Entertainment
Don’t Underestimate Maude Apatow
Between a breakout season of Euphoria, a leading role in Little Shop of Horrors, and two screenplays in development, Apatow is earning her place in the spotlight.
There isn’t a single overworked stage manager, gyrating high school actor, or audience member asking “Is this f*cking play about us” in sight. Yet, on set for her new campaign as one of the faces of Armani Beauty’s Gen A initiative, Maude Apatow is still emanating the same apprehensive, anxious energy that her Euphoria character, Lexi, did during the premiere of her funhouse mirror of a debut play. In less than 24 hours, Apatow will be making moves towards her own theater debut — uprooting her life from Los Angeles to New York City to begin rehearsals for the off-Broadway production of Little Shop of Horrors. “My brain is broken. I’m like a stress case today,” she tells Bustle. “When I auditioned before Christmas, they told me I had two weeks [before I’d be] going to New York. It all happened fast.”
There’s also another concern rattling around in the expanses of the 25-year-old’s psyche: the chorus of people on social media who are eager to cast doubt on Apatow’s worthiness to play the starring role of Audrey. Some would rather cry “nepo baby” — as the daughter of director Judd Apatow and actor Leslie Mann, she’s been asked about the title ad nauseam — than actually reckon with her genuine talent, like the dexterity that enabled her to anchor Euphoria’s two-episode-long play that served as the season’s emotional climax while also becoming the show’s most relatable romantic heroine. “I posted [about Little Shop] on Instagram and everyone was like, ‘Can she sing?’” Apatow says. “I’ve never been one to post singing videos on Instagram or anything. I’m too cringed out by myself. [...] But being in musicals is my favorite thing ever. I love singing.”
She’s developed a few coping mechanisms that help when she finds herself becoming a “stress case.” She seeks refuge in reality TV, favoring the “pretty hardcore” installations of the genre, like Love After Lockup. She meticulously plans out her days and organizes her workload in a hardcover planner — including windows for sleep. And she writes, the creative outlet that’s been her anchor since childhood. “My dad always told me that the more you can learn how to [write] things for yourself, the more control you’ll have,” Apatow says of one of the many reasons she’s stuck with the craft. “[With acting] I just have to surrender to the fact that I don’t have any control. I could overthink it for hours, so I just have to be like, ‘OK, trust that the director knows what he’s doing and he’s not going to do me dirty.’”
Long before Apatow was known for Euphoria, it was her writing chops that made her the “spirit animal” of many extremely online teenage girls. In middle school she launched a Twitter account that served as a showcase for what The New York Times called her “Larry David-like social observations.” Tweets like “Are black bands on your braces gross?” led Apatow to score a column on the website HelloGiggles, as well as the opportunity to interview the subject of her adolescent adulation, One Direction, for Teen Vogue.
After high school, she enrolled at Northwestern University, where she met the fellow freshman who would become her writing partner. “She was visiting the girl next door to me probably on the first week of school,” Apatow says of their meet-cute. Although Apatow dropped out to film Euphoria during her sophomore year, the two stayed in touch. “We started writing together in summer 2020 kind of out of nowhere. We realized that her strengths are my weaknesses and vice versa, so we were just like, ‘Let’s go for it.’”
Apatow currently has two scripts in various stages of development, one at Netflix and another at Universal. (Although she can’t divulge any details about the films, Apatow offers one clue as to genre: “My favorite tone is dark comedy.”) Instead, I implore Apatow to lend her writing prowess to another highly secretive, much-anticipated project: the plot of Euphoria Season 3. Namely, to the fate of Lexi and Fezco’s relationship. “I read online that it’s going to be set in the future. I think he’s still going to be in jail, and she’s not visiting [him],” she says, before launching into her own Fexi fanfiction of the duo’s future. “[There are] a lot of letters. You can have a very intense romantic relationship from writing letters to each other.” Apatow pauses for a moment, before gleefully taking in a realization: “It’s like Love After Lockup!”
Bustle’s Next Gen issue spotlights 8 trailblazers from young Hollywood. These rising stars, united as the faces of Armani Beauty’s new Gen A initiative, have already dominated Euphoria, Outer Banks, and Riverdale. So what’s coming next? More marathon-worthy TV, several long-awaited book adaptations, and some game-changing work behind the camera. Read More.
Photographer: Austin Hargrave
Stylist: Tiffany Reid
Set Designer: Kelly Fondry
Hair: Jenny Cho
Makeup: Melanie Inglessis using Armani Beauty
Manicurists: Olivia de Montagnac, Erin Moffett
Talent Bookings: Special Projects
Video: Samuel Schultz, Samuel Miron
Photo Director: Alex Pollack
SVP Fashion: Tiffany Reid
SVP Creative: Karen Hibbert
