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Paul Rudd chats with The Hollywood Reporter during his THR cover shoot about his close collabs. From working with Lisa Kudrow in 'Friends' to sharing his funniest moments with Will Ferrell in 'Anchorman.' Plus, he answers questions from his pals, Olivia Colman and Adam Scott, reveals all the signs from the universe that led him to move to New York, calls Judd Apatow "the mayor of comedy" and more.

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Transcript
00:00Hi, I'm Paul Rudd, and I'm here to talk about some of my collaborators.
00:05Lisa Kudrow is so...
00:06I always thought whenever I would watch an episode of Friends,
00:10like she just doesn't miss a moment.
00:12She's so good.
00:13That could be a pretty intense, you know, experience
00:16to kind of step into this incredible group of people
00:19that were very well established.
00:21And she was so welcoming and just cool.
00:25She's just really, really cool.
00:27How do you and Joey know each other anyway?
00:32Oh, how do Joey and I know each other?
00:34Wow.
00:35And if I had a nickel for every time somebody's asked me that.
00:38I really treasure all of them for making me feel so welcoming.
00:43I felt like they were friends.
00:45I mean, Anchorman is just like the greatest joy ever.
00:51It was so fun and so funny,
00:53and I was so excited to be working amongst incredibly funny people.
00:58I mean, Will Ferrell is...
01:00That guy's on Mount Rushmore.
01:02Ryan, I'm going to be honest with you.
01:03That smells like pure gasoline.
01:05They've done studies, you know.
01:0760% of the time, it works every time.
01:11That doesn't make sense.
01:12You just...
01:13To see Will and his mind work,
01:16you feel like, oh my God,
01:17this is like you have a front row seat
01:19to these amazing musicians jamming in a studio or something.
01:22I remember walking out of the door,
01:25we're filming a scene
01:26when we're not supposed to see Ron Burgundy,
01:29and we walk out,
01:31and we just had to turn and then stop,
01:33and Will is standing right here
01:35as a, like a hobo,
01:37and Cruella and I were standing right next to each other.
01:40That was when he said,
01:41milk was a bad choice.
01:47It's so damn hot.
01:51Milk was a bad choice.
01:54And I remember looking at Steve.
01:56We were looking right at each other,
01:58trying to really not laugh,
02:00because the sound would have picked it up.
02:02But I just remember,
02:04milk was a bad choice.
02:05Jesus Christ,
02:06is that maybe the funniest thing you could possibly say?
02:09That's Will Ferrell.
02:10Olivia Colman.
02:12I met Olivia Colman 26 years ago, I'd say.
02:16We were in a play together.
02:18We did Long Day's Journey Into Night together in London.
02:20I loved her immediately.
02:22She was very funny and great.
02:25We have been friends,
02:26very good friends ever since that production.
02:29She's as good as you think she is
02:32in both the talent department
02:34and the just person department.
02:36All right, so now I'm reading a question out loud
02:39that Olivia is asking me.
02:41I want to know why you look so good,
02:44because that's really fucking annoying.
02:46You've got younger looking as we've all gotten older.
02:48I'm beginning to think I'm beginning to look like I could be your mom.
02:52Share your secrets.
02:54I have no secrets, Col.
02:56I call her Collie.
02:57I think you look fantastic, Col.
02:59I don't know what you're talking about.
03:00I'm a withering 80-year-old man on the inside.
03:05Judd Apatow, who I've worked with several times now.
03:08Judd is, you know, he's the mayor of comedy.
03:12He was very collaborative.
03:13Judd is somebody that I think doesn't look at comedy
03:16in the way that maybe everybody else does.
03:18I don't think that he uses it in such black and white terms.
03:22I think that he really finds the human side of this stuff.
03:26He can go far,
03:27but he always keeps everything really rooted in a reality.
03:31What else are you lying about?
03:34I've taken Viagra for two years.
03:37I ate six muffins downstairs a while ago,
03:39and my cholesterol level is 305.
03:42My heart could explode at any second.
03:44These might be my very last words.
03:47What are we even doing?
03:49What are we doing?
03:50I think that's why those films that he makes really do work.
03:55Bradley Cooper, that was, I think it was Bradley's first movie.
03:58Hey, let's all promise that in 10 years from today,
04:02we'll meet again,
04:03and we'll see what kind of people we've blossomed into.
04:06Yeah!
04:07There was something very excitable and excited about him
04:10that was kind of contagious.
04:12He was like a golden retriever.
04:14And then I see the kind of the course that his career has taken,
04:17and I'm not surprised because he's really smart,
04:19and he's very driven,
04:21and has a lot of interests,
04:22and is really talented.
04:24So it's pretty cool to think back.
04:26Oh, yeah, it's Bradley Cooper's first movie.
04:28I was in that.
04:28I think it might have been Elizabeth Banks' first movie, too.
04:30But Parks and Rec, I mean,
04:32that is, uh, I mean,
04:34who on that show isn't amazing?
04:37Well, Mr. Newport, we meet at last.
04:38I'm Leslie Knope.
04:40Ah, okie-dokie.
04:41So, do you want me to sign that to Miss Lope,
04:42or just Nesney?
04:43What?
04:44Amy Poehler is brilliant.
04:46She's a genius,
04:47and a lovely person.
04:49I got to work with her several times.
04:52Same with Adam Scott,
04:53who is my, probably like, my best friend,
04:56going back to when he was a teenager,
04:58and I was 60.
05:00Come on, give me it.
05:01Just give me the election.
05:02I'm sorry.
05:03Please.
05:04Please.
05:05Well, Leslie, he does make a compelling argument.
05:07Come on.
05:08Ugh, come on.
05:10Guy.
05:12Bobby.
05:12Alright, so this is a question from Adam.
05:14I imagine it's going to be a weird question.
05:16I know before you left and moved to New York
05:18back in the 90s,
05:19you kind of felt like it was time to leave L.A.
05:22What was the lowest point there
05:24before you decided L.A. wasn't for you?
05:28Oh, that's kind of a regular question.
05:30Yeah, I was going to acting school,
05:31the same one Adam went to in L.A.,
05:34but I always had kind of my,
05:36this idea that I was going to go to New York
05:38because I really wanted to do theater.
05:40And I thought, oh, I'll know when it's time to go.
05:43The universe will give me the message.
05:45And the universe did give me the message
05:47in the form of five car accidents within one week.
05:51I had my car stolen.
05:53I had to rent a car.
05:54That car got hit by a hit-and-run two days later.
05:56And then I borrowed a friend's car.
05:58It hydroplaned down a hill into another car.
06:01Then I rented another car.
06:04That one was hit by a hit-and-run driver.
06:05I thought, I'm going to go to New York.
06:07I don't need a car.
06:08And I came to New York.
06:09I got an audition for the Manhattan Theater Club.
06:12I'm walking down the street,
06:13going over the lines
06:14because I have to go do the audition.
06:16And I'm not paying attention to where I was going.
06:18And I run into a guy, and it was Tom Hulse.
06:20And I said, well, this is weird.
06:21I'm on my way to the Manhattan Theater Club.
06:23And I bumped into you
06:24because I was doing a monologue from Amadeus.
06:27And he said, oh, that is weird.
06:29Do you live in New York?
06:30I said, no, I live in LA,
06:31but I'm thinking about moving here.
06:32I like it.
06:33He goes, you should.
06:33New York's great.
06:34You'd have a great time here.
06:35And I said, okay, I will.
06:37I thought, this is pretty much the universe
06:40giving me as many messages as possible.
06:42I rented a car to put my stuff in storage.
06:44One in the morning, I hear a crash.
06:46I wake up.
06:47I look outside.
06:48Right in front of my window was my rental car,
06:51totaled by a hit-and-run driver.
06:52A week later, I moved to New York,
06:54and I've been here ever since.
06:56That's true.
06:58Kevin Feige.
06:59He's just a very smart man,
07:00but a very nice and good person.
07:04But one thing people might not know about him
07:06is he is a real comedy nerd.
07:09And I don't think that would surprise people,
07:11but he just loves really irreverent comedies.
07:15And I remember when we were filming Ant-Man,
07:17Tim and Eric were doing a live show.
07:19And so we went,
07:20and I remember introducing him to Tim Heidecker,
07:23and he was like a little kid meeting his hero.
07:27And it was really sweet.
07:29Here we go.
07:30This is my question from Kevin Feige.
07:33You did some writing on the Ant-Man movies.
07:35You could certainly write screenplays if you wanted to.
07:37Is that interesting to you?
07:38Yeah, it is.
07:39It wasn't anything I've set out to do.
07:42I've written a few things.
07:42I didn't work on the last Ant-Man movie,
07:44but the first two, I did.
07:46And yeah, it was an interesting, cool experience.
07:49And I got to also work with Adam McKay,
07:51who had worked with the past on that.
07:52Yeah, certainly.
07:54John Carney.
07:55I love his films.
07:56I love him.
07:57He's so good at marrying narrative and music,
08:00and they work together kind of in tandem
08:03in a way that I don't know many directors
08:05can pull off like he does.
08:07With Power Ballot,
08:08it was a real thrill to get to work with him.
08:10The way he would direct was, in a way, like a musician,
08:13because he is one.
08:15If something would happen in a scene,
08:16he'd say, let's follow that,
08:18kind of like a musician does with other musicians.
08:21If they're in a studio and they're jamming
08:23and they come across some kind of chord progression
08:25or some kind of something,
08:26and they're like, oh, yeah, let's flesh that out.
08:30He'll do that while you're filming.
08:31There's something so alive about that
08:34and really exciting to work on
08:37because you just don't know what a scene's going to be.
08:39Oh, questions from John Carney.
08:42All right.
08:42John, will you do my next film?
08:45Absolutely.
08:46You asked John, and it is binding.
08:49Now you have to put me in.
08:50Number two.
08:51You think like a filmmaker.
08:52You don't need me to explain.
08:54It's like you can get inside my head looking at you.
08:57Have you considered directing a film?
08:59What a nice thing to say.
09:00I think that maybe comes from having done it now a lot
09:04that I understand just a little bit
09:07of the machinations of filming and of storytelling.
09:10I do imagine at some point
09:13I would probably direct something
09:14and maybe it would be something that I wrote,
09:16but I also don't,
09:17I'd have to love it a whole bunch
09:19because it's such a commitment.
09:21It's so long.
09:22Sometimes I work with friends
09:24and in a way it turns into that
09:26that we're all writing and all directing and all acting.
09:29Like, it's just, it really is a collaborative experience
09:31and those are my favorite experiences.
09:34I don't have the thing where it's like,
09:35all right, this is what I'm directing
09:37and I'm going to do it next.
09:39We'll see.
09:39It may happen.
09:41It may not.
09:42Depends on if I just get off my ass.
09:46Yeah.
09:46I'm also a big fan of sitting around.
09:48It's funny.
09:49I work a lot.
09:50For somebody that works all the time,
09:52I'm quite content not working.
09:56Sounds great.
09:57Sounds really good to me.
09:59Sounds really good to me.
10:01Sounds really good to me.
10:04Sounds really good to me.
10:04Sounds really good to me.
10:10Sounds really good to me.
10:10Sounds really good to me.
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