Little-known fact about actor Paul Rudd: He used to DJ bar mitzvahs.
While DJing, Rudd told A.V. Club, “I started doing this really spastic dance. I was sitting there, about 22, having to listen to MC Hammer. ‘Oh God ...’ So I started dancing like I had some sort of serious mental issue. Just a gross, weird dance. And the kids thought it was funny.”
Paul Rudd DJing and dancing to MC Hammer? Who is this guy?
But you know Paul Rudd: devilishly handsome short dude, mid-40s, the best dead-pan delivery on the big screen. With the success of awesomely funny dude movies like The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up and now Role Models, Rudd has shaken his small-town, small-time persona and becomes a household name. Rolling Stone recently asked, “Why isn’t Rudd a bigger star?” He certainly has the comedic genius, writing and producing skills and acting talent to be much bigger than he is. His perfection of everything “average dude” has made him a role model for men and a leading romantic man for women. His talents go beyond comedy, as his stand-out role in The Object of My Affection proved. And his participation as a writer on projects like Superbad and Pineapple Express proves his worth beyond the big screen. So when we thought about it, we kind of wondered too: Why isn’t Paul Rudd a bigger star?
Rudd walked onto the movie set for the first time for the unlikely 1995 hit Clueless as Josh, Alicia Silverstone’s dorky ex-step brother. The stage was set for Rudd, whose classic-Hollywood handsome features put film projects like William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet and Object of My Affection into his lap. The roles provided little breathing room for Rudd, but plenty of face time.
So when did Rudd become the super-funny dude he is today? In 2000 Rudd paired up with comedian David Wain of the Stella comedy troupe to make Wet Hot American Summer, a bizarre comedy about a Jewish summer camp that is now a cult classic. In the film, Rudd played a hilarious caricature of the typical “big man” at summer camp, complete with ridiculous one-liners and an awesome pair of jean shorts. It was here that Rudd loosened up a little and took comedy at face value: Wain’s twisted humor finally pushed Rudd out of the typical brooding romantic guy roles and into, arguably, the complete opposite: the average dude.
Rudd’s entry into bumbling-guy stardom was paved in part by comedic genius Judd Apatow. In 2004 Rudd stared as Will Ferrell’s sidekick in the smash-hit Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgandy, a role that earned Rudd a lot of attention from the comedic community and lumped him in with the other up-and-coming average guys like Seth Rogan and Steve Carell. He struck gold with Apatow’s The 40 Year Old Virgin in 2005 and did it again with Apatow and the guys in 2007’s Knocked Up.
In all of Apatow’s films, especially the latest ones, Rudd has gotten the opportunity to flex his comedic muscles more so than in any other film. His latest film, Role Models, however, partners Rudd back up with Wain as a writer. Expect to see more improvised, “subversive, absurdist humor,” Rudd said, “Fans of Wet Hot American Summer and Wainy Days and [Wain]’s other stuff can see that he made [Role Models], too. To try and get that marriage of all those elements makes for a really weird movie.” Rudd’s return to the Stella-esque bizarre and sometimes twisted humor might signal another turning point in Rudd’s career, but it’s too early to tell at this point.
Maybe that’s why Rudd isn’t a bigger star today, why he’s not auditioning for the next big billion-dollar picture: his comedy isn’t of the Adam Sandler/Dane Cook/star-power variety. Let’s face it — Rudd is just one of the guys. And if he can just “throw in a vagina joke here or a fellatio joke there in the middle of a supposedly sweet moment,” well, that’s just fine with him — and us, for that matter.
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