From N95 masks to TikTok dances, how art imitates pandemic life in Judd Apatow's 'The Bubble'
Judd Apatow’s made funny, down-to-earth movies about a 40-year-old virgin, unintended pregnancies, a trainwreck of a young woman, and a comedian with a terminal illness. He was, at least at first, less confident about doing a pandemic comedy in the middle of an actual pandemic.
“I wasn't sure it was possible to pull it off because of how serious it is,” Apatow says about his new Netflix ensemble film “The Bubble.” He did see a way to appeal to movie fans in a very real way, though. “The part of it that I thought we could talk about was isolation, lockdowns, trying to continue to work and be a normal person when the circumstances, everything, have so completely changed.”
Directed by Apatow during the height of COVID-19, “The Bubble” stars Karen Gillan, Pedro Pascal, David Duchovny, Keegan-Michael Key, Apatow’s wife Leslie Mann and others as actors who travel to England and hole up in a posh hotel to make the newest film in their popular monster action franchise. Things don’t go smoothly, as personalities clash on and off set, mishaps abound and everybody’s constantly freaking out about something.
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“As a consumer of comedy, I was looking for some huge laughs. They were helping me get through some rough periods. So my main intention was to try to create the movie I wish was out there," says Apatow, who for the movie-within-the-movie was able to work with green screens and computer-generated dinosaurs after a career mostly avoiding such things. “I don't know if I really thought it through after it to go, well, now I really should do ‘Harry Potter 17’ or if I should get back to two people talking in a restaurant.”
The filmmaker breaks down four ways that “The Bubble” references our shared coronavirus experience.
COVID protocols were important in ‘The Bubble’ (on screen and off)
“Everything about the movie was a meta meta meta experience,” says Apatow, who replicated everything happening on the real set in the movie. For example, the film’s COVID supervisor would give a speech about safety at the beginning of a filming day to crew, Apatow says, “and five minutes later (we’d) shoot a scene where Harry Travaldwyn would be playing an inept COVID supervisor giving terrible advice, telling everyone not to date each other, but they could make ‘sweet eyes’ at each other.”
Adds Apatow: “We're making a movie about making a movie where we're making fun of all the protocols and the ways people are attempting to do it safely while actually trying to do it safely while making fun of the idea that anyone even thinks you need a movie while we're making a movie.”
Like many, Apatow hated wearing his mask, too
In “The Bubble,” while many crewmembers are masked up, director Darren (Fred Armisen) runs the show wearing a plastic face shield. Apatow wasn’t so lucky: He dreaded having to wear his N95 mask daily.
“I just had a really bad one the entire shoot that was way too tight and strangled me and I couldn't breathe at all,” he says. “I’ve since found ones that work just as well but don't make me feel like I'm being waterboarded. That was the hardest part: Trying to be funny while being so uncomfortable. Comedy is also about facial expressions and relating to the actors. So all of the face-covering takes away one of the elements that allows everyone to be in a good mood.”
‘The Bubble’ captures the madness of quarantine
The actors in the film have to endure various quarantine and lockdown periods, with most of them going a little stir crazy. Carol bingedrinks herself into a stupor and Dieter (Pascal) grows weirdly close with his virtual workout instructor (Daisy Ridley).
In real life, Apatow didn’t mind being stuck in a hotel room for a while. “I’m always happy when someone says you can sit down and watch TV and movies for 12 hours a day,” he says with a laugh. “Some people really do need to get out and I just thought, ‘Finally, I'm gonna get through another couple seasons of ‘Better Call Saul.’ ” I didn't feel mentally strained by it, I think because I'm probably a workaholic. It feels good to be told I need to rest.”
You can’t do a pandemic comedy without a TikTok dance
TikTok blew up during the COVID era and its popularity is reflected in Krystal Kris (played by Apatow’s daughter Iris), a social-media phenomenon added to the “Cliff Beasts 6” cast who rounds up her fellow actors for an epic dance video in their hotel. Iris Apatow carried “a pretty big load to pull all that off,” her dad says, and Ryan Heffington, choreographer for Sia's "Chandelier" music video and “Euphoria” episodes, was enlisted to craft those sequences.
“The hard part was we had to train all the actors,” Judd Apatow says. “Luckily, it wasn't like we were doing ‘West Side Story.’ I watched that and I'm like, ‘I have no idea how you would figure out the camera work with that amazing choreography.’ It really is so genius. With me, it was like three shots.”