Acting is of course a hard-knock lifestyle, with daily judgments from casting directors, filmmakers, audiences, and then finally 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, which is excerpted here, for H Magazine. For separate talk about the movie’s 83 frames of penis, meanwhile, click here.
