The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005)
- Before Steve Carell was cast, several major A-list stars turned down the lead role because they felt the script was too risky.
- The incredible score for The 40 Year Old Virgin was composed in just a few weeks after the original composer dropped out.
- The original script for The 40 Year Old Virgin was written over a decade before production finally began in 2005.
The 40-Year-Old Virgin is a 2005 American romantic comedy directed by Judd Apatow in his feature directorial debut, the film that launched the Apatow comedy empire. Steve Carell stars as Andy Stitzer, a gentle, collector-obsessed electronics store employee whose colleagues discover he is a virgin at 40 and make it their mission to help him lose his virginity. Their increasingly misguided advice and Andy's own awkwardness create chaos, but the real story is his genuinely sweet romance with Trish, a grandmother played by Catherine Keener, to whom Andy is too embarrassed to reveal his inexperience.
Judd Apatow's directorial approach โ long improvisational takes, vulgar comedy grounded in recognizable human behavior, and a surprisingly sincere emotional core beneath the raunchy exterior โ established the template for a decade of American comedy. Steve Carell's performance was a revelation, transforming a premise that could have been mean-spirited into something genuinely loveable. The chest-waxing scene, filmed with real hot wax on Carell's actual chest hair, produced genuinely authentic screams of pain.
The film earned $177 million worldwide on a $26 million budget.
