Nudity has always been fairly common on the big screen, but it's also always been very one-sided. Even when discussing the concept of nudity in film there's an expectation that we're talking about female nudity. Male nudity does happen, but it's so unusual that it's often shocking simply for existing. Such was the case when a penis appeared on screen in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. The identity of that penis has been unclear, as we never see above the waist of the person in the movie, but writer Judd Apatow says that the offending member belongs to a now-famous director.
Speaking with our own ReelBlend podcast, Judd Apatow said that, while he wouldn't reveal the identity of the penis in the scene, the man who appeared naked in the scene asking John C. Reilly's Dewey Cox if he wanted some coffee, went on to be a film director in his own right. According to Apatow...
When we did Dewey Cox and there’s this scene where he’s on the phone with his wife saying how bored he is on the road and then there’s just naked people walking by. And then a guy’s penis just appears and asks him if he wants some coffee. You know that made us laugh so hard. I don’t think it’s a public thing, but the guy who did that is now a famous director, but I don’t know if he talks about it publicly at this point.
I suppose, let this be a lesson to everybody that you never quite know when you're going to end up in life. One minute you're an on-screen penis, and the next you're a successful film director. Not only that, but in being an on-screen penis, you can still learn how to become that successful director. Judd Apatow went on to say that, the penis/director actually told him at the Directors Guild awards that he learned a lot about being a director while being on the set that day. Apatow explained...
That penis in Dewey Cox is now a famous director. And he walked up to me at the director’s guild awards and he said, ‘I know it sounds crazy but I learned so much that day, watching you guys improvise and talk and getting to hear your debates about how to do scenes. But none of us can comment on who.
And so, of course, this asks the obvious question, who could this stunt penis turned director possibly be? Actually, there's a pretty strong candidate. On the DVD release of Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, there exists a "cockumentary" specifically about the scene, and in it, a man named Tyler Nilson claims to be the one who dropped trou for the scene. IMDb confirms he was in the film, in the role of Bert. 13 years after the release of Walk Hard, Tyler Nilson was nominated for a Director's Guild award alongside directing partner Michael Schwartz for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in First-Time Feature Film for their movie The Peanut Butter Falcon.
So it would seem that the actor turned director in question actually was previously outed. If Tyler Nilson isn't the person in question, then the fact that somebody who is now a major director pretended to be in the scene for the DVD feature, and the actual person is also now a major director, is a pretty wild coincidence.
Check out Judd Apatow's full Reelblend appearance below.
