Nicholas Stoller: Muppets, Break-Ups and Full-Frontal Nudity

Hometown: Miami
Film: Forgetting Sarah Marshall
For Fans Of: Superbad, Knocked Up

"From the guys who brought you The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up”—there’s so much blinding power to this phrase, you can practically hear the angels sing. It says: Judd Apatow, in all his comedy-producing glory, has blessed this film. Basking in the light of the almighty Apatow is Nicholas Stoller, the 32-year-old director of Forgetting Sarah Marshall, a sweetly raw comedy about getting over a girl during a trip to Hawaii. Written by the movie’s star, Jason Segel (How I Met Your Mother), the film features Apatow favorites Jonah Hill, Paul Rudd and Bill Hader. Paste had a chance to ask the director some questions:

PASTE: I often wonder how much of what’s onscreen in a film was explicit in the script and how much was the director’s vision. did Jason Segel write all the full-frontal nudity for himself, or was this your brainchild?
STOLLER: Actually, it follows a break-up pretty close to what had happened to Jason, where she walked in on him naked, then chose his outfit to break up with him in. But then I thought it would be funnier if he was naked the whole time, and he agreed. We figured we couldn’t do that. Then, we were having a meeting at Universal, and Judd was like, “You should show your penis in the movie. That would be hilarious.”

P: Your new project with Apatow and Segel, Five-Year Engagement, seems like a natural next step—a film about an imploding relationship. But why were you and Jason picked to do the next Muppets movie? S: We’re both huge fans of the Muppets. And really, when you strip away the cursing and penises in our movie, it has a sweet heart. And Jason’s kind of an idiot savant when it comes to Muppet stuff. When the Henson Company came and passed out puppets at a meeting, Jason held the puppet in his hand and played with it the whole time. He was making it talk. In a business meeting. We had to take the puppet away from him so he would pay attention.