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Actress, comedian Amy Schumer visits ASU to promote new Judd Apatow film featuring Lebron James

Between her award-winning comedy series "Inside Amy Schumer" and critically-acclaimed film "Trainwreck," actress and comedian Amy Schumer is a force to be reckoned with.

Photo courtesy of Apatow Productions) 

Photo courtesy of Apatow Productions) 


There are plenty of aspects to Amy Schumer that make her impossible to ignore.

Perhaps it's her piercingly blue eyes that could stop anyone in their tracks, her unruly blonde hair that is as wild as her personality or her beautiful smile, which is often accompanied by several slightly vulgar jokes about the public’s obsession with ass.

“It seems to be like, with everything else, the African-American community, white people kinda catch on,” Schumer said. “‘Oh, jazz! Oh, the ass!’ It seems like all of the sudden now white guys are like, ‘Maybe I like ass, too!’”

Schumer, who at just 33 already has a critically-acclaimed comedy series called “Inside Amy Schumer,” wrote and starred in her first feature film, “Trainwreck,” and was named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People on Thursday.

“(It is) so surreal that it feels like a joke,” she said. “It’s surreal, it’s such an honor, it’s crazy. Yeah, I can’t believe it. Mindy Kaling always says: ‘Why not me?’ This was a ‘Why not me?’ situation.”

“Trainwreck,” which hits theaters July 17, features the comedic stylings of Schumer alongside the directorial genius of Judd Apatow, packaged in a heart-warming story of a young woman fighting the urge to fall in love. The film was screened exclusively for ASU students Thursday, along with an exclusive meet-and-greet with Schumer herself.

Schumer’s character, also named Amy, is a writer for a men’s magazine who struggles with commitment, pleasing her family and the appropriate amount to drink in one sitting. Bill Hader plays Amy’s love interest, Dr. Aaron Conners, a smart and handsome physical therapist for professional basketball players such as Lebron James.

“There’s so much of me in this movie," she said. "I was falling in love while I wrote it, and my dad in real life has (multiple sclerosis), and he lives in the hospital, and I’m really close with my sister, and I’m single. These are all issues that are really close to my heart.”

Schumer said incorporating her father's situation into the movie helped portray his condition in a better light.

“It really felt like paying homage to him,” she said. “We laugh. When things are at their most tragic in my family, we find a way to laugh. It’s a little bit of a survival tactic and also a good way to be. The things you can’t control, just roll with them. For my dad, literally, because he’s in a wheelchair. Just find a way to smile and laugh and keep yourself going.”

Schumer's character in the film combines beauty, brains and booze to create a complex persona who even has trouble figuring herself out as she finds herself partnered in bed with multiple guests, including Hader and professional wrestler John Cena.

“Sex is such a good fodder for comedy, because you’re always running into some new thing that a guy has," she said. "That new set of things that you’re going to be like, ‘Oh, God. This guy does that?’”

Apatow, the driving force behind “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” and “Knocked Up,” was the best person for the job, Schumer said.

“He’s a comedian, so we have that in common,” she said. “Comics really have this common bond and an understanding that other people don’t have. So we have very similar sensibilities, but collaborating with him, I couldn’t think of a better person to work with.”

Schumer hosted the 2015 MTV Movie Awards last Sunday, where she doled out jokes like candy, jabbing stars such as comedian Kevin Hart.

“Do you know how many movies Kevin (Hart) made this year? Two million,” she said during the show. “He made 2 million. Did you see Boyhood? He’s the boy, age 9. He was the fake baby in American Sniper.”

Schumer also engaged in a steamy, passionate kiss with friend Amber Rose, the sometimes controversial model and actress, on camera.

“We did not practice it,” she said. “We knew they were going to do a kiss cam, and she’s my friend, and we were like, ‘Oh, we’ll do it!’ But we didn’t really have a plan. We were like, ‘Let’s just start out doing the kiss cam,' but it was like a very sensational kiss.”

When it comes to hosting, Schumer said she is much more comfortable taking the stage as a comedian than a host.

“(Doing stand-up comedy is) where people come to see me,” she said. “Where this is an award show, where people are like, ‘Can we just get the host out of the way so we can see the really famous people?’ I was very comfortable, because I don’t get nervous when I should, but it was just fun. I just made sure I had fun for myself and did all the things I wanted to do.”

“Inside Amy Schumer," Schumer’s comedic love-child, will premiere its third season on Comedy Central on April 21. The show premiered on Comedy Central in 2013 and has earned itself an Emmy Nomination as well as a Peabody Award, which recognizes various media programs for their excellence.

For Schumer, who rose to fame after placing fourth during the fifth season of the reality show “Last Comic Standing,” having her own television show has been a dream.

“I definitely was surprised we were even picked up for a first season, but we won a Peabody (Award) today!” she said. “I’m so proud of it. I’m so happy, because I didn’t know if people were going to be into the show. I knew we were going to make the show we wanted to make, but people’s response was a complete surprise to me, and I’m really happy about it.”

As a part of a handful of successful female comedians, Schumer said she has always looked up to her other peers.

“I have always loved female comedians; a lot of my favorite comics are women, and they always have been," she said. "I think it’s just harder to be a woman in general, just with all the maintenance we have to deal with and how we’re always being evaluated sexually that men don’t need to deal with, but I think that the industry has always (had) a wealth of funny women."

Schumer said her passion for comedy and desire to make others laugh drives her to work as hard as possible.

“I spend every moment from when I wake up until I go to bed just working my ass off and trying to tell my story and get my point of view across and to make people laugh,” she said. “People really seem to be responding.”

Reach the reporter at Jlsuerth@asu.edu or follow @SuerthJessica on Twitter. Like The State Press on Facebook and follow @statepress on Twitter.

Like The State Press on Facebook and follow @statepress on Twitter.


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