the second I graduated, I was like, ‘Let’s go!’ I guess I always knew that I wanted to do this ’cause I grew up around it, but I also couldn’t imagine doing anything else. It wasn’t even a question.”
The Actress Is Interested In Directing Too
Despite having acting skills under her belt, Maude also has a vested interest in directing. In 2017, the actress co-wrote and co-directed a movie, “Don’t Mind Alice.”
“My goal is to become a director,” the actress shared. “Getting to watch my parents work is the most amazing thing. I have great mentors. And it’s been cool watching Sam direct. Everyone directs in such a different way, and we’ve had a few directors on the show. Augustine [Frizzell] directed the pilot, and we also had Jen Morrison and Pippa Bianco. It’s been really cool, getting to see how everyone works so differently while playing the same character. I’ve never experienced that before, so that’s been really interesting.”
