Portrait of Seth Rogen, Judd Apatow, and Adam Sandler.
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That idea does not come naturally to Apatow. "I would look through a journal from 12 years ago, and it would say, 'You work too hard. Take some time off. You should work out. Go to Europe,'" he says. "I stopped writing in a diary because it became so repetitive." So now he says he's taking his first year off. "If I go right back to working, then I seem like a crazy person who didn't learn the lesson of his own movie," he says. "You want overlap so if this one bombs, you're already on production as a safety net. But I'm trying to see if I have the courage to sit in that empty space and ponder."
When I tell Rogen about Apatow's planned sabbatical, he just laughs. "What year--2030? He's got this movie to promote, then Get Him to the Greek is in postproduction and then two movies he's producing," he says. "He may say that, but he'll write a movie during that time." I think Rogen underestimates Apatow's work ethic. I'm betting he writes nothing. And that his back kills him.
Judd Shoots Joel To see Apatow grill Stein about his chances of being on the cover, go to time.com/apatow_cover