For the last few years he’s been making great stuff but now, thankfully, more people are starting to pay attention and he’s able to do even more. In August we’ll be getting “Superbad” (which he produced) and then next year we’re getting “The Pineapple Express” and “Walk Hard” – other projects he either produced or wrote and I couldn’t be happier.

I think Judd’s a comedic genius and one whose work I always love. And I’m happy to write that “Knocked Up” is another home-run. Once again Judd has crafted a story that’s based on something very real – what happens when a one night stand leads to an unplanned pregnancy. But while some directors might play it straight, Judd weaves in tons of comedy while still telling a serious story.

To help promote the film Judd and most of the cast recently did some interviews and I’ll be posting them today and tomorrow. But before you get to the interview I was just told that the “Knocked Up” website has been updated with restricted clips and deleted scenes so you might want to check them out. You'll also get a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film.

This interview was done a few days ago and it was conducted as a press conference with a number of journalists attending. If you’d like to listen to the interview you can click here to download the MP3, otherwise you can read a transcript below.

“Knocked Up” gets released on June 1^st.

Judd: We knew we could make the third ‘Spider-Man’ better than the first.  It’s all about the technology catching up with our ideas.

Question: Judd, when we visited you on the set you asked us not to write about any celebrity references.  How did you clear those likenesses?

Judd: Well, I don’t have to clear their names to poke fun, but so many people are desecrated during the shoot when people are improvising that I never want it to be in the paper, because it’s so unfair to all of them. And we really think a lot about who we are joking about and why. We hope the spirit of it is not unkind. So, Matthew Fox – there is obviously nothing wrong with Matthew Fox at all, but it’s just funny for a goofy guy to have an issue with Matthew Fox because he’s so handsome and successful.  He’s the first guy you would go, ‘I don’t like that Matthew Fox guy!’  And it’s funny that he doesn’t like Steely Dan, because a young guy that age who is into Wu-Tang Clan would not like Steely Dan. I love Steely Dan!  I couldn’t like it more! My wife is about to kill me how much I put Steely Dan on. So, I’ll put on ‘Katy Lied’ on and just loop it.  But, it’s all in good fun and hopefully no one takes offense for it. I would!  But, I obviously don’t. They slammed me on ‘The Simpsons’ once and I still feel it.

Can you talk about the Jew power on this movie?

We are like the Spice Girls of Jews. That’s how I look at. I didn’t set out to make the movie too Jew-centric, to create a word for this conversation. But Seth is a Jewish guy and all his friends are Jewish, at least the ones I cast in the movie, so I thought it’d be funny that they talk about it, because it’s truthful to their experience.  I didn’t set out to make any kind of statement like ‘You can have five Jews in a movie.’ I think we saw that can be done in ‘The Chosen.’ But, if they were all some other religion, I would have had them talking about that. I didn’t want to shy away from it. I thought it was fun not to shy away from it. That these young Jewish guys are proud to be Jewish and they talk about ‘Munich’ and their Jewfro style hairstyles and that it’s all O.K. I think there is a classic clash in film comedy between Jewish guys and non-Jewish women trying to figure each other. Whether it’s in ‘When Harry Met Sally’ or ‘Annie Hall,’ it’s always funny to see the Jews trying to make women happy and fail. (Laughs.)

Are you a big fan of MrSkin.com in real life?

I had never been to MrSkin.com, but I had heard the guy on Howard Stern a lot. Are you from MrSkin.com? Who is the guy who is always on Howard Stern? James McBride.  Oh, that’s James McBride!  That’s hysterical. I just got him tickets for the premiere, but they didn’t tell me it was the MrSkin guy.  (Laughs.)  So, I hadn’t been to the site. I still haven’t to the site, although I now have a password, but I was trying to think of a funny job that would make a woman uncomfortable  thought something in the semi-pornographic industry would be a job that would make her feel weird about that guy impregnating her.  Just the way if James McBride would impregnated a woman she’d be uncomfortable with his profession, but not his cash.  So, we thought it would be funny to create a website someone had already created and they didn’t realize it was never going to work. And that would be part of his downfall.

Was there any ever boundaries? And I know you chose to show the crown twice…

No! Three times. You blacked one out.  It’s three different angles.

That was my first question. And secondly, I don’t think the word abortion ever comes up in this.

The world smushmortion comes up.

Was that to keep it funny and not be serious?

Well, I think it’s obviously an important aspect of the movie – is will she keep the baby and the decision whether or not to keep the baby. And from the very beginning we knew we wanted to have a moment where Seth and his idiotic stone friends debate abortion.  And we actually improvised for five hours, these \guys debating the issue. Some of it you will see on the DVD. And it’s very, very funny, but really shocking and disturbing. It may have killed Jerry Falwell. (Laughs.)  It may be, I think that that he knew it was out there and he just could not handle. But it is part of the movie, because the movie is about two people trying to decide how they are going to handle the fact that a baby is coming. And the first decision you make is, ‘Am I going to keep the baby?’  And part of what is interesting to me is that it’s two people trying to do the right thing and keep the baby. And they are trying to decide if they ever could like each other which is probably something most people don’t do and that’s what hopefully makes it an original concept. I am pro chose and I don’t think anyone should tell anyone else what to do with their bodies or their points of view. I think those decisions are very personal and no one has the answer, so I am pretty solid in that position. But, I also think it’s a very interesting story when you decide not to get an abortion. And I am also kind of surprised that it’s shocking to people that they don’t get an abortion because some people say, ‘Wouldn’t they just get an abortion?’ Is it so weird that in this day and age that people are uncomfortable doing that? So, everyone has their own take on it and subjective view on it. And in terms of the comedy in terms of what I’ll show or what I won’t show, I just want it to seem reaI. So the reason that I show the crowning shot is if I don’t If I don’t show it I just look like an episode of ‘Friends’ and I am trying to make you feel the pain of that that experience, because it is the most intense moment in people’s lives and I had to do something that hadn’t been done before. My original goal was to find a woman who would allow me to shoot the baby coming out and then match it into Catherine – the same sheets, the same bed. And we got close to getting it done, but here’s why we weren’t allowed to. And this is interesting. The state of California says you can’t do that because the unborn child would need a worker’s permit and I can’t get it till he’s born. There is a Kurt Vonnegut problem right there. So, we weren’t able to do it, so it became a prosthetic.

What about the MPAA with that?

They called me and said, ‘We love it!’ (Laughs.) No, I think it’s fine. They show it on the Discovery channel five times a day on ‘A Babies Story’ which every time I see my wife watching, I know it means she wants to get pregnant.

The scene in the waiting room where the babies are freaking Seth out. What is the background on that?

Well I just filled a room with babies and just positioned them in the room. Some are the babies of crewmembers and some are babies that are baby actors. There is a whole world of baby actors that you don’t know about.  If I needed a baby this afternoon, I could get a baby if I had the money to act with. There are some very nice people who have twins and if one is crying then you bring in the other one. We are always very careful with them, because at some level it’s odd there is a baby there and it feels wrong. So, we try to shoot them very quickly and then have them leave.  Especially when the baby is born and they are handed the baby, it’s difficult, because you want a baby that’s teeny, because it would look weird if a baby came out and was talking. And then you are scared to even have to hold the baby.  The guy who delivers the baby, Ken Jeong, is actually a doctor in real life and he was terrified holding this little baby even though he knows how to do it.

Are you keeping the same title in the U.K. where the term means something else?

That is a very good question.  What does ‘Knocked Up’ mean in the UK? Drunk or something?

It means to wake up.

To wake up is to get knocked up?

People have come to blows with American tourists.

Really? That’s interesting. No one has told me they are changing it there, although I was told that in certain Spanish language countries it would be called ‘Super Horny. ‘ It changed in different markets, but I think it’s still that in the UK.

Can you compare this directing experience to your first movie?