Judd Apatow perfectly put into words why we need Amy Schumer in our lives

Amy Schumer is totally blowing up 2015, and this week is certainly no exception. Yesterday she earned not one, but TWO Emmy nominations for her work on Inside Amy Schumer, her wonderful sketch comedy television series on Comedy Central. Oh, and Trainwreck, starring and written by Amy herself, hit theaters today. Then there was her fabulous appearance on the Tonight Show Wednesday night, in which she and Jimmy conducted a very “emotional” (see also: hilarious) interview. And, of course, this week she landed herself on the cover of GQ‘s comedy issue (though there was a bit of controversy about the images, they don’t seem to be slowing Amy down). Seriously, girl is on FIRE this week.

But just in case anyone’s doubting Amy Schumer’s radness, Judd Apatow is here to explain it to us. Judd, who directed Trainwreck, was recently interviewed by Vox‘s Rachel Handler, and he had a lot to say about the ultra-popular comedienne. Rachel pointed out that Trainwreck is the very first film that Judd directed that he didn’t also write — so why change his tune for Amy?

“I heard [Amy] on Howard Stern, and she was talking about her dad a lot, who has multiple sclerosis, and what she was saying was really painful, but it was also really honest and warm and funny,” he responded. “She was also talking about her relationships, and the problems she was having sustaining healthy ones. I was in my car, and I didn’t know her standup at all. . . then I just sat in that parking lot [listening] for 45 minutes. I didn’t get out of the car. I thought, ‘Oh, these are definitely movies.’”

Judd was immediately taken by her talent. “So I asked her to come in, and we started kicking around ideas, and that led to Trainwreck,” he explained. “But I haven’t had that experience with anyone else where listening to them talk made me think, ‘Oh, this is a natural storyteller.’”

Then, when asked why Amy seems to resonate so deeply in pop culture at the moment, Judd perfectly summed up the amazing anomaly that is Amy Schumer. “I think there’s a lot of things that women should be very upset about, and it’s great to have a raucously hysterical person to say, ‘This is bullsh*t.’”

But, he continued, Amy’s no-nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is manner isn’t cruel. “Unlike other people, there’s no bitterness in it,” he told Vox. “She never loses her sense of humor. The comedy always comes first, but she’s making points that really need to be made.”

Judd also discussed the more controversial jokes that Amy makes—and why he thinks they’re necessary. “It’s hard to do great comedy about rape culture, but someone should do it,” he told Vox. “It takes a genius to engage people to say, ‘Isn’t this crazy that we don’t care more about this?’ She comes at it, and she’s attacked so many subjects that have been neglected. The reason why she can do it is because she’s incredibly smart, she has great positions, she is insanely funny, and she can do it all at the same time. Someone else hasn’t done that before, or hasn’t been given the opportunity to do it before.”

Though she’s a lot like George Carlin, says Apatow, she’s unabashedly herself —and her totally unique, out-of-the-box talent is what’s truly resonating with audiences. “We only had one George Carlin, but in addition, she’s doing things that George Carlin didn’t do,” Judd told Vox. “She wrote an incredibly vulnerable, honest movie about relationships and family that’s also super funny. But it goes deep, and it’s very insightful.”

Truth to the max. For all of these reasons and more, it’s clear that this is only the beginning for Amy. It’s been a hell of a week for her, but we have a feeling she’ll be having many, many more weeks like it to come. Read the entire Vox interview with Judd Apatow on Trainwreck and Amy Schumer here.

And, for more on Amy, check out her brilliant, alternative, cover for GQ. Theone she designed herself:

Images via IMDb