Steve Carell was on Conan tonight and the TBS late night host asked him if it is true that The 40 Year Old Virgin almost didn’t happen. Carell told him that is true and explained what happened. After the first week of filming, Judd Apatow got a call from the big wigs at Universal and they said they wanted to talk to them because they were shutting them down production. At the meeting the execs said, “We’ve been watching footage…You look like a serial killer.”
They were judging this even though they had not shot any dialogue during their first four days of filming. At that point all they filmed was him riding his bike with a helmet and him walking looking at posters on the street. Which seems weird that they came to that assumption.
Luckily for us, they didn’t listen and went right filming that Monday. Can you imagine if that film never got released? All the other films of Carell and Apatow’s that might not have happened. This movie really launched both of their big screen careers.
