Paul Rudd's Journey To Marvel Stardom (& A Look At His Cheerleading Days)
Paul Rudd is truly America's sweetheart. From leading man rom-coms like "Clueless" and "I Could Never Be Your Woman," to side roles in raunchy farces like "I Love You, Man" and "Role Models," to parts in indie darlings like "Perks of Being a Wallflower" and "Our Idiot Brother" — and even popular television roles — Rudd is a favorite among all audiences.
Rudd was born in Passaic, New Jersey, on April 6, 1969, to English parents. His mother was a sales manager, while his father worked for TransWorld Airlines, which means they moved around when Rudd was young. He told Vanity Fair, "[U]p until the age of 10 I had lived in three different states, I had gone to many different schools, and so I was always trying to acclimate into new scenarios and settings." Rudd's family ultimately settled in Kansas when he was 10. His parents were both children of Polish and Russian Jewish immigrants. His paternal grandfather anglicized his surname Rudnitzky to Rudd.
As he continues his stint as Marvel's "Ant-Man," let's take a look at Rudd's transformation over the years — even though he won't look much different because The Man. Does. Not. Age.
He was a cheerleader in high school
Although Paul Rudd's days as a cheerleader in high school remain under the radar, there are a few photos from that era that've made the internet rounds. In one of the images, the future movie star appears to be performing at a school pep assembly or game. In another, he's seated on a teammate's shoulders for what looks like a team photo. Although Rudd's posture in the pics depicts a level of authority and self-confidence, his high school years were far from easy owing to his cognizance of self-image.
"Oh my God, puberty hit me like a Mack Truck," Rudd once told People. "All of a sudden my hair got really curly, my skin would break out, I was self-conscious like anybody. I took medicine and it made my lips dry out." Regardless, Rudd, who claimed he was still a ball of nervousness when it came to appearance, was People's Sexiest Man Alive in 2021. It was a title Rudd took with a grain of salt, yet he still managed to make it a moment. "I'm going to own this. I'm not going to try to be like 'Oh, I'm so modest.' I'm getting business cards made." he declared.
He used humor to make friends
After his family put down roots in Kansas, Paul Rudd soon found that he was one of the few Jewish kids at his school. "I always felt a little different than, I guess, most of the kids. What I learned kind of early on is that, like, if I make Jewish jokes about myself, I noticed that all of the kids would laugh really hard," Rudd disclosed on "The Howard Stern Show."
In many ways, Rudd used comedy to protect himself. "I think that was probably the way that I kind of tried not to get my a** kicked, or at least make friends, you know," he explained in the aforementioned Vanity Fair interview. It wasn't until he became an adult that the extent of his self-sabotage hit him.
Perhaps unknown to him at the time, Rudd was laying the foundation for a comedy career that includes stage productions such as "The Last Night of Ballyhoo" and "Twelfth Night"... and, you know, a mega-hit comedy movie career.
Paul Rudd developed his comedy skills as a DJ
Paul Rudd graduated from Shawnee Mission West High School in 1987. After high school, Rudd attended college at the University of Kansas, where he majored in theatre and belonged to Sigma Nu fraternity. He gained some improvisational experience, honing his loving comedic personality while working as a DJ at a local bar.
Following his time at the University of Kansas, he continued his theatrical studies at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Pasadena, California, and did a semester at the British American Drama Academy in Oxford. He returned to America in the early 1990s, where he started working in television. "My time in Oxford was wonderful. The British American Drama Academy is a very well-respected institution, and at the time I was really keen to forge a serious acting career," Rudd said of his United Kingdom stint in an interview with Independent School Parent.
While he was in acting school, Rudd earned money as a DJ for bat and bar mitzvahs. As he told Howard Stern, after one particularly long day of DJing, he hit the dance floor and unleashed some moves. "I started dancing just like a freak and mocking the entire thing, but the kids thought it was funny, so they kind of cleared the dance floor a little bit, and my boss got on the mic and said, 'Hey, it's Donnie Dweeb,'" he recalled. Rudd reluctantly committed to the bit, and kids would request "Donnie Dweeb" at later parties.
He got his start as an actor in a Super Nintendo ad
A commercial for Super Nintendo in 1991 kicked off Paul Rudd's acting career. In the 30-second promo, Rudd, who is sporting well-kept wavy hair whilst dressed in a red T-shirt and a pitch-black coat, works the game as others look on. He joins the long list of A-list actors like Courteney Cox who got their start in adverts.
Years later, Rudd's mainstream success hasn't watered down his marketing abilities. If anything, he's gotten so advanced that his characters are now doing the talking, as seen in Heineken's Ant-Man Super Bowl ad. In a conversation with Complex, Rudd revealed that his partnership with the brand was a marriage brewed to perfection, given his love for the game and Scott Lang.
"So I'm a big Kansas City Chiefs fan. I love watching football. The fact that 'Ant-Man' is going to show up in a game that God willing the Chiefs are going to pull it off, it's very exciting," Rudd said. It goes without saying that he was thrilled when the Chiefs triumphed over the Philadelphia Eagles to bag the Super Bowl LVII title.
His early beginnings as an actor
In the formative years of his career, Paul Rudd worked under his full name, Paul Stephen Rudd, to differentiate himself from another working actor with the same name. Rudd landed the role of Kirby Philby in the NBC television drama "Sisters" in 1992. His character, a cinematographer, had a fast-paced relationship with a love interest, Reed Halsey (Ashley Judd), and the pair ended up running off together. Rudd's 19-episode run on "Sisters" came to an end in 1995.
Soon after making two television film appearances in "Moment of Truth: Stalking Back" and the fourth episode of "Rebel Highway" anthology series, "Runaway Daughters," Rudd played Brian Grant in the short-lived 1994 Fox sitcom "Wild Oats." Rudd didn't exactly enjoy his time on "Wild Oats." As he told GQ in 2009, around that time he was so frustrated with his career that he created an art installation of sorts in his apartment as a way to vent his feelings. And by "art installation," we mean he put a piece of cardboard up in his apartment and wrote swear words all over it. "That being said, when my parents came to visit and my mother saw that, I think she was very concerned and wanted me to come back home for a little while," he recalled. It was not until 1995 that he got his big break in a little rom-com with a huge following.
Working with Amy Heckerling gave Paul Rudd his big break
In 1995, Paul Rudd played the role of Josh, older step-brother and love interest to Alicia Silverstone's Cher in a smart new teen romantic comedy based on the classic story "Emma," by Jane Austen. Directed by Amy Heckerling, "Clueless" was a huge success and has been an iconic part of pop culture ever since. "When we were shooting it, we all hoped that ["Clueless"] would fall into that kind of pantheon of movies like John Hughes made, or that really struck a chord with us when we were teenagers," Rudd told the AV Club in 2011. "It had actually achieved that status for a lot of people. What a cool thing it is to be involved in something that attains that level of importance in a lot of kids' lives."
After making "Clueless," Rudd moved to New York in 1995. The day he arrived, according to Nylon Guys (via Good Housekeeping), he went to meet his new publicist with luggage in hand and simultaneously met his future wife, Julie Yaeger, who was working as an assistant. She agreed to watch his bags while he went on an audition, and he later invited her to lunch. Thus began their romantic relationship. The two dated for eight years, until they married in 2003. They have been married ever since, and live happily in Rhinebeck, New York, with their two children: son Jack, who arrived in 2006, and daughter Darby, who was born in 2010.
After Clueless, many doors opened for Paul Rudd
With the success of "Clueless" and his performance as adorable love interest Josh, Paul Rudd's star was on the rise. He appeared in many films after "Clueless," in parts big and small: He played Paris in Baz Luhrmann's Red Curtain Trilogy film "Romeo + Juliet," starred with his friend Jennifer Aniston in 1998's "The Object of My Affection," appeared with curly hair and sexy sideburns in the New Year's Eve ensemble comedy "200 Cigarettes," and even showed up in an episode of the short-lived sitcom based on "Clueless."
While becoming a hot commodity, Rudd did miss out on a role both he and his father hoped he'd play. As the actor shared on an episode of "The Graham Norton Show," he not only auditioned for the role of Jack Dawson in James Cameron's massive blockbuster "Titanic," but his dad happened to be a professional Titanic historian. Alas, Rudd did not get the role, but he heartily encouraged his "Romeo + Juliet" co-star Leonardo DiCaprio to accept the part.
Striking a careful balance between romantic lead and raunchy comedic supporting character, Rudd appeared in "Wet Hot American Summer" in 2001. He also took a recurring role on the hugely popular sitcom "Friends," as Phoebe's love interest, Mike Hannigan, staying with the series for its last two seasons. However, when Rudd played the role of 1970s ladies' man newscaster Brian Fantana in 2004's "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy," his comedy career really took off.
Paul Rudd became one of Judd Apatow's star players
Working on "Anchorman" with co-stars like Steve Carell and Seth Rogen set Paul Rudd on the path of side characters in silly, raunchy, sometimes-romantic-in-a-gross-way comedies. In 2005, he worked with writer-director Judd Apatow in Apatow's first feature (co-written by Carell), "The 40-Year-Old Virgin." Now part of Apatow's regulars, Rudd also appeared in "Knocked Up," "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story" (though uncredited), and "This is 40," all written and directed by Apatow.
Rudd is also a master improviser, ad-libbing lines that are too funny to cut. As he shared in a video GQ, "Sometimes ['The 40-Year-Old Virgin' cast] would take it upon ourselves to start improvising. Judd would say, 'Alright, do more of that.' ... They become these kind of collaborative jam sessions." Rudd flexed his writing muscle for the pilot of "Party Down," a short-lived, albeit cult-favorite TV series that he co-created.
Of course, Rudd went on to work with directors other than Apatow. His filmography includes hits like "Role Models," "I Love You, Man," "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" (which was produced by Apatow), and "I Could Never Be Your Woman." He also appeared as Bobby Newport, a hapless political candidate running against Amy Poehler's Leslie Knope, in "Parks and Recreation." He then starred with Poehler in the rom-com spoof "They Came Together." But his biggest role was right around the corner.
The Frat Pack found box office success
The Frat Pack, a large group of comedic entertainers that includes Paul Rudd, earned the tag back in 2004 courtesy of USA Today. Meant to be the comedy version of Frank Sinatra's Rat Pack, these performers have found more success than loss at the box office.
The Ben Stiller-led 2006 flick "Night at the Museum" featuring Rudd in a supporting role recorded a $250.8 million gross sale in the United States and Canada and went on to fetch $574.4 million worldwide. 2009's "Monsters vs Aliens," which includes voiceover roles by Seth Rogen and Rudd, made a revenue that was a little over twice its budget. By 2019, Rudd was No.9 on the Forbes list of the highest-earning actors.
A formerly struggling artist who struggled to get by financially, Rudd now kept the company of entertainment powerhouses like Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Robert Downey Jr., and Chris Hemsworth. Years before his financial facelift, Rudd was housed by a friend. "He let me stay in his apartment because I didn't even have, really, the money to get an apartment. And I slept on towels in his kitchen," he disclosed during an appearance on "Late Night with Seth Meyers."
Paul Rudd's friendship with Seth Rogen
As Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd shared in a chat with People, the foundation for their real-deal friendship was laid on the set of "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy." At the time, Rudd was already onto Rogen, having been an avid fan of the Judd Apatow NBC sitcom "Freaks and Geeks," in which Rogen played Ken Miller.
The duo both agreed that working together on "The 40-Year-Old-Virgin" was the icing on the cake, fortifying their bond once and for all. "I would say actually specifically, like during the audition, like, coz Judd made us read with all the actors who were auditioning and so me and you spent like hours and hours and hours and hours in like a very small room together," Rogen said.
Rogen and Rudd have racked up about two decades of friendship at the time of this writing. Not only have they worked together on the big screen, the pair collaborated on a spooky ode to their friendship in a creative Lays Super Bowl commercial.
Yes, Paul Rudd can play the bad guy
Some of the concepts in Paul Rudd's filmography are drawn out of real-life experiences. In "Knocked Up," for instance, the pregnancy book fight between Alison (Katherine Heigl) and Ben (Seth Rogen) is something straight out of the Rudd household. As he divulged in a video for GQ, "Judd wanted to hear things from my life and my marriage and things that we, you know, we were dealing and being a young parent."
Given his likable character history, many of whom are as relatable as the scene from "Knocked Up" depicted, fans can hardly picture Rudd as the villain. He therefore defied all possible odds in his portrayal of antagonist Cactus Bill in the 2018 Netflix release, "Mute." "I wasn't such a nice dude in that one," he said of the film on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert." "But, for the most part, no, I never really seem to get cast as bad guys." Bill is an underground surgeon who specializes in the black market and wears a mustache. While he doesn't have actual experience with the black market, the facial hair was very real — and as Rudd said on "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon," the 'stache got him some interesting looks when he wasn't on the set.
Paul Rudd landed a major role in the MCU
Hitting the motherlode that lots of leading men aspire to, Paul Rudd joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Scott Lang in 2015's "Ant-Man." He now leads his own comic book superhero franchise with one sequel — which Rudd co-wrote — to date, and another in production. He also participated in two MCU ensemble movies, "Captain America: Civil War," and "Avengers: Endgame," not to mention the forthcoming animated series "What If...?" Even if he never works on anything again, he's set for life.
Rudd likely had a huge fanboy moment when he became Ant-Man, and not just because of the huge role he was undertaking. Rudd is also a huge fan of the show "Lost," so he almost certainly geeked out when he learned he would be starring opposite Kate herself, Evangeline Lilly.
In addition to his busy Hollywood life, with a role in the forthcoming "Ghostbusters: Afterlife," Rudd and his wife also co-own a candy store with actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan in Rhinebeck, New York, where they all live. The actors took over the shop, called Samuel's Sweet Shop, after the previous owner, a friend of theirs, died suddenly. And as New York magazine noted in 2010, Rudd also has an Irish pub called Sullivan's... in his basement. What we wouldn't give to receive an invitation to that basement bar.
His son didn't know about his movie star status
It's not unusual for children of stars to grow up on the big screen. Jaden Smith, for example, acted alongside superstar dad Will Smith in the 2006 flick "The Pursuit of Happyness," and again in "After Earth." On the flip side, there are other celebrity children who are kept away from the limelight completely. And taking things a step even further, there are some kids of A-listers who remain blissfully unaware of just how famous their parents are.
Rudd and Julie Yaeger evidently were in no rush to let their children know what a big deal their dad happens to be. "My son, when he was about four or five, went to the movie theater to see a movie with his friends," he recalled in an interview with "Today." "They were all going and there was a movie poster that I was on. It was in the lobby. So they all just thought that I worked at the movie theatre." Rudd evidently played into this narrative. "I never corrected him. I said, 'No, I work at the, uh, AMC Loews,'" he said. According to Rudd, his son stayed relatively oblivious about his dad's fame until he was a teenager.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is on the way
"Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" crashes into theaters on February 17, 2023, kicking off Marvel Cinematic Universe's Phase 5. A sequel to "Ant-Man" and the 2018 follow-up "Ant-Man and the Wasp," "Quantumania" puts Scott Lang (Paul Rudd), Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), and Hope's folks in the Quantum Realm, where they come face to face with Kang the Conqueror (Nathaniel Richards).
"This is the baddest guy that we're going up against, ever," Rudd remarked in a Geek Culture interview. "This idea that Ant-Man was gonna go up against a villain that was probably more powerful than Thanos was a really interesting idea to me and I was excited to see what that was going to be like."
On top of being an ex-convict who's turned over a new leaf, an Avenger, and a dad, Scott Lang is also an author. The fictional character's memoir, "Look Out for the Little Guy," is set to hit shelves in September 2023.