Lena On 'SNL' Made Apatow Super Nervous

It's SXSW week, and so we all must reminisce to that time not too long ago — actually literally not that long ago, just about four years, at the 2010 SXSW — when Judd Apatow first saw Tiny Furniture and decided to bring Lena Dunham and her (ironically stated) "voice of a generation" to HBO. Apatow is hardly a stranger to assisting in the meteoric launch of careers — it's kind of the main thing he's known for alongside directing movies — but nonetheless, his Dumbledore-like nurturing of young talent can be really sweet. He talked a bit about this in a recent interview with Elle, too, in which Apatow reveals that he was in the audience for Dunham's SNL debut this past week.

First, what his thoughts were from his seat in the audience:

I was in the audience. I was so nervous for her. It’s scary to see anyone you know have to walk into that, because it’s so different from what we do [when filming]. There’s so many other skills involved [when you’re performing live]. Her Scandal sketch really made me laugh. [Girls] is so personal and it’s so like her, it was fun to watch her do characters and do big, silly people. It was nice for everyone to see how talented she is and how much there is that she can do.

Chances Dunham makes an appearance in Trainwreck a la her appearance in This Is 40? High.

Here's what he said about his massive instinct to recruit and help out young talent:

Sometimes you meet people and you think, "Oh, I wish they starred in a movie." If I don’t try to make a movie with them, maybe no one else will.

You can read the full interview over at Elle . It includes insight into his first thoughts upon being introduced to a young Seth Rogen and a young James Franco. So yeah, it's worth it.