Stormy Daniels Has Always Been Judd Apatow’s Go-To Naked Lady

Before she became world-famous for porking the president, adult film star Stormy Daniels was a comedy character actor best recognized for always playing the sex worker Judd Apatow needed for whichever movie centered around horny man-children he was shooting that month.

Here in 2024, the iconic comedy filmmaker behind most of the best funny films of the 2000s isn’t shy about his political leanings. Anyone who follows the Knocked Up and The 40-Year-Old Virgin director on Twitter knows exactly how he feels about former president Donald Trump and the dubious morals Trump claims to represent. However, Apatow wasn’t always such an outspoken figure in the political sphere, much like how Daniels didn’t plan on becoming an election-night commentator for the U.K.’s Channel 4 news along with their disgraced former prime minister Boris Johnson. But while Apatow chose to become more politically active in his later career, in Daniels’ case, politics was thrust upon her, over and over, with sweaty, strenuous effort that continues to yield bizarre results.

Before they were both active participants in presidential elections, Daniels and Apatow were consistent collaborators anytime Apatow had a topless role that needed filling in one of his films — Daniels appeared in both Knocked Up and The 40-Year-Old Virgin playing a stripper and a porn star respectively. And, during his appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Monday, Apatow claimed that Daniels teased what was to come in her political career between takes when she told him and the rest of the crew exactly which billionaire daddy’s boy just bought an extramarital encounter with the now-world-famous sex worker:

Apatow’s account of the day Daniels gave Paul Rudd pink eye on the set of Knocked Up matches up with what the film’s star Seth Rogen said about working with Daniels on The Ellen Show back in 2018, when he told the since-disgraced talk show host of Daniels’ recently unearthed affair with Trump, “I’ve known Stormy Daniels a long time, and I’ll be honest, she may have mentioned some of this stuff around 10 years ago.” 

“At the time, when you ask a porn star who they’ve been sleeping with, and the answer was Donald Trump, it was like the least surprising thing she could have said. So yeah, she mentioned it,” he added.

Then, nearly 20 years after Daniels established herself as Apatow’s first call whenever he needs a woman to go nude for a bit, Apatow executive produced the mostly clothed Peacock documentary about Daniels’ life and career, Stormy, which premiered on streaming earlier this year. This might be the first time that a multi-decade working relationship between a Hollywood big shot and a sex worker was profitable, professional and completely sanctioned by NBC.