Twenty years ago, a seven-year-old Maude Apatow started her showbiz career with an appearance in her father Judd’s famed comedy “The 40-Year-Old Virgin.” Now, she’s making her directorial debut with “Poetic License,” a comedy premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival that stars Apatow’s mother, Leslie Mann.
Mann told TheWrap that she had been looking over Raffi Donatich’s script long before she had cast anyone for the film, but the more she read it, the more she had her mom in mind.
“There’s certain parts of the script that kind of reminded me of us and our relationship as a mother and daughter. And yeah, I think my mom’s the funniest and the best at being a grounded comedic actress, so obviously I’d want to work with her,” she said.
In “Poetic License,” Mann plays Liz, a retired therapist facing both an empty nest and a mid-life crisis when she meets two college seniors facing a quarter-life crisis of their own, played by Andrew Barth Feldman and Cooper Hoffman. The new relationship serves as a balm for the anxieties of the trio for a while, but that changes when it becomes clear to Liz that the two younger men are competing for her affections and destroying their friendship in the process.
While her father may be known for shaping the comedic tastes of millions, Apatow says she needed time to figure out her own approach to comedy, and found with “Poetic License” that she wanted her laughs to come from something down-to-earth and relatable.
“I think it is a little bit quiet and strange and grounded. I was just never trying to force the comedy,” she said. “I just wanted it to feel like as natural as possible. And we did tons of improv and tons of alts, and I was writing on the go all the time.”
Mann could not hold back her excitement on getting to work on her daughter’s film, saying it was a joy to work with Feldman and Hoffman on set and to enjoy the youthful energy of the production.
“I’m just so proud. I could just burst into tears right now,” she said. “It was so fun to be around the energy of these young people. The energy is so infectious and they’re all so excited.”
“Poetic License” is currently seeking a U.S. distributor.
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