Apatow's next series followed Steven Karp (Jay Baruchel) and his fellow undergrads as they ventured into college life. Rogen played Karp's suitemate, and Segel had a supporting role as an off-campus meathead. While not as complex as Freaks, Undeclared was refreshing as a study of college underdogs that wasn't a feeble Revenge of the Nerds knockoff.
Apatow: We wanted to do a show about surviving high school and getting to college. We thought that it could be a fun setting for these kids trying to figure out what they want to do with the rest of their lives. I remember going to summer camp and thinking, "People don't know what my reputation is at school — I can trick them into thinking I'm an athlete." And I'd always get found out within a week. That's kind of the premise of Undeclared in a lot of ways — a guy thinking he can change his reputation at college, and it doesn't really work.
Feig: We wanted to capture the college experience, warts and all. Everybody thinks they're an outsider. That's just the human condition.
Apatow: I work with the same people over and over because it's hard to find people who are really funny and easy to work with and willing to give up all their personal problems and conversations and use them in the work. So when I find someone great, I try to use them over and over again.
Rogen: Originally, I wasn't supposed to be an actor on Undeclared. Fox had said they didn't want anybody from Freaks and Geeks. So I was hired as a writer initially. But I was really involved in auditioning the actors, so I was in all the audition tapes. Eventually Fox was like, "How about Seth? He was funny." Of course, I got to write the audition scenes, so they were tailor made to make me hilarious.
Episode 3: Eric Visits Ron (Seth Rogen) scores a free keg, with the caveat that the keg has to go back that night. Unwilling to waste free beer, the roommates fill up every available container. Undeclared: "TM & © 2000, 2001 Dreamworks, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Marketed by Shout Factory, LLC" For more, visit wired.com/video.
Episode 10: Eric Visits Again After Eric (Jason Segel) discovers that Steven (Jay Baruchel) has slept with his girlfriend Lizzie (Carla Gallo), he challenges him to a fight. A dental disaster ensues. Undeclared: "TM & © 2000, 2001 Dreamworks, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Marketed by Shout Factory, LLC" For more, visit wired.com/video.
Segel: I had a great time doing Undeclared. I got to play a character that was even broader because he wasn't a regular. It was fun to have that free rein to be a bit more of a maniac.
Apatow: Jason Segel was the most jealous person I'd ever seen, and I thought, "Oh, that's hilarious, I'll have his girlfriend cheat on him, and I can just tap into all that."
Segel: I was very jealous during that period. I just had real trouble with jealousy. And I would talk to Judd about it and say, "Judd I don't know how to handle this, I'm so jealous." And the next thing that happened is a script arrived in which I was the jealous boyfriend.
Apatow: And then you start shooting and let Jason improvise. He'll say the craziest things — things you'd never think to say — because he is actually out of his mind on that subject.
Rogen: The parts that came from my life and worked their way into the show constantly amazed me. The whole You Got Mail thing, which was actually my favorite movie for a long time — the writers put into an episode that that was my character's favorite movie. Also, when I was in high school, my friends and I stole a keg, and we had to get rid of the keg, but we wanted the beer inside. So we just drained it into every container we could possibly find. We just had water bottles full of beer and plastic cups with Saran Wrap over them full of beer. And we put that in an Undeclared episode.
Starr: Judd wanted me to play the lead, but Fox didn't like that. Instead I ended up in one episode as the best friend. I'm absolutely retarded throughout the whole episode. There was some weird thing online: I had to be drunk for this one part of the episode where we're walking around the dorm during the "Party of the World" where every floor had a different theme from a different country. And there's this one part where I'm supposed to be really drunk, and I walk up to this girl. I wanted it to play real, so I had, like, one beer to have it feel natural as opposed to this attempt to "pretend" to be drunk. But then I get outed on IMDB like, "How unprofessional is this guy? He got so wasted while he was working on the set of Undeclared." I was going to write back that I was actually doing heroin right before the scene, which is what helped me get into character, so you guys can at least get your facts straight when talking shit about me on the Internet.
Feature Writer-Director (and Geek God) Judd Apatow Invites You Into His Mind
