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As you reach the end of your teenage years, you occupy a liminal space. It’s messy, but freeing. A fleeting stretch of time wherein, for an albeit brief moment, there’s room for fuck-ups, for learning, for working towards. Iris Apatow isn’t in a rush. At nineteen, she’s on the brink of adulthood, and is fully embracing this transitory period.

Throughout her childhood, Apatow graced screens in comedies Knocked Up and This Is 40 and, more recently, as Arya Hopkins in Netflix romantic comedy series, Love. Refreshingly, though, Apatow still views acting as something she wants to do “when she grows up.” She’s in the process of becoming—becoming an adult, becoming an actor, becoming an expert of her craft. “It feels like I’m nurturing some kind of inner child that wants to be an actress,” she reflects. Her love and appreciation for the craft are clear, as is her eagerness to learn.

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Apatow ruminates on her journey thus far. As a child, acting was not a joy, but a chore—she attributes this to a guileless lack of understanding for what was going on. Now, having studied it for years, she counts acting as something special in her life, a pursuit for which she’s honing her skills. As for what shifted, she credits high school—specifically, her acting teacher, Donna. “She was really tough, but she was super good,” smiles Apatow. “She whipped us all into shape, and we’re better actors for it.”

Apatow’s studies didn’t stop there. She’s now majoring in film at the University of Southern California, having opted for the college route as she hopes to write more. “I’ve always wanted to do the thing where you write yourself into a movie,” she explains. “That’s what my dad [director Judd Apatow] always told me,” she jokes, “If you can’t get the part, just write it!” Guidance worth heeding; her father is, after all, the one she phones when she needs good advice. On a more serious note, Apatow extols the opportunity to learn about the “behind the scenes stuff”—the technical side that an actor wouldn’t necessarily be privy to on a film set.

Apatow’s latest project sees her feature in, The Bubble, which is her father’s comedic take on a film production during the pandemic. In what can only be described as a very meta creative layer, the UK—where the movie was filmed—was in lockdown during production. The Bubble set didn’t quite descend into the same chaos as the movie itself, nor did the actors get up to the antics of their on-screen counterparts. The only similarity: they were all locked up in their rooms, looking for things to do. “I watched all eleven seasons of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” laughs Apatow.

As the world slowly returns to a semblance of normalcy, The Bubble harkens back to a time many of us are, quite frankly, trying to forget. Apatow recognizes this tension, acknowledging that, although The Bubble is undeniably a comedy, “The movie is a very sensitive subject,” she considers. “I think it’s hard to bring levity to that type of situation.” Yet the movie does just that. Apatow attributes this to its focus on finding humor in character, rather than situation. The over-the-top, bratty actors intent on producing a cultural artifact to distract the masses from their miserable, COVID-ridden lives, provides much-needed comic relief as we slowly distance ourselves from the horrors of the last two years.

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Behind this satire was a host of highly-accoladed actors and comedians, including Karen Gillan, David Duchovny, Pedro Pascal, and Leslie Mann (Iris Apatow’s mother, and one of her biggest inspirations). For working so closely with a cast of this caliber, Apatow is grateful. “They just know their shit, and you feel like you have to live up to that,” she says. “And that’s what’s great about working with people who are so experienced—the fear of not being good makes you whip yourself into shape and get it done!”

In the lead-up to her twentieth birthday, Apatow is contently looking forward. As an actress, she says, her job is to audition. So that’s what she hopes to do—enjoy auditioning, her apartment, and her cats. “That’s kind of all I want,” she says with a smile. Outside acting, she plans to stay grounded and connected to the people around her. “I think that affects everything else in life,” she ponders. In a city like LA, it’s easy to get caught up in the madness. But Apatow plans to keep her feet planted firmly on the ground.

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That doesn’t mean there’s no room for dreaming. Bigger-picture, Apatow aspires to star in a Marvel movie. Betwixt binging on The Housewives during the filming of The Bubble, she immersed herself in the Marvel Cinematic Universe at Shepperton Studios, enjoying an abundance of the franchise’s films. Her ultimate superhero is Scarlet Witch. “You just look so badass, she’s a cool witch,” she gushes. “What more could you want in a part?”

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Marvel may be the pipe dream, but Twilight is Apatow’s first love. She credits the film as something her and her two best friends can connect over—they all grew up watching it. “Twilight is something I hold very near and dear to my heart—it’s my favorite movie,” she says fondly. “It’s one of those things that has that cathartic feeling that makes me just calm and happy. When I’m my saddest, that’s what I do.”

Apatow half-jokingly worries that her love for the film might come off as obsessive—it was the theme of her nineteenth birthday, after all. Yet, if a film has the power to make one feel less alone, be it through solo catharsis or bringing three friends together at nineteen as it did at age nine, then surely there’s no shame in that. For isn’t that all any of us hope to do? Find points of genuine connection and savor them?