PAUL RUDD’S RISE TO FAME
AFTER ALMOST THREE DECADES AS HOLLYWOOD’S FAVOURITE ‘NICE GUY’, THE ACTOR ISN’T SLOWING DOWN
Take one look at Paul Rudd now and you’d be hard-pressed to believe that it’s been 25 years since he first won our hearts as Cher’s socially conscious ex-stepbrother Josh in rom-com Clueless. While his visage is speckled with a dose of dashing maturity, the 51-year-old still looks virtually the same – with the same quirkiness that’s made him a mainstay in the acting world.
In fact, almost three decades on Rudd is still starring in multiple movies a year and shows no signs of slowing down. From superhero to dorky dad, the actor could be best described as an everyman. Though one characteristic remains the same in every role: humour. “I’ve always felt like jokes can help a situation,” he says. “It’s important that we all just remember to laugh. Because life’s hard.”
REINVENTING HIMSELF
Rudd’s story starts in New Jersey where he was born to British parents, who he says lay the foundations for his acting dream. “Actors talk about a love of craft and contributing to artistic welfare. But, really, I think [the desire to act] came for me from wanting more attention from my parents,” Rudd previously told UK’s The Guardian.
The family moved around a lot before settling in Kansas when Rudd was 10 years old. “I was always in new schools and had British parents, which was not the norm,” he admitted. “So I learned early on that I could be accepted if I made people laugh when I turned the joke on myself.”
THE KING OF COMEDY
While the actor is arguably unmatched in versatility, his movies always tend to lean towards comedy over drama. “It’s always been the case that comedy never gets the props that drama does,” Rudd explains. “It’s easy to write [comedic actors] off and say, ‘Oh, that’s just a comedy,’ but it’s so much more than that. It’s easier to make somebody cry than to make somebody laugh, because everyone’s sense of humour is so different. Whereas if something is moving, more people will find it moving.”
When Rudd joined Friends at the show’s peak in 2002, as Phoebe’s boyfriend Mike, he perhaps didn’t realise what was ahead of him. “I knew that no-one was going to be tuning in for ‘Mike Hannigan,’” he shared with Marie Claire. “I didn’t want to get in the way. I was like, ‘I’ll just stand in the back with Gunther.’”
But when the sitcom wrapped, producer Judd Apatow was waiting in the wings with a role in hit comedy Anchorman and the pair went on to work together on The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up and This Is 40. “As far as having an impact on my career, it was really with [those films] where I took a left turn,” he admitted.
A HUMBLE DAD
Despite now being a Marvel superhero in Ant-Man and a bankable leading man, Rudd has remained surprisingly humble. “I don’t come from a family of actors, I didn’t grow up around it and so when I go to Los Angeles for work, or to a premiere, I like it because it feels like I’m just popping in,” he explains. “I identify myself as a parent and a husband way more than somebody who rides around on the back of an ant.”
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