Judd Apatow thought he was an expert on Mel Brooks — until HBO approached him with the idea to make a documentary about the comedy trailblazer.
“I watched a bunch of other pieces that had been made about Mel, but I don’t know if I ever heard him really speak from the heart,” says Apatow. “He’s told a lot of funny stories about show business, but not World War II, his marriages, his feelings about his life and what he’d learned. That, I thought, would make for great documentary if Mel was up for it.”
Mel was up for it. The result of Apatow’s and co-director Mike Bonfiglio’s work, Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!, is a two-part deep dive with the living legend. The first half debuted Thursday, with the conclusion premiering tonight, Jan. 23. It features a who’s who of comedy notables, including Rob Reiner. The filmmaker sat for the documentary before he and his wife Michelle Singer were shockingly murdered in December. Given the fact that his father, the late Carl Reiner, was one of Brooks’ closest friends, his input proved invaluable.
Speaking during the latest episode episode of The Hollywood Reporter podcast I’m Having an Episode (Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple), Apatow discussed Brooks’ place in Hollywood history, the state of the studio comedy and the unlikely film he made that really, really over-performed in South Korea.
Mel Brooks had been making comedy for decades before you were born. What was your first awareness of him?
I was born in 1967, and Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles came out in ‘74. This was right as he exploded — almost like the Beyoncé of that time. It was the biggest thing happening in comedy and entertainment. So, I saw Blazing Saddles in the theater with my parents — probably at an inappropriate age. I remember it getting the biggest laughs. I don’t remember seeing Young Frankenstein in the theater, but that was the early days of VHS machines. Blazing Saddles, The Producers and Young Frankenstein were the key components of the 16 tapes that we had.
There are no modern comps for the VHS tapes your parents would buy. Those are the films that you memorized whether you liked them or not.
Well, it was precious back then! First of all, they were expensive — like a hundred bucks. I remember our collection because it was limited. It was Blake Edwards’ 10, The Godfather parts I and II and Freebie and the Bean, this is James Scott movie. And then we had the Woody Allen movies, the Peter Sellers movies and, in the most sacred place, the Mel Brooks movies. I would watch them over and over again. He was this strange, small Jewish man who was really loud. He was the funniest man in the world.
It’s funny to try to reconcile “strange, small Jewish man” with “the Beyoncé of his time.” How did that comparison come to you?
It was that era, which lasted a long time, where if you were on the cover of Time Magazine, the whole country actually paid attention. It was a different culture where we all agreed, “This year’s big thing is Steve Martin or Star Wars.” Mel went on this incredible run of movies. And what was really shocking is that those two movies came out in the same year. I don’t know if this is true, but it seemed to be that part of the reason why he took young Frankenstein was he might’ve been concerned about how Blazing Saddles would do. Maybe it would be smart to have another one in the can to keep the career going, because Blazing Saddles was so daring that I can’t imagine he was sure it was gonna do what it did.
Those two also came on the heels of the original The Producers, which I never realized was a commercial failure.
I think it divided critics because it was so outrageous with all of the Nazi satire. Their performances were really big. They were the kind of performances you would give in a Broadway show, but in a movie with a camera right up on your face? It was definitely a new style of comedy. He was breaking ground, but now we all realize that it’s clearly in the top 10 funniest movies ever made. And then this strange thing happened where Peter Sellers loved it so much that he placed an ad in the paper telling everyone that this is one of the most brilliant comedies ever. That changed his fortunes a little bit. The most remarkable part is that Mel went on to win the Oscar for best original screenplay and beat Stanley Kubrick for 2001: A Space Odyssey.
How would you describe Mel as an interview subject?
Definitely, at times, he would be careful. It was something that I had to think about a lot, so that I could knock him off of his anecdote game. Sometimes I would listen to his anecdotes and think, “Well, I have a version of that that he told on the BBC in 1978 that’s really funny. I don’t really need [this.]” He still told a lot of them, which is the most fun thing to hear. Then I would try to gently bring him into, “How did it feel when your career was going really badly? How did it feel during the depression when your family had no money?” He grew up and his father died when he was two years old. A lot of this really shaped his worldview. That’s what I was trying to get at. What’s beneath all of this?
It is an absolute understatement to say that this is coming out under unforeseen and tragic circumstances. But there’s this beautiful moment in it where both the late Rob Reiner and Mel are recounting their first meeting when Rob was only four years old. I know these things are all made so long in advance, but was that moment always in the final cut?
Yes, we locked the cut several months ago. It’s just an unspeakable tragedy. Rob and Michelle were the kindest people, amazing artists. They really worked hard to make life better for other people in this country. They walked the walk. They put in the time. There’s no way to exaggerate the effect they’ve had on the country. It’s heartbreaking. And I’m glad that he is in the film as what he was, which is an incredibly warm, hilarious, giving person.
He was also a way to sort of access his late father, Carl Reiner, who was one of Mel’s best friends and closest collaborators.
I was always interested in why they were so close. These are people who were friends for three quarters of a century. Their bond just seemed like no bond I’d ever heard of. And at one point I asked Rob about it and he said, “Carl’s a father figure to Mel.” I asked Mel about it, he said, “He’s tall. He’s kind. He’s giving.” Wow. I never would have thought that in a million years, that that’s what it was. Because Mel is so domineering and loud, but he really looked up to Carl. At one point — not in the documentary, but off camera — Mel said to me, “Can you imagine being as funny as me, but you’re such a kind person that you let me get all the laughs?”
Part of being a 99-year-old man is that you are one of the last, if not the last, of your contemporaries. Knowing that, talk to me about why you chose some of the other voices that you felt were essential to this.
It was important to find people who were around Mel, which is the hard part. Barry Levinson, who worked Silent Movie and High Anxiety, was a great person to talk to about collaborating with Mel. Max Brooks, Mel’s son, had a lot of insight in addition to all of Mel’s kids who had never spoken in a documentary like this before. And I thought it was important to have people like Dave Chappelle and Robert Townsend speak about Blazing Saddles. It is a movie that takes such chances to rail against racism, and people still debate all of those choices. [I wanted] to hear their insights about it. And then there are the people that became comedians because of Mel — Ben Stiller, Conan O’Brien, Adam Sandler, Sarah Silverman. There’s all these people that looked at Mel and said, “I would like to do what this guy does.”
You’re heading to Sundance with a documentary about Maria Bamford, too, aren’t you?
I’ve been working on this documentary with my friend, Neil Berkeley. We’ve been following Maria around for a few years. She’s always been my favorite comedian. A lot of her stuff is about mental health issues. It’s very bold and imaginative. And I just thought she deserves to be known much more than she is. And her story is incredible. To take her greatest routines and put them in documentary as a way to tell her story was very exciting for me. I hate when there’s great jokes out there that people have forgotten about. Arranging her story through standup was so enjoyable for me, as a comedy nerd. It’s also moving because it’s about someone that has struggles with intrusive thoughts and anxiety and depression and suicidal ideation — and how she has succeeded and turned into this incredible leader in the comedy community.
These adjectives get thrown around a lot, but Maria is a singular talent. How did her rejection of the typical stand-up format inform the way that you made the film??
I wanted it to be pure the way Maria is pure. She’s not adjusting anything for anybody. So one of the main inspirations from her was that I self-financed it. I didn’t want to have to deal with any entities. I just wanted to get as close to the bone to Maria as possible. I didn’t want it to be made by committee in any form. And I think that really paid off. Because it’s a very unique documentary. There’s no score. Every time we’d put music in it, it seemed like it was trying to tell you what to feel. So I just thought, let’s go old school and just be with her.
Speaking to a point you made during your recent appearance at the Golden Globes, American democracy is on life support. There’s virtually no good news to be found when we wake up in the morning. It seems like this is an opportunity for Hollywood to invest in comedy as counterprogramming, but it’s still… slow going. What’s your take on that?
It goes back to the demise of DVDs. A lot of the movie comedy business was based on the fact that half the income on a movie would come from the theater and half from DVDs. So when the DVDs disappeared, streaming didn’t fully replace that money. You remove that, then the bet becomes different. People go, “Well, we can make a horror movie for seven [million dollars] and it might do really well in Bosnia.” They don’t think the comedies play overseas as well. They just started making bets on something that seemed safer. Then it becomes a doom loop. If you don’t make the movies, you don’t break new talent. You don’t find new Adam Sandler and Kristen Wiig. Then people just start thinking, “Well, I’ll just watch TikTok for 11 straight hours and see people get kicked in the nuts.” They get their comedy somewhere. I mean, there’s all sorts of amazing comedy. South Park. But it’s not in the theater in the way it was before, but that could change in a minute. If somebody made The Hangover and it made a billion dollars, the next year you’d see 20 of them.
Speaking of Bosnia, which of your features exported the best?
When we worked on Bridesmaids, the discussion was that we weren’t going to release it in many foreign countries because the concept of bridesmaids wasn’t in a lot of cultures. When it was so successful in the United States, it did really well around the world. That was a wonderful surprise. There was a movie I produced called Begin Again. John Carney directed it with Keira Knightley and Mark Ruffalo. It was a small, beautiful movie about music and love — and it made a lot of money in South Korea. I don’t know why, but like $20 million* in South Korea. Those things happen every once in while.
What can you tell me about this feature that you’re producing with your daughters’ former babysitter, Nikki Glaser?
There’s really nothing to say now other than Nikki Glaser is an incredibly funny person that babysat my kids a few times early in her stand-up career. We made sure to stop that as soon as we understood that we didn’t trust her. We’ve got to be honest about that. You can’t give your kids to everybody. You could love Nikki Glaser but not want her to be like watching your two-year-old — just for pure safety. I’ve known her forever. She has an amazing idea for a comedy film. So we’re doing the thing we always do, which is grind on the script for a really long time. When it’s perfect, we’ll go make something. I’m sure it’s going to be fabulous when we get to that stage.
Before I let you go, what are you recommending these days? Can be a movie, a book, anything you want to evangelize.
What am I evangelizing to people? Fight ICE. Get off your phone and find a way to get involved. Now’s the time. Don’t worry about your streaming shows. Maybe check in a little bit to the reality around us that it’s so easy to hyper-normalize. That’s my recommendation. Don’t watch TV. Get in the streets.
*Begin Again actually made $21.5 million in South Korea, a third of its global gross and $5 million more than its U.S. haul.
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