Interview (Written): Amy Schumer and Judd Apatow

Vanity Fair features an excerpt from “Sick in the Head: Conversations About Life and Comedy” by Judd Apatow in which he has a wide ranging conversation with Amy Schumer. She wrote and stars in the movie Trainwreck. Judd Apatow directed it.

JUDD APATOW: I was watching a movie about women in comedy recently — I think it was called Are Women Funny? And I noticed that you weren’t in it. Was that by choice?

AMY SCHUMER: I got cut out. Actually, I am in one scene. But I don’t talk.

J.A.: Oh, I thought maybe it was a political choice, a way of saying, We shouldn’t even be debating this anymore.

A.S.: No, that debate is insane to me. It doesn’t even make me mad. It’s like asking, Do Jewish people smell like orange juice? It’s just such a weird question. It’s not even a question. The thing that gets to me is the question “Isn’t this a great time to be a woman in comedy?” I mean, all the TV I watched growing up featured funny women.

J.A.: People said the same thing when Bridesmaids came out. We never thought about that when we were making it. I just thought, Kristen Wiig is funny. It would be fun to make a movie with Kristen Wiig. And then she had this idea to make a movie about bridesmaids. We never thought of it as a female movie. At some point, in the middle of it, it occurred to us: Oh, it’s kind of cool to have so many funny women in one movie. But it wasn’t conscious or anything. At the end of the process, we realized that it meant something to people. But what is shocking to me was that, even after the movie did well, there was almost zero follow-up in the culture.

A.S.: In terms of what?

J.A.: In terms of funny movies that are dominated by women. The studio system didn’t embrace them. They don’t know how to do it.

A.S.: In my experience, there will be a script and you’ll be like, This is funny — I think I’ll audition. And you’ll know other women, who are hilarious, are auditioning, too. And then they give it to, like, some beautiful movie star. They’re great actresses and they’re really pretty, but they’re not funny.

For more of their conversation, go here.