DGA Awards Host Judd Apatow Takes Aim at Trump, Lively v. Baldoni and Himself: ‘I’m What Mel Brooks Would Look Like If He Took the Substance’
February 9, 2025
Judd Apatow took aim at President Donald Trump, Jeff Bezos, the “It Ends With Us” litigation spree and himself in his opening monologue Saturday at the 77th annual DGA Awards.
Apatow, of course, riffed on how the country has taken a sharp turn to the right since the last DGA Awards, and he gently poked fun at Hollywood for its eager embrace of diversity and boundary-pushing issues that are now in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump and his far-right brigade of reformers.
“My new pronouns are ‘We’re f-ed,’ ” Apatow said from the stage of the Beverly Hilton. The multihyphenate filmmaker and TV producer hosted the DGA Awards for the third year in a row, and the sixth time since 2018.
Apatow talked about the box office success of “Wicked,” the Universal musical that became a juggernaut over the holiday season and has been an awards darling. “Usually to make this much money you have to sue Blake Lively,” Apatow said, a nod to the fierce battle over behavior on the set of the 2024 film “It Ends With Us” that erupted in December between star Blake Lively and director-star Justin Baldoni.
Apatow didn’t spare himself from barbs. “I’m what Mel Brooks would look like if he took ‘The Substance,’ ” in a nod to the Demi Moore psychological horror pic about an aging star who takes a form of youth serum.
Apatow is a prolific producer who has fielded cutting edge movies (“The 40 Year-Old Virgin,” “Knocked Up,” “Anchorman”), TV series (“The Larry Sanders Show,” “Freaks and Geeks,” “Girls”) and of late has turned his lens to documentaries about influential pop culture figures including Garry Shandling, George Carlin and country-pop stars the Avett Brothers.
At present Apatow is working on a two-part documentary on the life and career of Mel Brooks for HBO, producing and co-directing with Michael Bonfiglio. He produced the 2024 feature docu “Stormy” about Stormy Daniels and the payoff scheme that led to the criminal conviction of President Donald Trump. Apatow also shepherded the offbeat buddy comedy feature “Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain” for Peacock last year. He worked with Billy Eichner on the pathbreaking rom-com “Bros,” released by Universal in 2022.
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