Judd Apatow’s unfiltered DGA Awards opening monologue took aim at President Trump, Elon Musk, Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni feud

February 9, 2025

When Judd Apatow took the stage to host the 77th Annual Directors Guild Awards on Saturday night, he clearly had no fear of President Trump and the new White House administration. The Knocked Up director, who was hosting the event for the sixth time, took aim at Donald Trump and Elon Musk, leaned into the knock on Hollywood being “super duper woke” and even threw in a joke about Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’sIt Ends With Us drama.

“All of the people nominated for Best Director of a film this year are men. So if one of you could change your pronouns tonight, it would really help us out,” began Apatow, who later declared his pronouns are “we’re f***ed.”

Jacques Audiard (Emilia Pérez), Sean Baker (Anora), Edward Berger (Conclave), Brady Corbet (The Brutalist) and James Mangold (A Complete Unknown) were the nominees for the big award of the night: Directorial Achievement in Feature Film.

“There are some of you in this room who voted for Trump,” Apatow said, which actually got a few cheers in the room. “I won’t judge you, but God will. … I’m very depressed. To deal with it, I just started microdosing meth.”

Apatow’s jokes weren’t all political. (But yes, a lot were.) When he said how much he loved Wicked, “the highest-grossing musical of all time,” he remarked, “usually to make that much money, you have to sue Blake Lively.” He joked how this drama was all over “such a terrible movie.”

That got one of the biggest laughs of the night.

Apatow also riffed on how Francis Ford Coppola (Megalopolis) and Kevin Costner spent their own money on passion projects that bombed at the box office. “Imagine being Kevin Costner’s kids and realizing you don’t get a trust fund, but you do get to watch Horizon 1 and 2 whenever you like,” he said.

Apatow poked fun at the drama that Baker did not use an intimacy coordinator while making Anora. He said he and wife, Leslie Mann, even use one.

“I want to work with a coordinator once a month, but Leslie wants us to work with him three times a week,” he told the crowd.

The host shifted back to politics and talked about the Step Brothers meme Musk posted on X. The Tesla CEO shared a clip from the film, which Apatow produced, after meeting with Jeff Bezos. It shows Will Ferrell’s character asking, “Did we just become best friends?”

“He wrote, ‘This is me and Jeff Bezos,'” Apatow said. “I don’t think he really understands the premise of that film. It’s about two f***ing morons.'”

Apatow said he’s “one compliment away” from being in Trump’s Cabinet.

“Maybe I should make TV that MAGA people would like: The Real Housewives of January 6,” he said. “Or Extreme Home Makeover: Gaza edition.”

Apatow joked whether Hollywood should go even more woke and have the next Dune film “with all gay sandworms” or whether the next installment of Spider-Man should be renamed “The Amazing Spider-Person.”

Apatow then mused about what would happen of Musk’s dream comes true and he colonizes Mars. He said Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Bezos, Brett Kavanaugh and Peter Thiel could all go live on the planet.

“We realize we don’t miss them. We didn’t need cryptocurrency. We don’t need AI. One day we look at the sky and we can see the skies. … MTV starts showing music videos again. Everyone’s got flip phones. …. Young men leave their basements and start flirting with girls. … Kid Rock becomes a Democrat. Britney Spears puts a new record out and puts her father in a conservatorship. … Jennifer Aniston remarries Brad Pitt.”

Apatow added, “By leaving Earth, they make America great again.” He concluded by saying he was going to head backstage and see how the monologue affected his career.

As for the actual show, Anora kept up its newfound momentum one month before the Oscars as Baker won for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film. He also won the top prize at the Producers Guild Awards, which were also held across town on Saturday. The awards are a big indicator for the Oscars Best Director and Best Picture categories.

 

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