He's taking a big step with his latest venture into superhero-land.
At 46, Paul Rudd has a terrific career in comedy, including raucous silliness (Anchorman 2), clever satire (They Came Together), rom-coms (Admission) and indie comedy-dramas (Prince Avalance) in the last two years alone. Now he's made the jump to the superhero blockbuster in Ant-Man.
Paul Rudd finally finds himself in the Marvel world
"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,'" he says. "The Marvel world wasn't anything I thought about seriously, because I guess I never imagined I'd get hired! What's different about it is that it's a character who's joining a universe that exists throughout several movies, and that's like nothing I've ever done."
Watch the trailer for 'Ant-Man' here:
And he enjoyed the challenge. "I liked the idea that people might hear that I was cast in this movie and their reaction might be, 'Huh?' Because it didn't jibe with the rest of the stuff," he says. "So that was a huge appeal. And also the fact that the movie fired on all the cylinders that I'm interested in, that it's funny but it has heart. There's an emotional story that you can get invested in, and then the action and the effects are crazy good."
More: Read our review of 'Ant-Man'
Now Rudd finds himself right in the middle of the Avengers' world. He has already shot his scenes for next year's Captain America: Civil War, which suddenly made it very clear that he was part of the Marvel Universe. "I knew I was in it," he says, "but it was much more real when I was standing next to Captain America or Iron Man or a few of the other guys, and you look around and go, 'Oh wow, there they are. There's that silver arm, there it is in person!' I turned into a 10-year-old kid, it was amazing! And not only that, but I'm doing scenes with them, calling them by their names. That feeling of excitement, the surreal nature of it is the best."
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