Trivia / The 40-Year-Old Virgin

• Ability over Appearance: Paula was originally written as a man.
• Actor-Inspired Element:
  • The film is based on a sketch Steve Carell created while performing with Second City. Carell did many versions of the sketch, trying out different scenarios where the 40-year-old man is hiding a "big secret".
  • Leslie Mann came up with the idea to throw up on Andy's face. The original plan was that Nicky and Andy were to be pulled over by the police, and it would turn out that Nicky was concealing a gun under her seat the whole time. Mann insisted that her vomiting on Andy, would be a funnier conclusion to the scene, so she gulped down a mix of strawberry yogurt and "some kind of kefir."
• Breakthrough Hit: The film turned Judd Apatow from a working comedy writer to one of the most respected and prolific (and widely imitated) writer/director/producers in all of mainstream comedy.
• Colbert Bump: The success of the film resulted in The Office (US), which also starred Carell, getting a significant bump in viewership when its second season premiered in the fall.
• Corpsing: Paul Rudd, Seth Rogen and even Miki Mia just couldn't hold in their laughter during the chest waxing scene. Also, Jay saying that he has a "weak stomach" was an ad-lib by Romany Malco, who was genuinely disgusted by the process and had to walk out of the scene before he vomited, which might have ruined the take.
• Creator Couple: Steve Carell's wife Nancy Walls plays the teen clinic sex counsellor. Leslie Mann, who plays Nicky, is married to Judd Apatow.
• Dawson Casting: 19 year old Kat Dennings as 16 year old Marla.
• Development Gag:
  • Cal's comments about Andy looking like a serial killer are a reference to reactions from Universal executives to early test footage of Andy riding a bike, believing he looked too much like a serial killer.
  • At one point, Andy complains that he nearly lost a nipple when he got his chest waxed. This isn't just a funny line someone randomly came up with- Steve Carell is referencing what actually happened to him while filming that scene. See Enforced Method Acting below.
• Dyeing for Your Art: To prepare for his role as Andy, Steve Carell lost thirty pounds for the role. Judd Apatow was originally nervous about the transformation, stating that he didn't think that "comedians wanting to look good is ever good for comedy." However, he gradually realized that Carell being "ripped" was a good idea, as it helped establish that Andy was only a virgin because he's shy and nervous, not because of his looks.
• Enforced Method Acting: The chest-waxing scene? Yeah, one hundred percent real. Ouch. For the obvious reason, this was a one-take scene. In fact, at one point they almost ripped off Steve Carell's nipple, because the actress playing the waxer didn't know she was supposed to apply Vaseline to the nipple and was about to rip off the strip when Judd Apatow realized what was happening and yelled cut. You can also see his blood starting to bubble out, as noted in the commentary. Moreover, Carell's chest had to be kept in its partially hairless state for the remainder of the shoot. The constant maintenance required for this left the actor with ingrown hairs and a nasty infection (according to Carell, his chest looked so bad at one point that his wife couldn't stomach it and made him wear a t-shirt at all times).
• Genre-Killer: The success of this naturalistic, mostly improvised indie-style comedy ushered in a new trend of similar films which completely displaced the over-the-top, Totally Radical gross-out studio comedies of the previous decade.
• Harpo Does Something Funny: As mentioned elsewhere, this was the film that cemented Judd Apatow's signature style of "line-o-rama"-style filmmaking by having all of the dialogue be retroscripted or improvised.
• Irony as She Is Cast: The entire film is about a, well, 40-year-old virgin. Said virgin is played by Steve Carell- who at the time of filming was 42, had been Happily Married for nearly a decade and had recently become a father of two (the irony was definitely not lost on Carell, who joked about it in interviews).
• Star-Making Role: For Steve Carell. While he'd been decently well-known beforehand, this film and his role as Michael Scott the same year put him firmly on the map.
• Stillborn Franchise: The producers were planning to have a sequel by the name of Knocked Up, with almost the same cast. But in the end, they released Knocked Up as a separate movie not related to this one.
• Stunt Casting: Carol, the woman in the speed dating montage with her breast hanging out of her shirt, is played by longtime WCW valet and dancer Kimberly Page.
• Throw It In!:
  • All of Andy's exclamations during the waxing scene were improvised by Steve Carell out of the real pain he was going through. Judd Apatow kept separate lists for profane and non-profane ones, so they could mix and match as they pleased.
  • Paul Rudd's and Seth Rogen's reactions weren't scripted either (nor was Malco's quick exit- he was genuinely getting sick to his stomach). The two were supposed to appear sympathetic to Andy, but they couldn't keep straight faces.
• Underage Casting: 23 year old Seth Rogen as Cal who is implied to be much older.
• Voice-Only Cameo: In a deleted scene on the Unrated DVD, when Andy is on the phone trying to get help to get rid of his erection, the person on the other end is Judd Apatow impersonating an Indian accent.
• What Could Have Been: Judd Apatow had a part written for Jason Segel, with the character named Jason, but Apatow could not get the studio to approve his casting. Apatow advised Segel because of his unique brand of humor, to consider writing material for himself. Thus Segel wrote Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which Apatow served as one of the producers.

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