Paul Rudd Quotes
Actor
There is something about growing up in the Midwest that gives a different kind of sensibility. But if I'm feeling insecure, the smiles and politeness get upped a notch, and maybe that isn't totally reflective of how I'm feeling on the inside.
Nothing is ever cut-and-dried. There's anguish behind everything.
Anybody that's going on a road trip and doesn't really want to get into a myriad of snacks is probably no one you want to get in the car with.
I'm not that nice - it's one of those things that reveals itself over time. You could talk to people who know me well; they could give you a laundry list. Except they probably wouldn't because they're petrified.
Puberty hit me pretty hard. All of a sudden, I woke up, and I had really curly hair.
I know a lot about the Titanic. My dad was a Titanic expert.
I treasure laughs more than anything; they've helped me in life the most.
People do still mention 'Clueless' to me. I'm proud and happy that I was in it.
Humor is the most important thing in life. It trumps everything else, and it's the only thing that helps me deal with everything else.
I think there's something great and generic about goldfish. They're everybody's first pet.
I'm a huge David Wain fan. He's one of my best friends now, but he just makes me laugh continually, much to the annoyance of his wife.
There's a very specific thing you can do to get in magazines. I'm much happier to just show up and do the job. I haven't taken the active approach to making myself a star. I haven't been in a blockbuster.
I went through a phase where I thought it was really funny to make pratfalls in very crowded places. I jumped out of a moving car once, for a laugh. That was a mistake.
Growing up, I was certainly drawn to comedy, but my goal was just to be as well-rounded an actor as possible. I really liked Daniel Day-Lewis, and I thought, 'Oh, he's a good guy to try and emulate.'
Alex Smith is - I think he is a winner, and he's a smart quarterback, and I'm a fan of his.
I love straight guys that seem gay. I'm a little like that.
For a while, I tried to masquerade as somewhat of a hippie because I was under the impression that was the kind of guy girls would like. I was pretty unsuccessful because I liked the idea of camping more than actually camping. I did go to a Grateful Dead concert, but I was pretty bored.
I used to love, love Steve Martin. I still do... I would get these albums, and I would just listen to them all the time. I would stand in my room and pretend that I was delivering his comedy routine... And I don't know if that planted any kind of seed, but I wasn't raised going to the theatre.
Sometimes I think I'm funny. But then sometimes I see myself, and I think, 'There's somebody trying to be funny.'
I used to ask my mom to try and shave my head on the sides to give me a receding hairline because Adam Ant had one.
I'm sure that my wanting to be an actor had to do with a need for approval.
I'm a big fan of not working.
Amy Poehler, Amy Sedaris - they're both genius.
Embarrassment and awkward situations are not foreign things to me.
Fear is what makes comedy funny.
While there are so many great things in my life, you get older, and you have responsibilities. And things happen, like my dad dying - things that are tough to shake off. And there are things I'm still trying to figure out.
My definitions of comedy, drama, and straight man are all blurry for me. I don't think of it in those terms.
I used to live next door to a farm, so every day for awhile, I used to walk over and fed the cows, when I was in school. This was weird because I lived in sort of a subdivision, but this one holdout in our neighborhood in Kansas still had a farm.
My parents were married my whole life until my father passed away a few years ago.
I was never much into knights and sorcery and that kind of thing. It's not because I was into anything cooler. I certainly wasn't. I played with LEGOs. I played with LEGOs way past when most people played with LEGOs.
What's weird is that anybody can write anything, and once it goes online, it's permanent. My very first biography on IMDb, which was written by a manager I had at the time, was not true.
There are many great writers out there and, actually, great scripts. The problem is - and this is what I've always felt, even when I got out of school and started reading scripts - the really smart, character-driven stuff tends to be smaller films, and they just don't get made.
Comedy-wise, I think Chris Elliott is one of the funniest people.
It's insane but it's a great insane.
I've been naked in a lot of my movies. There's something inherently funny about the naked male body, particularly mine.
I am so appreciative I have been able to continue not only doing something I love, but working on movies I've loved.
At my core, I'm a Midwesterner.
I do like the idea that tomorrow I might find out that I'm going to be doing something that is completely unknowable today. I think it forces you to live in the moment in a very good way.
I think Ellen DeGeneres is just hysterical.
I'm not actively seeking stardom. I just go to auditions, and I knock on wood.
There's a lot of people I would be more than a little overwhelmed by and thrilled to work with.
Tea has always been a big thing in my life. And I'm not talking about Liptons with lemon or iced tea, or any of that nonsense. Has to be hot PG Tips with milk.
I think most marriages, mine included, you're constantly tending the garden, constantly working at it.
I can, and do, walk the street. No one bothers me or anything, because most people wouldn't know who I am.
I'm not good at small talk. I'm really not. I'm not that great at any talk.
Even more than getting married or having kids, I found losing a parent is what thrusts you into adulthood. For me it was. That was when the Earth tilted on its axis, and there was a paradigm shift, and I felt like a different person.
The truth is, there are so many terrific places in New York because it's the greatest city in the world, and there are so many fascinating places to see that, frankly, it's humbling.
I think I used comedy as a mechanism: if I could make the other kids laugh, I wouldn't get beaten up or teased as much.
I always try and hold to that saying, 'I want to work on things I'd want to see.' The vast majority, that's been true.
I don't consider myself a comedian because I don't really concern myself too much with jokes.
Kiss is a super - they are total businessmen. They pride themselves on it.
I can talk about sports and stuff, but I have a season pass for 'Antiques Roadshow' on my TiVo.
Awkwardness is such a gold mine for comedy.
Willie Nelson is the perfect person, it seems to me, to think about. Because something tells me that he operates on his own frequency.
I'd like to do something dramatic or a different kind of role, but I tend not to separate comedy and drama all that much.
'Ant-Man' was a genre, I guess, that I hadn't really tackled before.
I don't feel like a dork, but I certainly have many moments of nerdism, and I embrace it wholeheartedly. I've always cottoned to that crowd more, anyway.
I would say, up until 'Anchorman,' I wasn't any kind of household name or anything, but I wasn't necessarily identified as much with being a comedian.
I try not to think of myself in any category, and I don't ever really try to imagine myself competing with another actor. I just know I want to do the things that I would want to see, and I know the things that turn me on, whether it's on the stage, or it's a play or a film. I just kind of want to keep doing my own thing.
'Divorce Court' is a great show.
I really tried for a while to go with the Adam Ant look.
I think there's something kind of good about growing up in a place you know is not the cool place to be. I think it's good for your head.
When I was in my early twenties, I used to grow all sorts of very weird beards. All of them awful in retrospect. I had Civil War beards for a while, then Mennonite beards.
I was always in new schools and had British parents, which was not the norm, and I think there was also... I'm not particularly religious, but I was born Jewish, and I always felt like the outsider because I wasn't Christian or Catholic.
Theater is the most enriching and thrilling thing to do as an actor.
I have trouble with long-term things. I tend to get obsessed with stuff and then move on. Roles, songs, video games. That's why I was afraid of marriage. Because it was like a lifelong game of 'Madden.'
I wasn't one of those kids who was like, 'I want to be an actor.' It wasn't in my wheelhouse at all. I wasn't from a family that did this or in a place where people did this.
If someone made fun of me, I'd be bummed out. But I'd play it like I thought it was hilarious.
I've hitchhiked - it is 'hitchhiked,' and not 'hitchedhike' like 'passersby,' right? - a couple of times, but only in emergency situations, and that's really the time that it's okay to hitchhike.
'Anchorman' was never supposed to be a popular, like, hit movie. That movie was a cheap movie - it felt like we were working on a weird independent comedy in a way.
I laugh much more during takes than I do during real life. Maybe because you're not supposed to. I've ruined many takes because I will lose it.
In eighth grade, I wore a tie to school every day. I didn't own jeans. But it wasn't a granola thing, it was really more of an INXS thing.
Looking back, I'm really happy with the choices I've made in my career. I know for a fact I could be wealthier. Who knows, maybe I could be more successful, maybe not. I don't know. But just about every single thing I've ever done I've gone into with the right intentions, and that goes a long way.
I've been friends with Elizabeth Banks since 'Wet Hot American Summer.'
You can make a lot of mistakes with hair because it grows back.
There's something great about the idea of working the land and living communally. That's healthy. That's good.
Whatever I'm working on, the character I'm playing tends to slowly bleed into my own real life. Not in any kind of creepy, Method actor-y kind of way - it's just an innate kind of merging.
I don't have an agenda where I do a comedy and say, 'I have to do a drama next,' or 'I am looking for an action movie now.'
People have all different kinds of marriages. Whatever works for you.
Who knows what critics are thinking? I know that you make more of a name for yourself, make more of an interesting review, if you're kind of mean-spirited.
My sister was born a couple years after I was, and I realized that I wasn't getting enough attention, as much attention as I used to before she showed up, and then I learned pretty early on that if I could do a silly dance or make grown-ups laugh, then the attention would come back to me, and I would be accepted.
There is a major part of who I am that does not feel like the alpha male.
I find many of the people that I've worked with to be incredibly funny.
All I really wanted to be was a working actor.
There are so many really good comedians, and I would never be as good as they are. It's not my calling.
A lot of people say, 'What's the worst part about being an actor?' And the worst part is that you're not a musician.
Anything traumatic in my life I've always dealt with through jokes and comedy.
I went to college and studied theater; I went to a theater conservatory. I live in New York because I wanted to do plays and still do plays.
I've always loved David Letterman. There was an irreverence to his show that I remember, especially in 'Late Night' - it always seemed so fresh.
My wife is very stealth-funny. She'll come out with something when I'm not expecting it, and it'll just kill me.
To me, some of the funniest movies would be probably categorized in the dramatic genre, and likewise, some of the most dramatic films, or films that have the most dramatic moments, are in comedies.
I hated 'Top Gun.'
Personally - and I don't mean to brag - my jokes have been falling flat for most of my life.
It's not often that you get to play somebody that has absolutely no cynicism or is not judgmental in any way.
Early on, I decided I would see if I could make a career work on my own terms.
Sometimes you read a script, and it's like, 'You'll improv, and this is just a blueprint of what the scene could be,' and that's never a good sign. And it's never encouraging as an actor to take that on, really.
Growing up, if I had been given any advice - bad or good - I probably wouldn't have been able to act on it regardless. I wasn't shy, but I'd get nervous. I got a little more confident later in high school when I realized I could get girls to pay attention to me by making them laugh.
I'm surprised that I get to be in the same room with half the people that I'm working with.
My bar mitzvah, I went to my nan's, and she made kugel.
It's nice to be in anything that anybody sees or likes. If it's something that has lasted, it's great.