Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - Paul Rudd 2023

Episode Date: February 12, 2023

Since we first saw Paul Rudd in Clueless nearly 30 years ago, he has been one of those actors you're just always happy to see on the screen. Rudd has starred in a long list of hit comedies, earned praise for his dramatic roles and of course, now also is known as a superhero. In this week's Sunday Sitdown, Willie Geist and Paul Rudd got together at the White Horse Tavern in New York. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down podcast. My thanks, as always, for clicking and listening along. Man, am I excited to bring you my conversation this week with the one, the only, the beloved, Paul Rudd. Paul Rudd's got a new movie out. It's called Ant Man and the Wasp Quantumania. It's the third Ant Man movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that about a decade ago kind of came up unexpectedly for Paul when he got the call and said, hey, you want to be a superhero. Obviously had made his name in comedies,

a guy that people just love to see up on the screen, and this was a leap for him into Ant Man. And, man, they have been home runs, and now the third one is out. Some background for you. Paul and I got together at the White Horse Tavern, downtown in New York City, down in the village. Really cool, old place.

Exactly what it sounds like, a place you go in and have a beer and watch a football game. But on this day, when we sat down, they were getting ready for Valentine's Day. So the room was decorated sort of in red and pink hearts, things hanging from the ceiling. It was very festive, but just funny for the two of us to be sitting down in that setting. So you hear some reference to that at the beginning. The other thing to know is the Marvel universe is so secretive that I could not see the movie before our interview,

which is obviously I usually see the project of whoever I'm talking to so we can dig through it a little bit. And Paul couldn't really talk about it. So we kind of opened up just by talking about other movies, but we're talking vaguely about the plot and the character of Ant Man. Beyond that, though, just a great conversation with a hilarious guy. He's in the middle of shooting the upcoming season of Only Murders in the building, where he's a guest star with two of his comedy heroes in Martin Short and Steve Martin and also joining the new cast, Meryl Streep.

So it's all just surreal to him. He's been doing this really since Clueless. He broke out in 1995. Who could forget? You never meet anybody who doesn't love themselves and Paul Rudd. So I hope you love this as much as I did talking with him. Paul Rudd right now on the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Good to see you, Paul.

Good to see you, Willie. Do you like how I decorated the room for us? I'm so touched. You did it. First of all, you did a great job. Thank you. I was here at 4 a.m. It shows.

It shows. It really. This doesn't happen overnight. You really did yourself. Just wanted to make you comfortable. You have. Good, good, good. I want to talk about Ant Man, of course,

but you are right now in between days of shooting only murders in the building, season three. Yeah. With this, like, dream cast of Steve and Marty and Selena Gomez and, oh, by the way, now Merrill Street. Mm-hmm. How exciting was that phone call when they asked you to be a part of that series? Thrilling. I mean, you know, I don't think that for a comedy fan like myself,

Martin Short and Steve Martin. Yeah. that's Mount Rushmore. I mean, truly, hero worship. So to get to work with him was, I mean, I still kind of can't believe it. Selina, I adore. I've worked with her a couple times, and she's the greatest. And then when I heard Marl Streep was on board, it just didn't seem real.

It still doesn't seem real. What is that set like? Is it the way we hope it is, which is funny and ad libby and all those things? Yeah. It's just, well, I've only worked on it a couple of days. And, you know, to just to be around them, the dynamic. I mean, you've spent time with Steve Martin and Martin Short together. Yeah.

It's hilarious. It's just constant insults. And to hear them just kind of, you know, to just hear them kind of knock each other, but there's so much love between those two guys. Like, they adore each other, crazy about each other. And it's just so fun to have a front row seat to all of that. It is. It's fun to sit back and watch the thing that you've watched from a distance up close like that.

I imagine. Do you still have, and this must be one of them, sort of like a pinch me thing, where you grew up watching these guys, you looked up to them, you worshipped them, as you said, and now they're taking their cues from you in a scene? It's surreal doesn't even cover it. And it's, for one thing I would to feel that way when you're acting. with somebody. I mean, when the script is kind of there and you're, you know, you're acting, you're in a scene with somebody, it's a little easier to just kind of forget about it because

you're in the scene and you're the character and you have a bit more freedom and you're a bit more relaxed, weirdly, to kind of interact with these people. It's when, you know, you're just kind of like hanging out in the green room, whatever, like waiting as during a lighting setup and just, you know, talking and to just find myself sometimes and just, you know, just, you know, regular conversation or a witness to like what we were talking about a comedy show happening you know spontaneously right in front of me between just these brilliant guys you know making jokes it's it's it's it's on it's a non-stop pinch me moment i'm pinching myself all day well as i said to you earlier before we started when you popped up at the end of the last

season. We knew you were coming in season three. It was, we were psyched. We're very psyched. Yeah. I know you can't say much about it, but we're excited for what we think is coming here. Right. Speaking of not being able to say much, Marvel. Ant-Man. What a transition. I want to stipulate for our audience. I have not seen the movie, not because I don't want to see the movie, because I can't see the movie. And you can't say much about the movie. Yeah. So what would you like to talk about? The Fableman's. We could talk about that. Give Spielberg all the awards. It's just a great movie. It's like the love of movie making.

Yeah. We could talk about other movies. Have you seen anything recently you liked? The Benchies of Innes Sharon. Did you catch that? Caught it, loved it. Martin McDonough is absolutely brilliant. An incredible playwright.

Great filmmaker in Bruges. Oh, fantastic. Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleason. Yeah. Barry Cugan? Mm-hmm. I saw that, give that guy the Oscar, because, God, what a performance.

We're giving it a lot of Oscars. I feel bad that I feel bad that I. mispronounce his name, but I did it intentionally. Top Gun Maverick. I saw that too. Great. A lot of fun. I don't know if I'd vote for it.

No, not for Best Picture. Put it in the category. No, I had a blast at that movie. I really did. I think everyone did, right? Yeah. Your buddy Ham's in it. That was good.

Yeah. All right. Well, it's great to see you. Thanks. They're all such great fighter pilots. We nailed this interview. Great to see you, Paul. You too.

Take care. See for the next project. We could talk about the Hulk. That's out. Oh, my God. Okay, so let's talk really about what you did to this roof. When did you find all these hearts? It's getting weird, isn't it? Let's talk about where we find Scott, where we find Ant Man in this third film,

to the extent you can tell me that. Yeah, yeah. I can't tell you that. That we can get it to. It is after the events of Endgame, which, for those of you that have seen, you people in the room, what happened in Endgame

where we went up against Thanos and there was a five-year gap, people turned to dust and now they're back, and it's a... If you haven't seen Endgame, I just ruined a whole bunch of stuff for people watching this show. Oh, yeah, spoiler alert.

So it's picking up with now all of that has happened. And Scott, the character that I play, Scott Lang, is kind of taking in, he's relaxing a little bit. And he's trying to kind of make up for lost time because he was gone for a while. He missed time with his daughter as she was growing up. He missed time just being a dad.

He missed time being at home. And so I think he's really quite content with doing that. And I've just written a book. I always feel weird when I say he's just written a book. I know it's some a character, but it still sounds pompous. I always thought that when I was a kid and I'd listen to actors talk about, you know, well, when Davis was approaching, you know, work at his job, and I'm thinking, you are Davis. You're playing Davis.

Scott has just written a book. Yeah. And Scott has, you know. So don't you play Scott? I do. Okay, go ahead. Yeah, sorry. But it's funny.

I don't even feel like when I'm playing. Scott, I don't even feel like, me. So, yeah, he's written a book about, called Look Out for the Little Guy, just kind of a memoir up to this point, I suppose, or what, you know, kind of a recount of what's happened. He's become famous. He's sort of enjoying that. I think so, yeah, yeah. And, you know, and he thinks that, okay, finally, here we are.

I can move forward now with my life. you know, that doesn't happen exactly the way that he'd hoped or planned. Hey, guys, thanks for listening to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Stick around to hear more from Paul Rudd right after the break. Welcome back now more of my conversation with Paul Rudd. And we can say that the villain in the movie, Kang, Jonathan Majors, great villain. What did you think? Good for it, man.

Well, you know, comic book fans know about Kang. King is a really formidable foe and a really big villain in Marvel history. And so this was kind of new, I think, for the Ant Man films, that the baddie in it is a real big baddie. And he's great, Jonathan Majors, who plays in this terrific actor. And he's, yeah, he's intense. He's scary. So it was really fun. It felt, the whole thing felt, I don't know, not like this bigger.

The stakes are bigger. The effects, the size of the film, all of it, which sounds funny, you're talking about the size of the film, Ant Man. But, you know, it's true. It felt majors. I felt Jonathan Major. Let's hold for an out there. We got that. Good.

Oh, yeah. We wanted to clean. I thought your piece there. I thought a truck was going by outside. I know. It was so good. I wanted to preserve it in Amber. Gotcha.

So you have talked about getting ready for these movies. You talked to Chris Pratt about how to become kind of superhero fit. Right. And to paraphrase, I think it was eliminate all pleasure from your life in terms of eating and drinking and things like that. Did you have to do that again for number three? I did. Yeah. I mean, it's I think probably about a, it's take.

It's really longer now. I mean, it was almost a year. I never try and fall too far off of it because getting back to that is really hard, but I think I kind of fell off of it without me noticing. That's happened now. But I did get into, yeah, the whole training of it all. I don't know. When you're in it, it's not bad.

It's kind of challenging and fun and you feel good. And certainly I can work longer days and I feel I don't get tired because I'm in good shape and I can, you know, and then I go home. I actually finish working. I work out with the trainer. I go back, I sleep, I wake up, I work out, I work out, I sleep. And you just get into that routine.

But it's also you, you think, all right, this is finite. I know I've got, I'm gonna be doing this for the next three or four months and then I won't have to do it. But it's a lot, but it's not, so it's not so bad when you're in it. And you're doing it for a good reason, right? And then you pick it out, you're doing it for work, but then it becomes a part of your life and you maintain it. So what I'm saying is, presumably, you look great. Oh, well, thank you. Thank you. I, um, I would like to get back into the swing of things a little more than I've been, but. We're in a break right now.

Yeah. Well, I mean, as much as, yeah, it's, yeah, ish. Yeah. Ish. Right. But it's not. But it's really a break it's just because it then becomes a oh god what's more boring than an actor talking about his workout regimen see how it baited you into it you suckered me in you're not how many calories a day paul god you know it's bad when you're weighing your chicken breast oh no i have done that i have i hate myself when i'm doing it my jesus oh god what have i become I hope no one's looking. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Your soul turns to dust a little bit. Just like an end game. Ah. Look at that. The tie-ins. The tie-ins. What has it been like for you, Paul, to step into this Marvel world, which is amazing and so cool and great,

but also intense from the fan side, and they have expectations about the characters. You've done a lot in your career, but starting in 2015, you went to, like, this totally different place. Have you enjoyed sort of being a part of that family? I have. I really have. It's an honor and a cool thing to be a part of something that so many people care about, that they go see, that certainly has a history. And you're also part of a team. I really like all of the other actors that are in it. And I really like Kevin Feigy and Stephen Broussard, some of the people that work at Marvel.

I have now gotten to know over the years, and I really like working with them. So it's been a pretty great experience. It's also been 10 years, which is kind of crazy if I think about it in those terms because it doesn't feel like that. But it was unexpected. It was a bit of a left turn, and I've really enjoyed it. Were you surprised by the phone call you got 10 years ago to enter the Marvel universe? I think people had like a preconceived notion of you're funny and you can do all these different kinds of things. but superhero, I think you've said even for you,

it was like, oh, me? Yeah, I mean, I wasn't expecting that call. You know, it was originally going to be directed by Edgar Wright, who's a friend of mine in Edgar's films, and it seemed like, oh, yeah, I love his movies, and we were friends, and I thought, this would be cool. And I thought, oh, this seems fun. And also, Ant Man, you know, that seems like one

maybe people would buy me in more than Superman. Thor. Yeah. They're definitely not buying me as Thor. But somebody who shrinks down to the size of an ant and can talk to ants. Yeah, that makes sense. A regular guy we can do for.

A regular guy. It's just a regular guy who shrinks down to the size of an ant, but retains superhuman strength and can talk to ants. Yeah, no, that makes sense for me. I imagine that conversation. Like, oh, cool, which superhero? Well, we've got one who can shrink down, be a regular guy, beloved figure. Yeah, well, that was, you know, I think finally audiences have now seen it.

They're like, okay, comic books knew of Ant Man. Of course. You know, they knew this character, but most people didn't. I didn't. I didn't either, honestly. It's so good. You're so great in that role. Have you thought about the way it's changed, not your career, but changed your life in terms of your profile of,

it's probably harder to walk down the street and do all the things that you like to do. Yeah, I mean, I've noticed certainly a difference since Marvel, because it is so visible. And it was also the first thing I ever, have really ever done that I guess kids really saw. Yeah. You know, I have noticed a difference in that regard. But it's, you know, it's like anything else. There are amazing things about that, and then there are some other things that are challenging.

about that. But it's, you know, it's been an amazing experience and not one that, you know, one that I treasure and certainly I'm glad happened. The last time we talked a few years ago, you said your kids were maybe more aware of your career now because of Ant Man. They used to walk by a movie theater and see a poster. Yeah. And say, well, you know, it's when my kids were very young. Yeah. And they don't really understand, you know, I'm not going to, you know, sit my kids down when they're three and say, you know, hold on, well, I've got some DVDs to show you. So I didn't really even explain what I did. And then when they were, yeah, I think that my son, when he was about four or five, went to a movie theater to see a movie with his friends.

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 theater, which I thought was very cute. It's really cute. And then, and then, yes, a few years later, I think when he was 15, he finally put it all together. It was a slow burn. Yeah, I never told, I never corrected him.

I said, no, I work at the AMC Lowe's. That's right. That is a theater. Nancy Lowe's? Yes, yes. 67th and Broadway, I think. That one. Let's just go with it.

That's the one. That's the one. Sometimes they'll send me over to Battery Park. Oh, right. I did my, I did a few days at Kipps Bay. Ooh, sending you over east, yeah. That's a tough theater, too. Tough crowds.

I don't think it's there anymore. Is that true? I don't know. I heard that it was closing down. Does anyone know if that Kipps Bay Theater closed? Do we get a fact check? Still there? Oh, really?

I haven't worked there in a while. I haven't worked. I haven't been there. Yeah. I'm glad it's still there. Stadium seating? Dolby? Not that one.

Not a that one. Right. Well, now it's like theaters, they're making them so that, you know, you can have a recliner and they bring you like a plate of pasta and a bottle of wine. I know. Yeah. Yeah, they've really... They've got to get people in. Yeah.

It's a bummer. But this is the kind of movie that gets people in. We were joking about Top Gun, but Ant Man gets people in the theater. Top Gun got everybody in the theater. That's what I mean. Like movies like that, big movies. You still want to see Ant Man in the theater, for my money. Yeah.

I think you do, too. And there are these movies that are coming out that people should be seeing a theater. But here's the thing. Like, I want to go see Empire of Light in a theater. Yeah. I want to see everything in a theater. Yeah, me too. Me too.

Yeah. I think we're aging ourselves. Maybe, are we? I hope not. I hope younger people want to go see things. Well, I'm 83. How old are you? Right behind you, man.

Okay. We're pretty close. Yeah. I do that. I'm a bit of a Luddite and I like, you know, 78s. I only listen to 78s. Okay, I've got a question for you. Okay.

About looking at the arc of your career, let's call it 30 years-ish, something like that. What advice would you give knowing what you know now to a young actor coming up? It's a different industry than it was 30 years ago. But it seems to me from the outside, you've kept who you are. You've been authentic. People love working with you. They love being around you. What advice would you give to an actor?

who's trying to make it in your business? You know, I don't know. I mean, I think there's, as far as anyone's trying to make it in any business, there's no one way. I certainly learned that, that there's all different ways, and you can eventually achieve your goals. And the way you achieve your goal, it's not going to happen the way you might think it would. But I would say that the one thing that is important is to be, polite beyond time and be nice to people I just think that that is way it should always be matter what you do and I've been certainly lucky enough to work with

some of the most successful people in this industry who have had amazing careers I mean I'm doing it right now on the show we were just talking about only murder is the building what I have found to be true is that the most successful people and the people that I really admire, and I think many people really admire, also happen to be incredibly nice people. And they say don't meet your heroes. I've met many of my heroes. And I'd say almost all of them have exceeded my expectation.

And I think if you want to have any kind of longevity, people don't want to be put down or anything like that. People want to work with people who are pleasant to be around. And if you are rude to people or belittled them or are pain in the ass, once you stumble, you might not get another shot because people just think, oh, that person's a headache. And I would, so any actor I would say that was starting off, I would say, like, you know, you're not bigger than anybody else and you're not bigger than the project. Nobody cares about you. Don't buy the hype and just show up and do your job. I'm so happy to hear you say that because it's my experience, too. The people who have succeeded, the people with longevity are not jerks. Jerks. They're there for the team. They lift up people below them. They help them along. Yeah.

And it's also, I think they have the insecurity that they may have had has sort of fallen away, confident with who they are. Right. And they don't feel like they have to do that. Yeah. But you're right. I mean, we've seen it across the industries where somebody slips up and nobody's there to catch them because of the way they've treated people, right? Yeah.

Yeah. It's a good way to be. It's just a good way to be also in life. Life is so hard. He wants to be around ass-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h-h. Yes. I'm almost done with this, by the way, if somebody would hop to it and fill this up, maybe I could finish this interview.

Stick around for more of my conversation with Paul Rudd right after a quick break. Welcome back now to the rest of my conversation with Paul Rudd. Okay, last thing. Are you aware of the Paul Rudd Hot Ones meme? where you go, look at us. Oh, yeah, I am aware of it. Yeah. Yeah.

Was that a impromptu moment, I assume? Yeah. Well, it was all... You just felt it. It's weird that that... This life. It's huge. Because I was talking to Sean, who...

Great guy. I don't... I think it was just like... I don't even think we were saying anything. And I think I was just like, hey, you know, we're doing it. It meant nothing. Right, right. It was just...

stupid. But it's everywhere. I know. It's, yeah, well, it certainly was. I don't know if it is still. It still is. I knew it had crossed over from pop culture into something else when there was one where Ukraine and Poland were working together despite their history. And it was like Ukraine's flag on your head, Poland on Sean said, it just, look at us. It was like, that's taken on a life of its own. Clearly. When it's getting used for the relationship between Ukraine and Poland, that has reach. It has foreign policy implications. I had no idea it had, I think when it first started, I was at some event and Eva Duverne, the director, came up to me and said, hey, look at us, look at us. I didn't know her. I'd never met her. And I didn't know what she was talking about.

I said, wow, look it's so great to meet you. And then she said, hot ones. And I said, what? And then after that, I started seeing it. But that's how I first heard about it. You were like, wow, this is so, what a sweet moment. I know. I'm so honored.

Yeah. See, it's true. She's so talented and successful and so nice. She came up to me and said, hey, look at us. Wow, it's great to meet you. Yeah. I wish. Well, it's everywhere.

Congratulations on Ant Man. Can't wait to see murders, only murders. Thank you. Thanks for joining me on this. Thank you for putting in all of this work, by the way. It was worth it. I know you're a busy guy. Yeah.

I mean, you're spinning a lot of plates that you would come in to this bar. Yeah, I skipped work this morning to come in and do it. It shows. My pay was docked. Well, it certainly. Put me in a mood. And I can't thank you enough. Thank you, Paul.

Let me ask you this. Would you give advice to maybe future journalists and of yours that they should show up early, hang streamers from a ceiling, to set a mood? Right. Would you do this for Zelensky? I have. Yeah.

It was terrible. That's right. Really badly. Yeah, he didn't appreciate it. He walked out. He's got other things going on. Yeah, he's got other things. I mean, I thought you, you know.

I thought this was you. That's all. Thank you. Thanks, man. Thank you, man. Appreciate it. My big thanks again to Paul for a great conversation. Man, I love spending time with that guy.

You can check out Ant Man and the Wasp Quantumania, hitting theaters on February 17th. My thanks to all of you for listening again this week. If you want to hear more of these conversations with my guests every week, be sure to click follow. So you never miss an episode. And don't forget to tune in to Sunday today every weekend on NBC. I'm Willie Geist.

We'll see you right back here next week on the Sunday Sitdown podcast.