“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“I treasure laughs more than anything; they’ve helped me in life the most.”
― Paul Rudd
“Embarrassment and awkward situations are not foreign things to me.”
― Paul Rudd
“I think there’s something great and generic about goldfish. They’re everybody’s first pet.”
― Paul Rudd
“I love straight guys that seem gay. I’m a little like that.”
― Paul Rudd
“Puberty hit me pretty hard. All of a sudden, I woke up, and I had really curly hair.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“Fear is what makes comedy funny.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“I love attempting to play real people. I like to try and have dramatic moments as well as comedic moments, and my favorite thing is when those two lines are blurred.”
― Paul Rudd
“My parents raised me to treat people the way you would want to be treated and to be polite. Sometimes, when I get nervous or insecure, I might overcompensate and might not be totally true to what I am feeling inside. But I get nervous and maybe too smiley and polite.”
― Paul Rudd
“I grew up in the Midwest, where people seem to be friendly and nice to one another. There is less stress than in some of the other cities.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“Theater is the most enriching and thrilling thing to do as an actor.”
― Paul Rudd
“I really tried for a while to go with the Adam Ant look.”
― Paul Rudd
“’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.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“It’s insane but it’s a great insane.”
― Paul Rudd
“I can, and do, walk the street. No one bothers me or anything, because most people wouldn’t know who I am.”
― Paul Rudd
“I don’t consider myself a comedian because I don’t really concern myself too much with jokes.”
― Paul Rudd
“At my core, I’m a Midwesterner.”
― Paul Rudd
“I’m sure that my wanting to be an actor had to do with a need for approval.”
― Paul Rudd
“Nothing is ever cut-and-dried. There’s anguish behind everything.”
― Paul Rudd
“My parents were married my whole life until my father passed away a few years ago.”
― Paul Rudd
“Willie Nelson is the perfect person, it seems to me, to think about. Because something tells me that he operates on his own frequency.”
― Paul Rudd
“If someone made fun of me, I’d be bummed out. But I’d play it like I thought it was hilarious.”
― Paul Rudd
“Sometimes I think I’m funny. But then sometimes I see myself, and I think, ‘There’s somebody trying to be funny.’”
― Paul Rudd
“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.’”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“I’m not good at small talk. I’m really not. I’m not that great at any talk.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.’”
― Paul Rudd
“There’s a lot of people I would be more than a little overwhelmed by and thrilled to work with.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“I know a lot about the Titanic. My dad was a Titanic expert.”
― Paul Rudd
“I think most marriages, mine included, you’re constantly tending the garden, constantly working at it.”
― Paul Rudd
“People have all different kinds of marriages. Whatever works for you.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“I’ve been friends with Elizabeth Banks since ‘Wet Hot American Summer.’”
― Paul Rudd
“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.’”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“I am so appreciative I have been able to continue not only doing something I love, but working on movies I’ve loved.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“You can make a lot of mistakes with hair because it grows back.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“There’s something great about the idea of working the land and living communally. That’s healthy. That’s good.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“There are so many really good comedians, and I would never be as good as they are. It’s not my calling.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“Alex Smith is – I think he is a winner, and he’s a smart quarterback, and I’m a fan of his.”
― Paul Rudd
“I find many of the people that I’ve worked with to be incredibly funny.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“Comedy-wise, I think Chris Elliott is one of the funniest people.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“There is a major part of who I am that does not feel like the alpha male.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“All I really wanted to be was a working actor.”
― Paul Rudd
“I’m a big fan of not working.”
― Paul Rudd
“Anything traumatic in my life I’ve always dealt with through jokes and comedy.”
― Paul Rudd
“I think Ellen DeGeneres is just hysterical.”
― Paul Rudd
“My wife is very stealth-funny. She’ll come out with something when I’m not expecting it, and it’ll just kill me.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“Amy Poehler, Amy Sedaris – they’re both genius.”
― Paul Rudd
“Kiss is a super – they are total businessmen. They pride themselves on it.”
― Paul Rudd
“My bar mitzvah, I went to my nan’s, and she made kugel.”
― Paul Rudd
“Awkwardness is such a gold mine for comedy.”
― Paul Rudd
“I can talk about sports and stuff, but I have a season pass for ‘Antiques Roadshow’ on my TiVo.”
― Paul Rudd
“Early on, I decided I would see if I could make a career work on my own terms.”
― Paul Rudd
“I’m surprised that I get to be in the same room with half the people that I’m working with.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“’Divorce Court’ is a great show.”
― Paul Rudd
“Personally – and I don’t mean to brag – my jokes have been falling flat for most of my life.”
― Paul Rudd
“I hated ‘Top Gun.’”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“It’s nice to be in anything that anybody sees or likes. If it’s something that has lasted, it’s great.”
― Paul Rudd
“People do still mention ‘Clueless’ to me. I’m proud and happy that I was in it.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“’Ant-Man’ was a genre, I guess, that I hadn’t really tackled before.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“It’s not often that you get to play somebody that has absolutely no cynicism or is not judgmental in any way.”
― Paul Rudd
“I don’t find the characters I’ve played funny. The characters are actually taking their situations very seriously.”
― Paul Rudd
“I’ve been naked in a lot of my movies. There’s something inherently funny about the naked male body, particularly mine.”
― Paul Rudd
“I grew up in a lot of different places, mostly in Kansas, I really started thinking seriously about acting in high school; I just did it better than most of the other activities in school.”
― Paul Rudd
“I think that I identify with my role in pretty much everything I have tried to do. I try to find something that I can understand about each character’s behavior.”
― Paul Rudd
“I’m not actively seeking stardom. I just go to auditions, and I knock on wood.”
― Paul Rudd
“I’m, uh, not proud to say it – I play fantasy baseball. It’s, like, the dorkiest thing ever.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“To try and sustain a performance is always a challenge. Anything you work on, to try and be real and show up and not look as if I’m playing pat to anything is always work.”
― Paul Rudd
“My definitions of comedy, drama, and straight man are all blurry for me. I don’t think of it in those terms.”
― Paul Rudd
“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.”
― Paul Rudd
“As a kid, I know that most of my parents’ friends were because my mom made friends with them, and my dad went along. I know a lot of dads who do that. I think it just starts to happen with guys. In the case of my father, he was probably just too busy reading books about Titanic.”
― Paul Rudd
“Why would anyone be an actor if he or she weren’t insecure? That’s why anybody pursues this kind of work.”
― Paul Rudd
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