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<p>Amy Schumer can credit a candid and very funny interview she gave to Howard Stern with helping fuel her film career.</p><p>Director Judd Apatow (&#8220;Knocked Up,&#8221; &#8220;The 40 Year Old Virgin&#8221;) caught the on-air exchange between the pair as he was driving to work, and was instantly struck by Schumer&#8217;s honesty as she discussed her serial relationships, sex life, family and her father&#8217;s battle with multiple sclerosis.</p><p>Later that day, Apatow picked up the phone and called Schumer. They hit it off so well that he hired her to begin writing &#8220;Trainwreck,&#8221; a semi-autobiographical comedy about a men&#8217;s-magazine writer (Schumer) who is unable to commit to anyone until she meets the sweetest guy imaginable - a sports doctor (Bill Hader) with scant experience of the opposite sex.</p><p>Initially, Schumer imagined &#8220;Trainwreck&#8221; as a high-concept comedy but Apatow urged her to dig deep and reveal some truths about herself.</p><p>&#8220;Judd really encouraged me to kind of look at myself and ask myself all these questions of what&#8217;s going on with (me), and it really made me realize that I was broken,&#8221; she said half-jokingly.</p><p>&#8220;It was actually difficult sitting there and really digging (into) these things that I didn&#8217;t even know that I thought. But I&#8217;m really glad I did.&#8221;</p><p>That said, Schumer is no stranger to humor that&#8217;s edgy and brutally honest. After a few years as a stand-up comic, she&#8217;s found success with the Peabody-winning Comedy Central series &#8220;Inside Amy Schumer.&#8221;</p><p>On the show, much of which Schumer writes herself, she not only channels the frustrations of her romantic life but she also skewers gender politics. One of her best-known sketches was called &#8220;The Last F&#8212;-able Day&#8221; and featured Julia Louis Dreyfus sarcastically thanking Hollywood for allowing her to be considered sexually viable into her 50s.</p><p>Another of Schumer&#8217;s best sketches was a spin on &#8220;12 Angry Men&#8221; in which Jeff Goldbum, John Hawkes and Paul Giamatti argued about whether Schumer was sexy enough to be on TV.</p><p>&#8220;I had to trash myself endlessly for, like, 35 pages and I would actually say that was harder to write than `Trainwreck,&#8217;&#8221; said Schumer, 34.</p><p>For the comic, one of the trickiest challenges of scripting &#8220;Trainwreck&#8221; was finding the right balance between ribald humor and bursts of drama.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m very lucky that Judd&#8230;became my fairy godfather because actually the first couple drafts I feel like were pretty just sad,&#8221; she said. &#8220;But he was so calm&#8230;and he just saw the pieces of what we could turn into a movie that we&#8217;d be proud of.</p><p>&#8220;Judd&#8230;knew the balance of (how long) to leave the audience hanging and sad (versus the comedy) and he knew how long a character with behavior like mine could still be likeable and when (audiences) would really turn on me.&#8221;</p><p>In the movie, Amy is anything but a model of moral integrity. In fact, the straight-shooting character is a woman who embraces her sexuality and does what she wants, even if it means ending up doing the walk of shame among early morning commuters.</p><p>&#8220;Well, you know a lot of people have asked me if I intended to kind of flip the gender roles so I&#8217;m, like, playing the guy.</p><p>&#8220;But that&#8217;s not been my experience at all. This is how I am and how a lot of girls I know are.</p><p>&#8220;Sometimes, a guy wants to be a little more sensitive and more invested, maybe. And so the scene&#8230;where [John Cena&#8217;s] character looks through my phone, and then instead of comforting him, I ask if I can leave - that did happen in my real life.&#8221;</p><p>The film begins with a flashback sequence in which Amy&#8217;s father (played by Colin Quinn) tells her and her sister (played as an adult by Brie Larson) to, essentially, live their lives the way they want to, and to not worry about what other people think.</p><p>&#8220;The inspiration was my dad,&#8221; Schumer said. &#8220;He never, like, sat us down and said `monogamy is not realistic&#8217; but we got to just see that in his behavior every day with all the new women that we were supposed to call Mom.</p><p>&#8220;My dad taught us to play poker really young and&#8230;if we would do something wrong, he&#8217;d be like, &#8216;if this were a real game you&#8217;d be killed.&#8217; He just treated us like dudes.&#8221;</p><p>The more time Schumer spent writing &#8220;Trainwreck,&#8221; the more her father began to inform the screenplay. For instance, Schumer&#8217;s Dad in real-life and in the movie are both dealing with MS.</p><p>&#8220;From the beginning, when I was going to write about my dad, I wanted to (include) that affliction because a lot of people don&#8217;t know anything about it yet a lot of people have it. And so this was the kind of a good opportunity to show what it&#8217;s like for somebody living with that.</p><p>&#8220;I was a little fearful because the way my dad handled (the disease) was to continue to drink and really punish his body&#8230;But from the get-go I was definitely going to write about my dad and show our relationship.&#8221;</p><p>If it was Schumer&#8217;s idea to write about her father, Apatow came up with the notion of not only stocking the film with cameos by athletes but also handing out a supporting role to LeBron James who aces his part as Hader&#8217;s best buddy.</p><p>&#8220;LeBron was really game to have fun and he knew what he was doing,&#8221; Apatow said. &#8220;He&#8217;s really a good actor. And he</p><p>prepared too.&#8221;</p><p>Adds Schumer, &#8220;We had a week with LeBron. It was like our week with family.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">In this file photo, Amy Schumer, the writer and star of &#8220;Trainwreck,&#8221; waves to the audience during the Universal Pictures presentation at CinemaCon 2015 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_amy.jpg</photo0><caption0>In this file photo, Amy Schumer, the writer and star of &#8220;Trainwreck,&#8221; waves to the audience during the Universal Pictures presentation at CinemaCon 2015 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_schumer.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Amy Schumer and Bill Hader star in &#8220;Trainwreck.&#8221; </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_schumer.jpg</photo1><caption1>Amy Schumer and Bill Hader star in &#8220;Trainwreck.&#8221; </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Amy Longsdorf | For Times Leader</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Amy Longsdorf is the Times Leader&#8217;s ticket into the Hollywood movie world. Her column, Vintage Videos, include reviews of DVDs with local ties. She also interviews stars of soon-to-be-released movies.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

‘Trainwreck’ based on real life memories of Schumer