Not only did Iris and Maud Apatow play Debbie’s daughters, their father, Leslie Mann’s husband, Judd Apatow, directed the movie. He also put his family in his later movie This Is 40 (2012) in which his wife and children played a mother with her daughters again. When talking about his daughters’ acting, Judd Apatow sounds proud: "They're not scared that cameras are around. They get sucked into what their real problems are with each other. Like, they're so annoyed with each other that they're not distracted by the fact that they're shooting a movie and it needs to go well, they're more concerned about whatever argument I'm trying to make them have on camera.“