The New Tom Hanks?

Paul Rudd and the Apatownies

You know you’ve arrived when you’re asked to pose for Vanity Fair magazine – along with a trio of near-naked lovelies – and you’re allowed to keep your clothes on.

The image – photographed by the legendary Annie Liebovitz – was a reprise of her earlier cover shoot for the same magazine with Keira Knightley, Scarlett Johansson and designer Tom Ford. Too bad for Paul Rudd his costars were the less than delectable Jonah Hill, Seth Rogen and Jason Segel, each of whom wore a full length body sock and nothing else.

Five or six years ago Rudd was pursuing a career as a serious young dramatic actor and potential leading man. To think that it’s come to this!

Falling in with the wrong crowd, with Rogen, Segel and all the other Apatownies, has been the making – or rather, the remaking – of Rudd. Today he’s known as a comedy specialist, and 2009 is shaping up to be his breakthrough year. Repeatedly cast as a friend to the stars – in Anchorman, The 40 Year Old Virgin, and Knocked Up, for instance – he’s finally headlining his own shows, albeit sharing the honours with Seann William Scott in Role Models and Jason Segel in his latest, I Love You, Man. Both movies have done well in the US, notching up good reviews and strong numbers. The perennially boyish Rudd, who turned 40 in April, may finally have arrived.

Mind you, he has been around for a while. He seemed on the verge of stardom way back in 1994, when he played Josh, Alicia Silverstone’s oh-so-serious but irresistibly cool step brother in Clueless. Supporting roles in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet (as Paris), The Cider House Rules, The Object Of My Affection and a TV production of The Great Gatsby kept the hope alive, but by 2003 his movie career was stuttering. Appearances in the sitcom Friends (18 episodes between 2002 and 2004) helped, but that was the practically the only bright spot in a line of commercial duds.

As that resume shows, he wasn’t always pegged as a comic actor – a graduate of the American Academy for Dramatic Arts he did theatre in London and New York (most notably Neil Labute’s The Shape Of Things).

But he wasn’t stuck up. He even went and did a Hong Kong thriller, Gen Y Cops, which is not the sort of thing you find on the filmography of many ambitious American actors. (If you’re a fan, you might want to give this one a miss.)

The parody teen comedy Wet Hot American Summer (2001) gave us our first foretaste of what was to come – or it would have, if it had been released in the UK. As it was, Rudd’s egregious newsman Brian Fantana in Anchorman (2004) seemed to come out of the blue. According to producer Judd Apatow, even he was surprised when Rudd showed up for the audition wearing a hideous 70s suit topped with genuine muttonchops and ‘tache.

There’s been no looking back since. Along with his numerous Apatow credits, Rudd has appeared in cult comedy shows like Reno 911! and Robot Chicken, Stella, and even Little Britain USA (as the French ambassador), and in diverse mainstream comedies, good and bad (Night at the Museum; Over Her Dead Body).

Unlike his new cronies – the Ferrells and the Rogens and their ilk – Rudd is an actor first and foremost, and a comic second. That may be why it’s taken him longer than Rogen and Segel to graduate to leading roles – it’s easier to bet on the funnyman – but his nuanced performances in the likes of Role Models and I Love You, Man suggest he could use his new-found status to move over into more dramatic parts, just as Tom Hanks and Jack Lemmon did in the past.

For now, though, he seems more than happy to stick with comedy. Next up we’ll see him in Judd Apatow’s prehistoric Year One, then there’s a James L Brooks project, possibly with Owen Wilson and Reece Witherspoon, and likely a remake of the French farce Diner des Cons, with Steve Carell and director Jay Roach. That should be more than enough to keep him busy – and us laughing.

Tom Charity

tom.charity@lovefilm.com

Titles related to this article

Related/similar articles

• Simpsons trailer short and sweet (14 November 2006)
• Denzel Washington voted America's favourite star (19 January 2007)
• The Hoax (30 July 2007)
• Alternative Xmas Movies (4 December 2007)
• Ghost Town: Ricky Gervais Interview (22 October 2008)
• Role Models (5 January 2009)