The 'ghostbuster' Paul Rudd, a good guy who has succeeded playing good guys

After the interview, Paul Rudd (Passaic, New Jersey, 54 years old) asks his assistant for his cell phone and shows the journalist a photo of himself kissing his son, who appears red from crying with happiness, in the final of the Super Bowl in February 2, 2020. Rudd grew up in Kansas and for years has been the most famous fan of his American football team, the Kansas City Chiefs, a squad that went half a century without achieving great results.

“When I go to my parents' house and I don't work, I always go to the stadium with all my fan paraphernalia,” he says with a laugh.

“And finally, that season we reached the final.

During that time of mediocre results, my son became desperate for games, and I myself thought about why he had made him on my team.

Until things changed and we qualified for the Super Bowl, he asked me to go.

That photo is from the moment when we know that we are going to win with a few seconds left, and my kid explodes,” he says.

It is the image of a father with his son.

It is the perfect portrait of Paul Rudd, comedy star in the United States, a guy with no scandals behind him, paired with his wife for three decades, an actor who has succeeded by embodying good people and who is now premiering

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,

in which he plays a high school science teacher who ends up chasing ectoplasms for love.

More information

'Ghostbusters: Beyond': great return to the youthful spirit of the eighties

Paul Rudd's career goes through the clichés of little ant actors, those who have been working non-stop without stopping.

After graduating from the University of Kansas, he studied acting at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York and made a living as best he could, until in 1991 he appeared in an advertisement for the Super Nintendo, and began appearing in television series. television.

He abandoned one of them,

Wild Oats,

to work on

Clueless

in 1995. “It's funny: I spent years doing supporting roles in films of any genre, and people only remember me in comedies.

It's all due, and I say this in a good way, to the fact that I crossed paths with Judd Apatow's band,” he recalls.

He didn't even appear on

Friends

as Phoebe's third husband as much as

The Reporter: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, The 40 Year Old Virgin

or

The Embarrassment.

“However, the one that changed my life was

I love you, man,

in 2009, because I was already a co-star,” he says.

“And now it seems like a gradually escalating race, but I never had a plan.”

Paul Rudd and Alicia Silverstone, in 'Clueless' in 1995.

The actor defends that the perspective of his resume hides the risks taken: “I always looked for scripts that made me enjoy, reflecting what I do in life with cinema or music [very musical, he seeks to associate each character with a song or a type of music], that is, stories that are a little out of the ordinary, that to many will sound a little strange or peculiar.

I never looked for blockbusters, and I hope to continue like this.

Until entering the Marvel universe, I have always felt in films with an independent spirit, in comedies that did not want to easily please the general public.

Filming them we never intuited that they would be successful.”

He says it with a smile, although underlining the seriousness of the answer.

“Now it will sound strange, but I look for the artistic side of the projects, not just mere entertainment.”

Is that why he studied Jacobean drama at Oxford?

“Of course, because when I started my idols were theater actors.

And they still are.

So when

Clueless

came out , I moved from Los Angeles to New York, and I still live there.

Because it is the capital of theater, and I want to continue learning, interpreting

Shakespeare,

surrounded by performers who teach me new things, because I feel like I am still in the middle of my life."

Does that interpretive passion mean that you have no red lines, no limits on what you would or wouldn't do?

“I'm sure there will be things I won't do, and there are probably people who will shy away because they sense that I won't have chemistry with them.

However, I can't think of any specific subjects that I would reject, and many films in which I have acted will have given other people hives.”

Steve Carell and Paul Rudd, in 'The 40 Year Old Virgin'.

His signing by Marvel to play Ant-Man in five films, three as the protagonist, altered some plans.

“It made me, for example, spend more time away from home, and that hurts.

It brought me more fame, but not overwhelming.

They let me bring that role closer to my usual role, that of a guy from the street who ends up in an extraordinary situation.

I am an expert in those characters, who are pushed to give their best, within their own limitations, and who do so with a very street-level sense of humor and insecurity.

It's also how I see life."

It may be worse when in 2021

People

named him the sexiest man alive: “True, it caused me an avalanche of messages from my friends with all kinds of jokes.”

Paul Rudd, as 'Ant-Man'.

At Marvel, Paul Rudd experienced another side of the industry that prepared him for

Ghostbusters:

“You feel the pressure of being part of a franchise, a saga that means a lot to a lot of people.

And at the same time you have to negotiate that feeling, because it would weaken your approach to the character.

I focus on working as well as possible.

The script for

Ghostbusters: Beyond

[2021] was extraordinary for how it intertwined the original protagonists with the new generation.

And when it premiered it was a relief and a joy.

Now we even move to the original firehouse, and organically Jason Reitman has passed the baton from his father [Ivan, director of the original] and Harold Ramis [actor and co-writer of the first], both deceased, to his friend , the director Gil Kenan... It has been fluid, natural and collaborative.”

Bill Murray and Paul Rudd, at the New York premiere on March 14 of 'Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire'. Jeenah Moon (REUTERS)

In the answer about learning from the greatest, Rudd has already given a clue about the last big name that has crossed his path, and it is Meryl Streep, because the actor appeared in the third season of Only

Murders in the Building .

“I signed for the excitement of working with Steve Martin and Martin Short, but the Meryl Streep thing... It's another level.

Already in the pre-production video calls, he amazed me.

When there were 30 other faces on the screen and suddenly she spoke, the rest remained silent: she always brought fascinating things to the script.

The best thing was still to come: the filming.

You never knew when she would break into character, because it seemed like she wasn't doing anything.

That she was just there.

And suddenly she realized that she had already entered the character, that she was saying her dialogues... It's a mystery how she manages to flow like that, and that's why she's so good," she says with a sad face. real amazement.

Carrie Coon and Paul Rudd, in the legendary anti-spectrum squad car, in 'Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire'.

The day before the interview - which took place in a Madrid hotel last Monday - Rudd went to the Metropolitan stadium to watch the Atlético de Madrid-FC Barcelona match, which ended in a disaster for the local team.

That's why the talk ends with their sporting passions and the emotional legacy that passes from parents to children.

An avid follower of the Chiefs, since singer Taylor Swift and player Travis Kelce began a romantic relationship, Rudd is now only the second most famous fan of that team.

“And a long way from the first!” He bursts out laughing.

“Kelce is a great player, of course... There is a very strange thing about being a fan of a team that for decades did not win anything, and that fit very well with my nature of... underrated, with an air of an underdog.

And in a moment, your team becomes the most famous in the world, thanks to the fact that it has the best

quarterback

in the world, who by the way, Griezman is a big fan of Patrick Mahones, and the most famous artist in the world supports him.

In turn, today there are people who hate us for no apparent reason, and other teams want to beat us at all costs.

It is a strange feeling that clashes with what we have always been.”

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